Typically PC games with drab titles like Naval Warfare involve complex gameplay designed to simulate the intricacies of naval combat. Just A Game’s Naval Warfare is nothing of the sort, and its dull title doesn’t do this excellent indie arcade shooter justice.
Naval Warfare is set in a Victorian Steampunk fantasy world. Two countries, the Gotheans and Samureans, are waging a fierce naval war against one another. As the heroic swashbuckler-esque Captain Grey, your job is to help end the war by (generally) sinking a lot of enemy warships through fast and furious arcade-style naval combat.
Show the enemy your balls flamethrower
Most missions in Naval Warfare naturally involve sending enemy ships to Davy Jones’ locker with a variety of mines, torpedoes, and other weapons.
Your ship’s turreted weapons are your ‘workhorse’ weapons, capable of firing in any direction with unlimited ammunition. Mines can be dropped behind your ship and help control the battlefield by damaging or immobilizing enemy ships. Torpedoes, which only fire forward, are best used against large, well-armored targets.
In addition to all your standard weaponry, you have a special weapon that can only be unleashed when you’ve acquired enough Aquaflux (glowing balls dropped by destroyed enemies).
Your special weapon is essentially your “‘oh sh*t!” weapon and inflicts massive damage to all enemies. For example, one special weapon calls down air strikes that blast every enemy on the screen. Another special weapon calls in an aircraft that provides devastating support fire.
Mines and torpedoes are limited, but replenishments (drops) can be picked up from sunken enemy ships, along with health power ups.
The nuts and bolts “kill everything” missions are actually well-paced and broken up with a variety of other objective-based sequences. Some missions may have you escort and protect defenseless cargo ships. Others offer brief ‘platform’ play where you must carefully sail through channels and water ways and avoid mines, traps, and other obstacles. And there are boss battles of course.
Naval Warfare supports a gamepad but plays quite well with a keyboard (WASD keys) and mouse. If you want to play multiplayer you’ll need a gamepad.
Pimp your ship
Advancing through Naval Warfare’s campaign unlocks new ships, weapons and upgrades to provide plenty of tactical options to suit your style of game play. You can change weapon and ship upgrades in the Warshop in between missions. There are a total of 3 different ships (Gunship, Cruiser, or Speedboat), 21 weapons (7 per ship), and 15 ship upgrades (usable on any ship).
You can have up to 3 different turret weapons equipped at one time. Some weapon examples include the Flamer, a short-range weapon good against shielded enemies, the Gatling Gun, and a shotgun-style weapon with a spread shot effect. Upgrades include a variety of damage enhancers, rate of fire enhancers, ship armor upgrades, and more.
Although some weapons and upgrades are unlocked automatically when you play through the campaign game, others can be discovered and unlocked if you’re willing to sail off the beaten path now and again in certain missions.
Command a squadron
Certain missions allow you to recruit a small squadron of support ships, which essentially give you extra firepower or defensive capabilities depending on the type of squadron selected.
For example, a fighter squadron provides straight up firepower, whereas a healer squadron heals your ship when you’re within range of it. You can also equip your ship with upgrades that enhance the effectiveness of your support ships.
Once you’re in battle, you can give your squadron basic orders, such as defending cargo ships or following you to attack your targets.
Skirmish and play with friends
In addition to Naval Warfare’s single-player campaign which is about 3-4 hours long, you can also play multiplayer and Skirmish mode. There is no online multiplayer play.
Skirmish mode is a survival mode played for high score.
Multiplayer missions are divided amongst checkpoint races and arena battles, both of which are played for high score and leaderboard bragging rights.
In a Checkpoint race your goal is to collect 10 checkpoints while fending off endless waves of enemy ships. Destroyed enemy ships drop a special mine or torpedo you can collect and use against the other player.
Arena battles are essentially a competitive co-op arcade arena battle played against endless enemies.
More than just a shooter
Naval Warfare is a great shooter on all fronts, but it also has an interesting story set in an even more interesting game world (good enough to be a setting for role-playing game)—a world of Victorian era Steampunk technology rife with warring aristocrats and bizarre (perhaps alien?) technology.
Granted, the characters in Naval Warfare are 2-dimensional (the heroic swashbuckler captain, his trusty engineer and love interest Edison, a stodgy military commander, and so on), but the fact that the game has a story at all is impressive. And it’s a pretty good one that features illustrated, comic book style cut scenes, good dialog and good voice acting.
And despite the game’s top-down perspective, the graphics, ships, and the Victorian Steampunk world in which the game takes place are all beautifully realized—especially for a game whose primary goal is blowing sh*t up.
Overall
Naval Warfare is an excellent and entertaining arcade shooter that goes above and beyond the call of duty for the genre. It’s an easy recommendation with its $10 price tag (via Steam), and here’s hoping for a sequel with a better title and maybe online multiplayer in the future.
Publisher: Just A Game
Developer: Game Distillery
Naval War Minimum System Requirements
- OS: Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, Windows 7
- Processor: Intel or AMD Dual-Core Processor (1.9 GHz) or better
- Memory: 2GB RAM
- Hard Disk Space: 1.5 GB hard drive space
- Video Card: NVIDIA Geforce GTS250 / ATI Radeon HD4800 or better
- DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
- Sound: DirectX 9c compatible
Article source: http://www.examiner.com/pc-game-in-national/naval-warfare-review
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