Background This kind of came out of the blue for me - saw a post on SubSim.com about it releasing this month, and then lo and behold it appears on Steam last week.
Given my interests (naval history!) this was a natural purchase. I've played a LOT of "
Harpoon" back in the day, as well as more recently (very
slightly more recently) "
Jane's Fleet Command".
One thing both of those games have in common is that they
hate running on modern systems. Neither is easy to get working on Windows 7 - although
Fleet Command has at least a recent-ish Steam port that at least makes INSTALLING it possible...but the graphics are abominable 16-bit color (which means very bad color banding on modern video cards), and the game does nothing with widescreen monitors - so you have to either have huge black bars on either side of the very-square image, or stretch the heck out of it.
Well, along comes the spiritual successor to Fleet Command - Paradox's "Naval War: Arctic Circle". And, needless to say, as a modern title, it looks GOOD:
(Our man, the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier!) ...complete with direct integration with Steam, complete with achievements and everything:
(Working my way through the campaign...) It comes complete with some of the classics of the old Cold War-era gaming...
(here, the old favorite 'Kirov'-class, with a 'Slava'-class in the background. LOOK AT ALL THOSE MISSILE TUBES!!) However, as the game is set in the year 2030, it also features the new coolness of hardware just starting to come out. For example, the F-35 Lightning II is a MAJOR player in the game...
(a flight of our latest hardware) So...'2030', you say, 'what's up with that? So far in the future, it's just guessing SciFi-work...'
Well...no, not really. I mean, it's only 18 years away at this point. And given procurement schedules for naval hardware (most systems are procured at LEAST a decade before they enter service...so we'll have a pretty good idea today what could even be available then), as well as service life of ships (while the frigate
USS Constitution entered service 200 years ago, it IS rather more the exception that the rule - still, the USS Enterprise just went on its last mission...and
that ship was commissioned 51 years ago)...well, the long and short of it is that we will actually know pretty well what naval hardware is being used in war by 2030.
And the changes you'd expect are there:
- F-16? Gone! Primary light air combat unit is the F-35
- F-15? Gone! Land-based air superiority (and light strikes) are provided by Eurofighter Typhoons, or the *excellent* F-22 Raptor
- F/A-18 C? Nope - although the F/A-18 'Superhornet' E and G are deployed on various carriers.
- The UK has their new 'Queen Elizabeth' class in service.
- Carriers have LOTS of drone aircraft. Actually, so do the land bases. Just...there are a bunch of drones in service.
...etc
As far as the background - it's mostly touched on outside of the game, but basic premise is that global warming (not making a political position, here, this is the game story) has continued and resulted in a permanent 'Northwest passage' forming for a major sea trade route to exist around the north of Canada. Resulting economic upshifts resulting from this climate change and oil running lower has caused some schisms in the existing political alliances. NATO is still a factor, but the US primarily has pulled out of the Atlantic in support of Pacific operations. Emboldened by a weakend NATO, and feeling internal pressure on their internal economic needs, the Russians invade the European countries making up the 'Northern Alliance' (a sub-set of NATA consisting of the UK, Germany, and Scandinavian countries).
So that's really how the two sides shape up - Russian forces on one side, and UK/Norway/Denmark/German/etc forces on the other. The US *does* show up later in the campaign, of course, once the war really gets going.
Appearance Well, it's fairly straightforward as things go. The game is played entirely from the screen seen, below. You notice the 3d window in the bottom pane, which shows a realtime view of what you've got selected...ship/aircraft/missile/airbase/etc. And the upper window showing the map. This is PROBABLY the best way to play the game, as EVERYTHING you can do in the game must be done via the map or the panel in the lower right (or popup panels)...there is no facility to interact meaningfully in the 3d view aside from just panning around and zooming in/out. Similarly, the map in the lower left is just information-only for unit positions (useful when you are very zoomed in on the upper map).
(Defending ol' England...) You can toggle the 'map' and '3d view' windows back and forth, which is handy when taking screenshots or watching an action sequence (a missile about to hit its target, for example), but...that's about it.
Textures are serviceable, but nothing to write home about. Sounds effects are...serviceable. No voiceovers, and the sound effects for aircraft takeoff/landing/weapon firing/weapon hit/engine sounds/jet sounds/prop sounds/etc are...actually, I think I just listed all the sound effects in the game. It does feel pretty capably done, but also limiting. There isn't much variety! There are also basically just three musics tracks that play - a menu track, as well as an in-game 'ambient' track, and then a more action/fast-paced track that plays when a weapon is in flight. Annnnd...that's it.
The net-net of it is that while it does honestly look decent, and sounds fine in play, when you sit back and think about what you are seeing and hearing compared to other titles...it's immediately clear this is an 'indie' title.
Campaign As befits a borderline-indie title, the story is told - rather than through full cinematic or rendered cutscenes - by newspaper articles (between each mission) and plain-text briefings...
(The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!) There is nothing 'dynamic' about the campaign, though...it's not branching, the start points of the units varies only a
little bit (a particular sub won't be in the exact same place on the second replay of the mission...but it'll be close).
And there is no mission builder! No 'random' missions, etc.
It definitely feels, in that regard...a bit stale. The developers are quick to point out that the missions are just data in an XML file, and the user community is already working on external-tool mission builders, but...well, first off, they aren't available, yet, and the capability really ISN'T in the game.
So, potentially, somewhat limited re-playability for the game. One run through the campaign (looks like about 20 hours), and then again from the other side, there are four multiplayer missions, and...that's that.
If this was a Tier-1, $60 game, that would be a BIG problem. But also befitting an indie title...it's cheap. Only $20 at the moment, and for the next 2 days, also comes free with
Conquest of the Americas, which you'll note is a $30 game, so...I guess they are giving you $10 to play this?
Gameplay How does it play, though? Well, very easy, actually. RTS gamers should adapt pretty easily - click on a unit, right-click what you want to attack. You could, maybe, work with that. However, in clicking on any unit, you can also see it's various weapons systems. GENERALLY (and how I play and do well), you'll do better off setting waypoints for your ship on the map, and then attacking with specific weapons of your choosing at the appropriate time.
(Setting waypoints) There are 'stances' you can set for your ships, too (attack any hostile target, fire in self defense only, hold fire), and in engaging you can set how many weapons are used - modern ships, after all, not carrying a LOT of anti-ship weapons (the options tend to be 'fire only a single weapon' vs 'fire enough' vs 'overkill'...which is almost always the option you want to use against an enemy with active air defense, even though it will use up nearly all your missiles at once).
Similarly - especially for a modern naval game - managing sensors is a big part of the picture. As an active sensor relies on reflecting energy off a target and coming all the way back to you, the 'range' of detection on an active sensor is obviously twice as far for ships and aircraft passively listening for your signals than it is for you active emitting. So you generally don't go active until you are detected! And each aircraft, ship, airbase, and unit has its own bevy of sensors that can be enabled/disabled at will...
(Managing sensors on some Tyhoons) As expected in a modern wargame, aircraft are a MAJOR factor here. And work similarly to ships, actually. There are various aircraft bases in the game...carriers, airbases, most cruisers have a helicopter flight deck, etc...that you assign destinations (and missions) to aircraft from.
(LOTS of aircraft!) ...complete with weapons that can be specifically employed from aircraft, or let them manage the attack.
Overall, the general feel of the UI is very intuitive. Missions are easy to assign, and make sense in how they work. The combat ends up
feeling very much like "Harpoon" and "Jane's Fleet Command", although the interface is so much easier to work with!
(Aegis - shield of the fleet!) Really, the first impression I took away from the game starting it out was how FAST it starts up, and how QUICK you can get into a mission. It feels, very much, like the best indie games in that regard...not a lot of baggage, not a lot of HD textures to load, etc. The game just fires up quickly, and feels light and lean.
Conclusion Overall, I'd say this is recommended, given the price of $20 with 'Conquest of the Americas' includes through the 17th.
Available on Steam, now.
AFTER the 17th, when it's $20 for just the game on its own? Eh...I'd buy it again, but just because I'm a fan of modern naval combat. However, the limited replayability in each mission, limited mission and unit set, more budget/indie production values means that it feels like a BIT of a stretch at that price point. $9.99 or $14.99 would be a better fit.
And to be clear on this - it's really not something you notice while PLAYING. About the only thing jarringly 'budget' about it is the between-mission briefings!
(Greetings, I am Admiral Tacky Dialog!) Everything else you have to specifically try to notice the limitations in...I mean, sure, every missile launch sounds the same, but...they sound GOOD. And how many missiles do you really fire? Even though it would conceptually be repetitive hearing the same sound over and over, it's just a rewarding SWOOSH - just as you have spent the time to line up the perfect attack - that you end up looking forward to it every time.
And much of the game feels like that. Conceptually, I know that the ship textures are pretty simple and flat, but I'll be danged if I don't love seeing those fleets firing off missiles in combat...
(CRY HAVOC! And let slips the dogs of war!)