From our look at the build sent to us, the campaign mode offers up a wide variety of tasks for you to accomplish. You might be asked to destroy an enemy fleet or guard a specific vessel, identify a mysterious ship or even hold the line on your own points of interest. It’s wrapped up in a story told through static dialogue-led cutscenes, and although it looks like it might not win any awards for narrative, at least there’s an attempt at making an effort to draw the player in.
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| The default layout |
Once into the action proper, the core of your mission is played out on a top-down map that covers a huge amount of territory. Over half of the screen is taken up with this view, on which your units can be selected and manoeuvred in real-time according to your objectives and strategy. Whatever you’ve currently clicked on shows up in an info panel on the bottom half of the screen, along with a small 3D view of its current position. The game progresses in real-time unless you tell it otherwise, and for those averse to the sparsity of the tactical overview, fortunately the map and 3D camera can be switched - enabling a more action-focused look at the units sent into battle or recon.
Of course a big part of naval warfare revolves around figuring out exactly what is lurking in the ocean, and then deciding how best to approach any given situation. Reconnaissance work is crucial, and to that end, players have tough decisions to make on whether to manoeuvre ships or submarines into a potential danger zone to identify threats. Once an enemy unit is encountered, you may then have to risk sending in a helicopter or a plane in order to make a final identification on the type of vessel that you’ll be firing missiles at moments later. Only after you’re absolutely certain of the risk is it realistically safe to engage.
On that end, there are all sorts of sensors and devices that can be deployed in Naval Warfare, and it’s perhaps here that the hardware fetishists will get their kicks. Each of the units has its own load-out, range, sensors, abilities and deployment characteristics, and getting to know each of those in depth will likely prove to be the decisive factor in becoming a success or failure in the main campaign. In our preview build, tutorial aspects of Naval Warfare are certainly present, but are a little way shy of anything you’d call completely welcoming for new players. Tooltips for basic instructions are fine, but at the price of a fairly dry presentation and an occasionally overwhelming interface.
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| Or the one favoured by Michael Bay |
In terms of the game map itself, fortunately it’s clearly marked out with vector-like precision and allows you to zoom all the way out for group maneuvering or to focus right down to the surface for individual unit positioning. Indeed both methods of approach appear to be essential to success, with the position and angle of your ships and submarines being of paramount importance to detecting enemies or firing with precision. All of that information is related in a somewhat clumsy but nevertheless entertaining fashion as you plough through the opening missions, and Naval Warfare is quick to reveal exactly what its experience will be - you’ll likely know within an hour whether it’s going to be for you or not.
As for whether it is for you, we can’t say for certain until playing the final version. At the moment, Naval Warfare looks to be a fairly light simulation title with a decent RTS engine bubbling beneath its surface. It might end up disappointing those that are looking for a microscopic level of detail when it comes to operating the machinery itself, but I’d nevertheless recommend that fans of both genres keep tabs over the coming weeks.
Best Game Moment: Running silent, running deep.
