Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age Is Super Impressive

by

Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age Is Super Impressive

Well, as someone who’s spent more hours than I care to admit peering into the depths of Cold Waters and other naval strategy games, let me tell you this: Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age is like finding a long-lost treasure map that promises to lead to the most intricate and detailed naval battlefield yet.

Here’s an attempt at paraphrasing in the first person perspective as a fan:

Game Overview: What is Sea Power?

Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age is a strategy game simulating air and naval combat during the Cold War. Developed by Triassic Games AB, it was published by MicroProse. The game may look familiar to you, as its lead developer previously worked on Killerfish Games’ Cold Waters project.

View post on imgur.com

Early Impressions: Gameplay, Graphics, and Scenarios

To kick things off, let’s discuss some initial observations: I’ve been testing an early version of the game, which comes equipped with a dozen or so pre-designed missions, each one offering diverse combat situations. Ranging from large-scale engagements to quick, five-minute skirmishes and hour-long battles in between. These scenarios serve as a useful introduction to the game since it doesn’t come with a tutorial. I’ve also spent a couple of hours playing Cold Waters, which provided some additional familiarity. However, beyond these missions, there’s currently little else to explore, so you might need to get inventive when using the mission editor, and we’ll delve deeper into that topic later.

Allow me to alleviate any suspense: “Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age” appears set to become an exceptional game. It boasts all the essential components required for a great experience.

Graphics and Visuals: Cold War Realism

First Impressions are everything, and Sea Power is one hell of a looker. The game’s graphics are really impressive. It follows the Cold Waters art style very closely, to the point I couldn’t distinguish the games if I was blind-tested. Unit models look sharp, and textures look stellar. Even the missiles and projectiles look equally as detailed. Every ship, plane, submarine, and sea, clouds, and weather effects also look good. The ground terrain, however, looks bad, but considering most of the time you’ll be looking at it from a distance, I don’t think it’s worth the performance impact it would have to completely render an entire city. The effects all look pretty realistic.

View post on imgur.com

Realism and Unit Variety

Some games pack a lot of units, like the Wargame series, or Steel Division. But more often than not, those impressive numbers, which sometimes go well into the hundreds, tend to be highly inflated by just having a lot of the same units but with different stats. Sea Power is one game where that’s not the case, as there are dozens of fighter jets, bombers, submarines, destroyers, missile cruisers, aircraft carriers, transport ships, merchant ships, civilian aircraft, torpedo boats, and so much more. I haven’t counted all units, but the Steam page says there are over 150 naval units and 60 aircraft. The fact that each of these has its weapon systems meticulously recreated is impressive, to say the least, and I’m starting to see why the game has been in the oven for so long.

View post on imgur.com

Gameplay Mechanics and Controls

When it comes to naval weapon systems, Sea Power accurately replicates every single weapon system on each ship in exquisite detail, complete with realistic weapon dynamics and sensor simulations. Navigating this intricate arsenal can be quite a challenge, even for those well-versed in the field, so don’t forget your user manuals!

In simpler terms, the controls work fine, and they’re similar to those in Cold Waters. This allows you to manage each unit independently or direct them using a map with waypoints. However, during hectic situations, expect to frequently pause the game to give out commands.

View post on imgur.com

Feature Wishlist: Improving the User Experience

In the intricate game Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age, creating missions is surprisingly user-friendly. You simply select a location, place a few groups of units, instruct them, and immediately launch the scenario for testing. This feature is perfect for customizing scenarios to your liking. I wish more games offered this kind of simplicity.

In this game, there’s an organized manual available for you to explore all the different units. Here, you can learn details about them, including what kind of gear they carry.

What I would love to see is a way to check each of my unit’s weapon systems during the game so I can see what each does, so I’m not guessing. This wasn’t a problem with Cold Waters because you only had one unit to control, when you’re dealing with dozens at the same time, it can be hard to keep track of what every single one of these systems does.

View post on imgur.com

Final Thoughts: Is Sea Power Worth It?

Absolutely! However, it’s worth noting that some eager fans may feel a bit let down by the absence of a campaign at launch, but rest assured, the team has confirmed that an engaging campaign will be rolled out within the second quarter of 2025.

If you’re passionate about the Cold War and the potential naval conflicts that could have erupted during its heated moments, your choices for games are limited. However, a new opportunity awaits when Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age launches on Steam Early Access on November 12th.

Support Firaxis

Read More

2024-10-29 19:42