Have you ever wanted to glide through the seas with the grace of a giant sea creature, killing everyone in your path? Did you enjoy Ecco the Dolphin, but wish it had allowed you to commit mass murder? Then Pequod might be for you.
Named after the whaling ship in Moby Dick, this procedurally generated game allows you to play as the white whale itself, though it differs quite a bit from the plot of the classic Herman Melville novel. For starters, you have a name: Mobias. And as we learn in the opening sequence, an archetypal sea captain has placed a bounty on your head in revenge for the death of his daughter, which is why a series of whaling ships have come hunting for you. You must destroy them all.
I’m not going to pretend that I know anything about ships, but I can tell you that they get progressively bigger as you sink them to the bottom of the sea, and your foes include an airship you leap up and pull down out of the sky, as well as a massive, bizarre seacraft with a gaping mouth of teeth. You can also power up your whale with weapons, including the one thing that was always glaringly absent from Moby Dick: lasers.
Created by Bearmancer, Pequod a pleasing little thing to play, thanks to the slick, effortless way it makes you feel like you’re moving through the water, the pretty sunsets that occasionally smolder over the wreckage of defeated enemies, and again, lasers. It is currently pay-what-you-want for PC and Mac on Itch.io.