It's not exactly the next Age of Empires for sure, but Triquaria brings a unique style of gameplay (with an aesthetically pleasing undersea environment) that combines strategy, action, and adventure all into one small package. Offering only around 3 hours of gameplay, Triquaria can get a little grindy in the first forty minutes or so. But after this intial hump the game picks up into an exciting frenzy of resource gathering, fish fighting, and scientific research. You can build up to twelve submarines in your own unique fleet an vie for dominance of the sea by hunting and destroying "slaver subs." The story is far from fleshed out, but the focus is primarily on gameplay so there's no need for concern there.
Jenito has a playable demo at www.jenito.com/triquaria/index.php. It's built using Silverlight and runs quite smoothly in most any browser. You may need to install the Silverlight plugin. The full version, priced at only $2.00, lifts time restrictions and allows you to save and load data. It's a nice evening distraction for the price.
