Just bought this new naval game which is a representation of the Atlantic Battles of WW2, features two dynamic campaigns, a massive set of historical missions, two separate campaigns as well as custom battles. Its really in the middle ground between arcade and simulation because it features some arcade like features like instant accessibility, simple GUI and limited accuracy in some mechanics like plane attacks, but it also features some things only found on sims like accurate sinking mechanics, ballistics affected by wind, loads of historical ships, planes and subs, loads of reasonably accurate weapons like hedgehogs and squid etc. You can control ships, subs, planes, it has limited carrier action as well.
I am finding it to be a superb game, its available on Steam, got lovely graphics very reminiscent of the Silent Hunter games and well worth a look if you like naval games.
Along with Strike Fighters, and possibly No Mans Sky, this Atlantic Fleet is going to be one of my favourite recent games I can tell. For such a cheap game its pretty amazing. They should charge at least double for what is there and it would still be an extremely good buy. If it was a Slitherine game it would be at least ÂŁ25!
Atlantic Fleet version 1.01 is now available as a beta. To test the beta, right-click on Atlantic Fleet in the Steam client and select Properties. From the Properties window, click the Betas tab.
Additions:
all sliders can now be used via key commands
keys for 0.1 degree elevation change
full keyboard support for tactical map
ship telegraph now responds to each setting individually
ship speed can also be set by keys 1-6
mouse wheel zoom for tactical map and binoculars
hide combat interface toggle for screenshots, F9 Key
submarine depth now displayed
keys for selecting carrier wings and load out
Fixes/Improvements:
fixed a bug that might involve AI movement hanging the turn
holding mouse button on a slider when firing no longer hangs the turn
How has this turned out? $5 should make it a no brainer I suppose, is this closer to say Axis and Allies (the board game version, not the RTS) on the level of strategy? I guess I am the odd duck these days in that I prefer more “simple” strategy games as opposed to Grand/4x/whatever else they’re calling it.
Have you tried it Beach? I really like it and to me its not a click-fest. The action is paused, you give movement and firing orders (firing orders require some calculations) and then the turn plays out - much more like a relaxed turn-based game like Combat Mission than a RTS. Perfect for an older gent like me.
Oh - no, my comment was just a blanket statement. Glad to hear Atlantic Fleet isn’t that way. I do like some click-heavy games like Wargame: European Escalation, but I’m horrible at that from a strategy standpoint. I almost always get rolled by the other side… But the graphics are awesome.
It’s very enjoyable, havent played it in a while but the devs where quite active in responding to issues. You can’t go wrong if you like the visuals and turn based combat with ships!
I ended up playing the game for around 40 hours then left it. I could probably get into it again at some point as it is a great little game. But 40 hours for £6 is fantastic value and a hell of a lot more gaming than I’ve got from many other AAA games like Rome Total War II and City:Skylines that cost me six times that price.
Well we got the it’s good bit out of the way, what is the gameplay like? Maybe a comparison to something else in terms of strategy involved? How it plays. I watched the videos on the steam page, read the article up there, but I can’t say I feel like either really gave me much of a sense of what playing it is like. For instance, it says it’s turn based, but from the video and screenshots it doesn’t look like any sort of turn based game I’m familiar with.
You move and then you fire each of your ships in turn, then the enemy does the same. You use the plot of their last few turns to project how to hit them but their change is speed and direction and the wind affects how close you will be to them as its difficult being accurate at those sorts of distances. You do have projections from your crew to help you with gun angle but you get better with practice yourself than they are so there is good degree of skill involved.
With subs your torpedoes take a couple of turns to hit so you have to project where the ships will be before you fire and usually need to fire a spread. And as a destroyer you have a mark on the surface indicating where the enemy sub is based on your sonar readings etc but its surprisingly difficult getting in the right location to drop hedgehogs and depth charges as they all drop a distance away from your ship.
The campaign basically lets you fight the whole Atlantic War trying to predict where the enemy ships or subs will be and positioning your own fleets to try to intercept them. Its similar to Medieval Total War 1 in that you play strategically on a basic map then go into each battle that occurs in turn in 3d.
The graphics are great and the gun fire and splashes never cease to impress me, its so annoying when you straddle a ship without hitting it! But the guns FEEL suitably powerful and you can damage ships by getting close.
Its very addictive and a great game well worth the money. If you dont like it get a refund before 2 hours are up but really there is no question that if you like naval warfare or WW2 at all you should be trying this game.
They also created a bunch of scenario’s based on real situations with the real outcome in the description so that you can see if you can do better. I am terrible so I still haven’t beaten the germans better at the Riverplate battle…
But the graphics are awesome.