Taking To The Open Seas
There are so many different jobs you can try out in the world of simulation games. You can, of course, drive trains and manage railway tracks. You can fly all sorts of aeroplanes around the world and back again. You can even run an airport, or take charge of the fire department within one. And that’s without counting the many DIY sims or police games that are out there.
But being a ship captain, or simply living a life on the open seas, is something that comes around far less often. That’s until now on Xbox with the release of Seafarer: The Ship Sim. So climb the rigging, drop the anchor and away we go, my laddies. Or something like that.
My experience with sea-based ship games mostly comes from the occasional mini-mission in RPGs, like GTA, where you might have to drive a speedboat for a while, or the Assassin’s Creed games, where you get to play as a pirate or command a Viking ship. But getting into the nitty-gritty of actually operating modern-day ships is something that hasn’t appeared on my gaming radar before.
Learning The Ropes
The Campaign is where you’ll want to start with Seafarer. You create your avatar and give them a name, before being introduced to a captain who is very much the salt-of-the-earth type. He shows you the ropes to begin with, including how to steer the smaller boat, which we’ll get to later, as well as learning the basics of docking, switching the lights on and off and communicating with the port by radio.
You’re working as part of a crew for a shipping corporation, and as the missions progress, a story involving piracy and industrial sabotage begins to emerge. It’s all perfectly serviceable, and there are some interesting characters along the way, but it can feel a little hokey at times, while some of the dialogue is rather weak. Still, I liked having some sort of context to hang the hat on while working through the different missions.
Getting To Grips With The Ships
Gameplay is played in first person, and you can wander around the boats as your character to your heart’s content. This becomes particularly important when you’re part of the crew on some of the larger vessels.
Actually controlling the smaller ships takes a while to get used to, though, and the control system isn’t exactly intuitive. Everything is handled with the left stick: push forward to accelerate, pull back to stop, and move left or right to steer. The problem is that the ships feel very tanky to control, and the slightest wrong touch can send you spinning off in completely the wrong direction.
There are eight ships to explore during the game, and they pretty much handle in the same way. Then again, I’m no sea captain, so perhaps this is exactly how they are supposed to feel. I’ll leave that particular judgement to those with considerably more nautical experience than me.
More Than Just Sailing
You won’t just be sailing ships in Seafarer: The Ship Sim, either, as you’ll take part in a whole host of other activities. At one point, you have to operate a crane to load and unload cargo onto a huge ship. This was fine, even though the tutorial seemed to have given up by that point. I managed to work out what I was supposed to do, though, and strangely found the whole process quite therapeutic.
Then there are fires breaking out on other ships, which you can tackle using a giant water cannon. This feels a little like being at the fairground, albeit with considerably more expensive boats involved. You can even jump aboard a police patrol vessel to inspect other ships and help deliver safe passage to those in trouble. The sheer range of activities and different things to do is probably the most impressive and ambitious aspect of the game.
Multiplayer On The High Seas
You can also play Seafarer in multiplayer, sharing the workload with up to four other players online. You can host your own game and get people aboard, or join somebody else’s session. At the time of writing, the servers and games available were very active. I even managed to avoid any major hiccups while taking on maintenance duties, which was surprisingly enjoyable.
Visually, the game is built using Unreal Engine 5, while its water makes use of NVIDIA WaveWorks 2.0. The water looks impressive, as do the ships themselves and the various weather systems. The characters are a little more uncanny valley though, particularly my own character, who for some reason looked rather like a ghost. Still, I liked the overall visual presentation.
There’s some voice acting on offer, which is fine, while the dramatic soundtrack goes for an epic feel as you head out onto the open waves. It does become a little too much at times, though, with the music occasionally making a bigger deal of proceedings than I felt was necessary.
Finding The Right Crew
So, my time on the open sea with Seafarer: The Ship Sim was a bit of a mixed bag. I didn’t particularly enjoy sailing the ships, even though I eventually started to get used to the controls. I did, however, like the visuals and, more importantly, the sheer mix of activities on offer. The problem is, it can all become a little tiresome after a while, but then, I find that with most simulation games. What doesn’t hold my attention for hours on end may be exactly the sort of thing another player can happily lose an entire weekend to.
Multiplayer also gives the experience another lease of life when you have other people sharing the workload. So, if you fancy being the captain of your own destiny and sailing the seven seas, Seafarer: The Ship Sim could well be for you.
Important Links
Fancy A Life At Sea? Seafarer: The Ship Sim Has You Covered – https://www.thexboxhub.com/fancy-a-life-at-sea-seafarer-the-ship-sim-has-you-covered/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/seafarer-the-ship-sim/9nm34ntcdzdn
There’s a Voyage Edition too – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/seafarer-the-ship-sim-voyager-edition/9nrgrxdnbwrc
