Ship Simulator Extremes Page 2

Back To Page 1

Once you complete a mission, you are given a “reward” consisting of a postcard or a video clip to watch. Again, I can’t help but wonder how VSTEP missed the boat (haha) by making the rewards so weak. It would be much more challenging and rewarding to have a successful mission unlock a previously unavailable ship, or allow you to progress to the next, more challenging mission in the campaign. Indeed, there doesn’t seem to be any building up of mission difficulty and instead the mission difficulty varies from ridiculously easy to medium difficulty.

Ship Simulator Extremes - Skipper

The areas of operation vary widely from tropical island locales to the Antarctic and are quite well done. Though I can’t claim to have visited there, the Sydney Harbor area seems particularly well done. The density of buildings and landmarks are fairly convincing. And while there are other boats on the water that can present a bit of a maneuvering challenge to you, the entire Ship Simulator world is pretty much lifeless. With the exception of the missions where you pluck survivors out of the water, you won’t see anyone on your vessels, other vessels, or around the ports and cities. It rather feels like you are tugging boats into and out of a quarantine zone. There is something somewhat disconcerting about driving around a rigid-inflatable boat with no one at the wheel in the 3rd person view.

Ship Simulator Extremes - Greenpeace Campaign
Ship Simulator Extremes - Campaign
Ship Simulator Extremes - Map Area

One last little gripe is the radar display. Ship Simulator Extremes is a bit like the Strike Fighters of boating. While each ship has different propulsion performance and some might have bow thrusters or maneuvering pods, the basic layout of each ship is essentially the same. If you can drive one of them, you can drive all of them without any real challenge of learning the systems of each. The radar should be an essential navigation tool, but in the sim it does not work in a fashion that would really make it necessary or even worthwhile to use. Returns are all the same, a small dot that grows into a large hexagon return as you continue to scale down.

Ship Simulator Extremes - Radar Display

Here is a video I put together showing different elements in Ship Simulator Extreme.

Ship Simulator Extremes is a good platform that has a lot of potential. The desire to include too many ship types, and perhaps too many environments I feel leaves a few other areas lacking. The mission designs are basic, rather easy, and not very inspiring. Ship handling skills can be important, but you can also fudge your way through and just try to accomplish the bare minimum amount of maneuvering to reach the destination waypoint and get a poorly positioned mooring line to the wharf. While damage can be accumulated for poor ship handling, there is no visible damage model — you just end up sinking. Unfortunately, you’ll find that much ofShip Simulator Extremes just doesn’t live up to the last word in the title. Slapping an exciting word on a title might guarantee you some buzz, but you have deliver on the promise. The sim misses the mark because it misses in too many areas. A mission editor is promised in the coming weeks that might open the sim up to more creative minds (hopefully). Personally though, I wish I could have waited for it to go on sale on Steam for 80% off if that ever happens.

Reviewer’s System Specs

• Processor – Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700
• Motherboard – ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX
• Memory – Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR2 6400
• Video RAM – BFG 9800 GX2 1GB PCIe 2.0
• Hard Drive – Western Digital Raptor X 150GB

 


We want your Feedback. Please let us know what you thought of this article here.

Check out our Naval Combat Zone Library!


 

Related Posts:


Abbott Transistor Los Angeles, Calif Model 80E6.3CT Part No 1968 picture

Abbott Transistor Los Angeles, Calif Model 80E6.3CT Part No 1968

$75.00



Aircraft Transistors JAN2N2907 picture

Aircraft Transistors JAN2N2907

$39.99



Bag of 61 Silicon PNP Transistors 2N4126 picture

Bag of 61 Silicon PNP Transistors 2N4126

$50.00



RCA Transistor 007-0115-00 picture

RCA Transistor 007-0115-00

$19.99



20 pieces Smiths Aerospace GE Aviation Transistor p/n STD5090-3  AV-8BN  New  picture

20 pieces Smiths Aerospace GE Aviation Transistor p/n STD5090-3 AV-8BN New

$561.43



Cessna 2N3055 Transistor picture

Cessna 2N3055 Transistor

$5.45



RCA SK3011 NPN Germanium Transistor , NOS picture

RCA SK3011 NPN Germanium Transistor , NOS

$3.99



Piper PA28 2N3055 / TRANSISTOR / CROSSES TO ECG130,NTE130 / TO3 / 7 PIECES picture

Piper PA28 2N3055 / TRANSISTOR / CROSSES TO ECG130,NTE130 / TO3 / 7 PIECES

$12.00



LearJet Transistors S11082-09 picture

LearJet Transistors S11082-09

$39.99



Aircraft Transistor 02-0863-08 picture

Aircraft Transistor 02-0863-08

$9.99



Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes