Game: Naval Assault: Killing Tide
Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: Artech Studios
Genre: Naval Warfare
Price: $49.99
Verdict: The very best of submarine combat – which isn’t saying much.
Pros: Submarines
Cons: Submarines
When I joined the Navy in 2001, I wanted submarine duty. I was intrigued with the idea of sneaking around in the oceans, fantasizing that I was Jack Ryan, and eating steak and lobster for chow (really, that’s what they eat on subs). Fortunately for me, there were no sub billets available for my job at the time, and I got four years of shore duty that kept me safe and at home with my family. The reality of submarines is starkly different than my fantasy. Sub riders are literally submerged for weeks at a time with no contact with the outside world. As the saying goes, 100 sailors go onto a submarine – 50 couples come off.
Naval Assault: Killing Tide is bland. It’s like the Splinter Cell of naval games, but without the satisfying kills after all of the sneaking. The basic gameplay revolves around you sneaking and collecting information during missions. Honestly, that’s what subs do, but that doesn’t mean it makes for a good video game. It is about as fun as a game called Switchboard Operator.
The worst part about all of this is that Naval Assault works. All of the intended gameplay mechanics work quite well. Diving, sneaking, firing the deck guns, firing the torpedos. It all works. It is just a really slow-paced, boring game. In one mission I had to destroy a series of spy ships without being caught and destroyed by the patrol boats and aircraft. That meant staying submerged, which meant that I could not travel at the higher knots. It took forever, staring at nothing but the black, murky depths of the ocean, to get to even the first ship.
I love the idea of naval battle games. However, after the Battlestations series, and Naval Assault, I do not have much hope left for the genre. Obviously naval warfare is slower paced than air combat or ground combat, but I shouldn’t be able to watch an episode of Big Bang Theory in the amount of time that it takes to reach a mission objective.
Artech, you guys did an amazing job in building some great gameplay mechanics for this game. Next time, however, think about the pacing and mission structure a bit more.
GrE Grade: C
Popularity: unranked [?]
No comments