First Impressions ?

[DeadlyPeanut]

Any time any sort of naval tactical sim, or any naval game, comes out it has me interested right away.

So is the game moderately bug free and enjoyable ?

After the Sword of the Stars 2 mess i really am hesitant to buy a paradox game period. 19.99 is a refreshing price for a new game wish more people would do it often. But with SotS 2 im not sure if they gave me 19.99 id even test the game for em at release or even now 6 months later.

 

[unmerged(315513)]

(Very) first impressions. Running through the tutorials and the game interface is very easy to use, especially setting boxes for aircraft to patrol or drop sonobouys. A few mouse clicks and away they go. The tutorials aren't too much challenge, just to get the hang of the game, so no impression of "real" combat yet, although I just finished the air missions one, which has air to air and air to ship combat. So far so good. It crashed once on me but I have a feeling that had a lot to do with me running it on a Mac with Parallels Desktop and switching out of it to do something and then coming back to Parallels and no fault at all of the game.

 

[MaceUK]

Yeah, after Gettysburg: Armoured Warfare I want to try the demo before spending money I can't afford to throw away on games. Still no demo on Steam.

 

[unmerged(469911)]

Agreed, SotS2 and Gettysburg were costly messes enough. Kinda sad because Turbo Tape had nothing to do with this.

 

[DeadlyPeanut]

a demo would be nice ill wait and see what other people have to say. Its a game though by reading i could find myself liking but ive been burned before.

 

[SA_Avenger]

Tried first russian campaign mission got wasted (hadn't read manual, no clue why my planes aren't firing flares ), retrying now but now I don't know why the plane I want to launch doesn't take off (edit: ok forgot to right click to where I want to deploy them lol), looks like it'll need some learning but it's stable.

I wish we could use wasd or right mouse button to turn camera in "pretty" mode but looks like it's going to be fun learning the ropes

 

[unmerged(255172)]

Well, the first Russian mission is actually quite hard!

 

[Stuckenschmidt]

Well, the first Russian mission is actually quite hard!

What can be so hard about nuking the s*** out of these capitalist pigs?

 

[unmerged(255172)]

Hehe. Mostly that you have to put Su-27s in the front line in the first mission, and their missiles are outranged by Amraams.

 

[Ndition]

I'm quite curious of how Sweden became a republic? :O

 

[SA_Avenger]

Well, the first Russian mission is actually quite hard!

just tried the nato campaign and it serves as tutorial so yeah now I'm starting to get how things work, much better

Fun though I guess you don't have much right to do mistakes hehe must be interesting in multiplayer

 

[koontz]

Iam having an great time so far, really really funny, well iam about to invade Iceland so i`ll get back to ya soon!

 

[skibear]

So far so good. Tutorials are brief and to the point, certainly enough to get the basic mechanisms covered and explore a few concepts without being overwhelmed.
Once the proper missions start then the real question start popping up about what sensors to turn on, what to leave off, optimal number of missiles to fire to ensure success... you know, the sort of stuff that takes days on the forum or years of staff college (naval officers aren't the sharpest cutlasses in the box...) to answer. So probably plenty of depth to explore (no pun...honest...).

Graphics are nicely modelled so its clear to spotters what units are what, and landlubbers should become familiar pretty quickly. The environment & effects are not going to win awards for beauty but they do their job.
Overall I can see myself wading around the missions clicking random sensors on and hoping thats not inviting disaster, and fishing about for tips on the forum and being entertained in the process.

One thing that can be a little frustrating/disapointing is camera tracking a missile into a target ship. Should be dramatic and suspenseful but sometimes feels a bit like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPXG4pdPj4w&feature=related I know you can speed up passage of time, but it trips out when something occurs elsewhere. And if your missile is destroyed it just stops. Should be a joy to follow your arrow into the bulleye, but I dont't think many will bother too often. Of course the main focus is the overall strategy thats important. Just feels a little bit undramatic at points. Which is fine if want you aim for a cool calm collected removed from the action effect, but operations rooms are rarely like this (maybe I can get my girlfriend to shout orders and reports in my ear to recreate the effect, and set a few alarm clocks off...). Its little things that will make the difference between a good game and a great game. And choices of course for re-playability. Hopefully future multi-player improvements already discussed will take this to the next level in future, but so far plenty of meat on the bone to keep us busy I think.

 

[SA_Avenger]

One thing that can be frustrating/disapointing is camera tracking a missile into a target ship. Should be dramatic and suspenseful but sometimes feels a bit like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPXG4pdPj4w&feature=related I know you can speed up passage of time, but it trips out when something occurs elsewhere. And if your missile is destroyed it just stops.

mostly this I find "lacking", you find yourself in the middle of the sea when you wanted to see your missile blow off or just the target laugh at you but nothing that can't be fixed (or that could stay that way and I'd get used to but it'd add drama to the missile firing )

 

[unmerged(315513)]

If you want a little mayhem perhaps they should have used the trailer soundtracks in game - a little metal to get you pumped up. One thing I've looked for and can't find is a tool to measure range between two objects. There are range circles that show weapons ranges when you select the attack button, but no tool to just measure the range (at least not that I've found - I could be staring right at it knowing me).

 

[unmerged(315513)]

No save game? Time for bed and I'm halfway through a scenario.

 

[JonathanRL]

First impression is above expectations. Flows well, looks decent and is genuinly fun to play, esp when you manage to score kills !

 

[Stuckenschmidt]

No save game?

What??

 

[JorgenB]

The game saves the campaign progress, but now you can not save mid mission.

 

[Stuckenschmidt]

Quick. A facepalm-picture.

But honestly, what was the line of reasoning behind that decision?