Naval Warfare is Truly a Liquid Asset
So last week we all got together and hated one flop of an Indie game. So I thought, why don’t we show some love to our Indie fans? Why don’t we show them a game that really is worth their time and money?
Naval Warfare is just the game we’re looking for. So obviously this is an Indie game, but then again…is it obvious? Well, only because I told you. Besides that, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between this and an arcade game that was a made by a big name developer.
Let’s start this off by looking at the storyline. Naval Warfare is a naval game set in a Victorian-styled future. I always like these kind of twists on the future or past, and for the record, I love Steam Punk.
That being said, all of the characters in the game look and act in ways we would expect. Our hero, Captain Grey, is very much an action hero on a boat. "Is that enemies I see on the starboard side?" he yells. "They have us completely outnumbered and outgunned, so let’s go win a battle!" It’s really easy to get caught up in the personality and actions of Captain Grey, even though I may differ in opinion from him. But our hero is so charismatic and confident that I couldn’t help but be swept along with the rest of the crew into believing that we could do anything if we tried. So some major kudos are in order for his voice actor and whoever wrote his script.
Besides the characters (who all are much like Grey in how well they are done) what else is there to say for the story? Well, I can’t deny that the story of the game is about as cliché as most Steven Seagal films. The redeeming factor is that Naval Warfare realizes this and instead of trying to make a mediocre attempt at mixing it up, they fully embrace it.
So the story doesn’t exactly offer us anything new, but its presentation alone is so well done that I couldn’t possibly hate on the game for it.
Finally, we should take a look at the gameplay of Naval Warfare. Naval Warfare is very much a run and gun game in boat form, so much so that I actually plugged in a 360 Controller to my PC to play it.
Our boat is controlled by one analog stick and the other analog stick fires, some pretty basic stuff here, but basic isn’t bad. It’s just more difficult to do on a keyboard.
Each boat at our disposal can have three different types of guns on it. Each gun has its own advantages and disadvantages (except for the flamethrower, it is a wee bit over-powered). Also, each ship has a different selection of guns than the others. The basics of the weapons are still the same, but depending on which ship you use, it changes the weapon’s power.
For example, the gunship can be equipped with the most powerful of the weapons, but it isn’t very fast in battle. The speedboat on the other hand is amazingly fast in battle due to its small size, but of course a smaller boat means smaller guns. This concept applies to all other boats in the game as well.
Along with different boats and weapons, we can also equip ourselves with different abilities. These abilities range from increased rate of fire, to more defense, to more attack. The main feature keeping us from just equipping all of the best ones is that all abilities are stackable. So instead of just equipping +30 defense, +30 attack, and +30 rate of fire, we could equip +30 rate of fire, +15 rate of fire, and then +30 attack giving us a glass cannon (it can deal the damage but can’t take it) instead.
Besides the main weapons there has to be other sub weapons right? Right! Indeed, each ship comes equipped with a variety of different mines and torpedoes to help mix up the combat some more. These features along with Super Attacks and Squads that will listen to your every order keep the combat in this game from ever getting stale.
So overall we have a great game. Here comes the kicker though: Naval warfare is only a $10 game! That’s right my friends, only ten bucks of your hard earned cash earns you a great game! Enjoy!
Naval Warfare earns 4 out of 5 GiN Gems, and can compete with titles five times its price. How’s that for a great weekend of gaming?