Clear Skies, with a small chance of ballistic missiles

Another title that debuted at last year’s Paradox Convention, Naval War: Arctic Circle is Real-Time-Strategy/Simulation game set in the North Atlantic. Paradox has dabbled in the simulation genre in the past, with Restaurant Empire 2 and Ship Simulator Extreme, but this seems more suited to them as it combines simulation with what they know best – strategy. In many ways it’s a fairly simple game, which may prove to its detriment when it comes to value, but from what we’ve seen so far it should prove interesting to enthusiasts.
 

One such scenario you'll be asked to play

Naval War presents a very specific scenario for you to engage in – a near-future world where NATO and Russia square off for control of the North Atlantic, and the valuable oil supply and supply lines it represents. Great Britain & Ireland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Greenland and the North-West passage all feature in one single map, comprising of 35 million square kilometres of game space. Depending on the mission and scenario, you may not be using the entire map at once, but there’s a lot of game space there to play around in. The main campaign is split into two different stories – each 12 scenarios, where you play as the Russians, and as NATO.

We say ‘simulation’ – this game is actually being billed as a real-time naval strategy game. Make no mistake though; there is plenty of ‘simulation’ here – although it’s more in you being the commander of a fleet or a task force than you controlling a single ship or anything. Still, the amount of micro-managing you can get into for individual units is very in depth. You can choose weapon load outs for your various planes, submarines, ships. There are loads of different missiles and weapons that you can outfit the 70+ different units in the game, from aircraft, to ships and submarines.

From talking to the developers, it’s clear that in this game you’ll have to make sure of every asset you have at your disposal, and knowing what you have and how best to use it will be key. You’ll have access to aircraft for various roles – recon, interception and interdiction. You’ll need to find and scout out your enemy, whilst defending your own ships from everything from submarines, anti-ship missiles, and the enemy ships themselves. You’ll also have your own submarines to use, as well as your ships, but throwing them into the waters without scouting first will be suicide.



The main interface of the map is a 2D screen like you would see in a briefing room, and whilst the whole of the game space will be available to look at, you’ll mainly be focused on your local area of operations – the scenarios being short and sweet, you probably won’t venture too far. There’s also a separate viewing mode, where everything is rendered in 3D. Granted, considering most of the action is at sea, the environment is going look at the same, but whether you’re focusing on a ship or one of your aircraft, you’ll be able to see it in action should you wish.

So far, the only real criticism we have is the 3D engine – it’s not great, to be honest. Granted, Paradox is a company that has proven that you don’t really need a fancy graphics engine to make a good game. However, we’d have to say that if you were going to give it a go, you would try and make it competitive. Naval War’s 3D engine isn’t that competitive, and to be honest you’ll get more out of the 2D mode anyway whilst playing. Other than that, the game seems fairly limited in what it offers right now – 24 missions, all using snippets of the same match, multiplayer is only 1v1 at the moment, and there’s going to be a skirmish mode, but that’s about it. Doesn’t sound amazing on paper, but given the sim/strategy nature of the game it will probably prove to be more than enough.
 

Well, that can't be good...

Not necessarily one for the masses, even by Paradox standards, but there is a game here, which the most important thing. Many titles that try and go for the simulation angle forget that the whole point of a game is to be fun, and Turbo have certainly been working on that element. This is going to be a game of patience and planning as you slowly but surely assert your dominance over the North Atlantic, and we can’t wait to see what the studio has in mind post-launch. Naval War: Arctic Circle is coming to Steam, PC, sometime in Q2 2012.

Most Anticipated Feature: The planning and preparation that will probably go into every scenario, we imagine the pay-off will be very rewarding.