u/ZORREBBOLL

I'm from Ukraine and my friend is from Russia and we can't play together with peace of mind because he's kicking us out. He, of course, turns on a VPN to bypass the blocking and we can play for an hour or so Three hours and suddenly we get kicked out of the server, although everything seems fine. Can anyone help?

### Trying to find a childhood PC game I barely remember

I've been trying to find a PC game I played as a kid, and I can barely remember anything about it.

I'm 15 now, and I probably played it when I was around 5–7 years old, so roughly 2016–2018. The game itself could have been older. I played it on my dad's laptop, which I believe was a Lenovo G560 running Windows 7.

We didn't have internet at the time, so the game was definitely installed from a physical disc.

My dad had a lot of game discs, but most of them are gone now. I recently checked all the ones I still have, but the game wasn't among them. One of the discs was a huge game collection with things like Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, Hitman: Codename 47, Max Payne, Medal of Honor, Project IGI, Quake, Serious Sam, SWAT 4, Turok, Unreal Tournament, etc. The game I'm looking for wasn't on that disc either.

### What I remember

The game was **third-person**. I don't remember being able to switch to first person.

The graphics were actually pretty good. It definitely wasn't some 90s/very early 2000s game with really old-looking graphics. Even now, I remember the graphics as being good enough that I probably wouldn't mind playing it today.

The setting wasn't really "space sci-fi" or anything like that. It felt more like a version of the modern world or near future, but with technology that doesn't exist today. Kind of like the idea of Cyberpunk's technology, but NOT the actual Cyberpunk aesthetic. More like a relatively normal world with advanced technology, robots, unusual equipment, etc.

The main character was a human, as far as I remember. He was wearing some kind of **high-tech suit/armor**, definitely not normal clothes. I remember it as having metal or metal-looking parts. I don't remember exactly what it looked like, but it was some kind of cool futuristic suit.

I also vaguely remember **yellow parts/details** on the suit, but I'm not confident about that.

### One thing I'm fairly sure about: no gun at the beginning

I have a pretty strong memory that the character **didn't have a firearm at the beginning of the game**.

I started playing from very close to the beginning, and I was only 5–7 years old and could barely read at the time. Because of that, I mostly remembered what I was actually doing rather than the story.

If I had started the game by getting a pistol or assault rifle and shooting people, I think I would remember that.

I'm not saying the entire game had no weapons. The character might have gotten one later. I just remember that he **didn't start with a gun**.

### The strongest memory: an underwater section

This is the part I remember the best.

There was a section of a level where I had to **swim underwater**. It wasn't necessarily an underwater game as a whole — I think it was just one particular section or level.

The camera was still third person while swimming.

The water wasn't crystal clear. I remember it being **murky, blue/gray and somewhat foggy**, with limited visibility.

I recently watched about an hour of gameplay from **Deep Black: Reloaded**, because it looked very similar to what I remembered. But I'm pretty sure it's not the game.

Deep Black has much clearer-looking water, and the character has a gun basically from the beginning.

### The underwater robot

There was a **robot underwater**.

I'm quite sure it was actually a robot, not a pump, turbine or some environmental object.

I remember getting killed by it more than once and thinking something like:

> "Damn, that robot killed me again."

So in my childhood memory, it was definitely a robot enemy.

I don't remember it freely swimming around chasing me. I think it was **stationary or mostly stationary**, somewhere in a specific part of the level, almost like it was guarding an area.

There was some kind of danger zone around it. If I got too close, the robot could kill or grab me.

I also remember that **you could possibly escape from it**. I think you could swim away if you reacted quickly enough.

It's also possible that there was another way to escape: **the robot may have been able to grab the character, and you might have had to rapidly press a button to break free before it killed you**. I vaguely remember something like that, maybe pressing a key such as **Q**, but I'm **not sure about this at all**. The Q-button detail is especially uncertain — the main thing I remember is the possibility of being grabbed and having to escape before dying.

I might be remembering the exact animation incorrectly, but the important part is:

**underwater robot + becomes dangerous when you approach it + can possibly grab/pull the character + there may have been a way to struggle/free yourself + otherwise it kills you.**

I also vaguely remember the robot having **some yellow elements/details**, but I'm not sure about the color.

### Games I've already checked and ruled out

I've already watched gameplay of these because they initially seemed similar:

* Deep Black: Reloaded

* Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

* Remember Me

* Advent Rising

* Dark Sector

* Bionic Commando

* Lost Planet 2

* Lifeless Planet

* Submerged

* Terminator Salvation

None of them were the game I'm looking for.

### The details I'm most confident about

* PC game

* Third-person

* Good-looking 3D graphics

* Probably 2010s-ish, though I'm not sure

* Near-future / advanced technology rather than distant space sci-fi

* Main character is human (I think)

* Main character wears some kind of high-tech/metallic suit or armor

* Probably no firearm at the very beginning

* There is a section where the character swims underwater

* The water is fairly murky/foggy

* There is a stationary or mostly stationary underwater robot

* Getting too close to it can kill the character

* You can possibly swim away and escape

* The robot may be able to grab/pull the character

* There may have been a button-mashing/struggle mechanic to escape after being grabbed

* The robot may have had yellow details

* The character's suit may also have had yellow details

Some of the visual details may be wrong because I was very young, but **the underwater robot and the fact that I could be killed by it are some of the clearest memories I have.**

**Does anyone recognize this game?**

I still don't understand how muscle pumping works. I've been playing for a week now, I've killed the Baron several times, and even burned stamina, but my muscles still grew by 1.05 and that's it.