Developer: MBL Development
Publisher: 2tainment GmbH
Platforms: PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
Biotope – Review
Biotope is an authentic aquarium simulator brought to you by MBL Development and published by 2tainment GmbH. People who are curious about the sea and the exploration of it will be pleased that games such as this exist. The game lets you create your ecosystem which will, of course, take up a lot of your time to sustain. Create your aquarium and fill it with plants and other decorations so that not only your fish have a healthy life but also a decent view.
Story
Biotope is yet another simulator without a storyline. You get thrown into the game and are provided with your tutorial quests (if you start out with the tutorial version of the game, we strongly recommend doing this!). Those tutorial quests help you understand the basics of the game so you can progress flawlessly through the first few weeks of managing your aquarium. After playing the tutorial version for a while you can choose another template to start your other aquariums which are an empty tank, an Amazon tank or a Malawi tank. Those can only be accessed by starting a new game or by creating a new tank in your current game where you have 5 tank slots available.
Graphics
The graphics of Biotope are amazing for an aquarium simulator. You obviously only see the aquarium and the habitat made inside of it, but that doesn’t take away every part of the in-game graphics are well polished. The developers made sure that they detailed every single prop inside the aquarium to display a realistic ecosystem for you to take care of. The mix of all the different objects that can be placed inside of the aquarium can bring the whole to a more elevated state. But besides that, the looks of the game gets quite boring because you are looking at the same aquarium over and over again, with only a few other textures to make it stand out a little. Sadly, they didn’t put any effort into creating their main menu, it is a bland blue color with some basic options you can choose from.
Sound
The sound design of Biotope is extremely shitty. The main menu gets accompanied by some classical music that gets played in a loop. In the game when you are taking care of your lovely fish you only hear the sound of the internal filter which gets annoying after playing it for more than three minutes. The developers completely forgot to add some sounds of objects that are placed into the aquarium. Those objects collide with each other and there is not even a dull sound that indicates that they have.
Gameplay
Biotope is an aquarium simulator that wants to give us a realistic view of how to run your own aquarium and the ecosystem that comes along with it. Creating an ecosystem that is right for different species of fish is rather challenging because you need to take a lot of things into account.
The game provides you with four different tanks as stated in a few paragraphs above. The tutorial tank is mostly to let you learn the basics of the game and the empty tank is there to let you make your ecosystem and so on from scratch. The two other tanks are already premade and have a specific ecosystem already set up for you from the moment you start. The Amazon tank is a fully stocked and run-in tank that comes with a starting budget of one hundred dollars and some items already in your possession. This aquarium imitates the environment of the Amazonian Blackwater rivers and is designed for low water hardness. The Malawi tank is similar to the Amazon tank in terms of the setup, it is already a fully stocked and a run-in tank that comes with a starting budget of one hundred dollars and some items already in your possession. The Malawi tank imitates the environment of Laka Malawi in the East African Rift Valley and is designed for high water hardness.
For each tank, you are provided with the same quests (except for the tutorial tank where you get a bit more commentation). The quests are there to try out things you otherwise could have missed in the game or are just basic assignments to keep your fish alive. Also, it is a very correct simulator because it makes you regulate the water temperature, the pH value and all the other things to keep your water clean and healthy for your fish. If you do not feed them, or fail to create the right environment for the fish they eventually die a slow and very tragic death.
You also have access to the Blueworld shop where you can buy a small array of stuff for your aquaria like fish, decoration, maintenance material and food for your fish. Sadly, the amount of things to buy is rather limited which makes the options of decorating your aquarium or sustaining your ecosystem rather narrow.
Conclusion
Biotope tries to be a good simulator and in a lot of aspects it is, but the content is so limited that it fails to achieve its goal. There are only a few sounds in-game and the main menu is just poorly done. Hopefully, the developers add a lot of new content, items and fish species in the near future. Because if they achieve that and everyone keeps in mind that Biotope is an aquarium simulator rather than a game, it will do just fine!
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