Sea Power : Naval Combat in the Missile Age
After hostilities have broken out in Central Europe, the race is on as a pressured US Navy escort force battle off Soviet bomber and submarine attacks on a perilous quest to reinforce NATO defenders in Europe. Meanwhile, in the Persian Gulf, the conflict between Iran and Iraq risks escalating into a larger confrontation between superpowers as both sides indiscriminately attack neutral merchant shipping. And in the Norwegian Sea, an outnumbered Soviet surface force challenges the might of a massive US Navy amphibious force bound for occupied Norway…
Brought to you by the lead designer of Cold Waters, Sea Power lets you control NATO and Warsaw Pact forces in a modern naval conflict. Whether it’s gunning it out with Boghammars in a surface duel, fighting off aerial attackers armed with long-range missiles, or hunting for enemy submarines with aircraft and surface ships, advanced weaponry and sensors are at your disposal. Can you successfully hide your forces while detecting and tracking theirs? It is up to you to play an advanced game of cat and mouse on the high seas, to seize the initiative and attack with the advantage of surprise on your side. And at all times, you have to observe rules of engagement and take care not to cause an unnecessary incident that could lead to escalation. After all, you cannot really be sure just who that radar contact at 30.000 feet is, can you?
Features List
-
Cold war era between the ’60s and ’80s
-
Theatres including North Atlantic, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Tonkin and Mediterranean Area
-
Dynamic campaign - theatre scale
-
Historical and fictional single scenarios
-
Dynamic time of day and weather per engagement
-
Dynamic soundtrack
-
Realtime combat
-
Advanced flight and ship physics
-
Scalable realism such as weapons malfunctions, advanced sensor modeling
-
Pausable real-time, time compression
-
Full user scenario editor and quick mission builder
-
Advanced in-game tutorial
-
Save games everywhere/every time
-
Detailed and accurate 3D graphics
-
Over 50 original ships and more than 30 original aircraft
-
Land facilities and real-world terrain
-
Post-battle replay
Read More: Best Naval Combat Simulation Games.
Cold Waters
After playing Cold Waters for a little over 110 hours, I regret that despite giving the game its due diligence, I must award it with a strong down-vote. When I purchased Cold Waters, I was expecting a reasonable successor to Sub Command. Unfortunately, with exception to the Unity engine and visuals, it falls short across all categories.
First, problem set up is well, a problem. When beginning a battle, the player never finds himself in a favorable position in front of the target(s). In fact, the player will always be placed slightly forward or aft of abeam the mission objective, several thousand yards out. This forces the player to increase speed, to close distance, to increase the effectiveness of his already ineffective weapons. This will always result in detection, and ambushes are thus made impossible. Even during a campaign, if a commander sets himself in front of a strike group or landing force, when the engagement begins, he will be placed as previously stated, normally sailing at 10 knots, instead of all stop or rigged for ultra quiet.
– Real player with 151.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Naval Combat Simulation Games.
As a big fan of air and naval warfare simulation and strategy\tactical titles, I was naturally drawn to Cold Waters.
I came to this from a DW\SH background like many others it seems. However I was under no illusion that this is a successor\replacement\copy, this is new title doing things it’s own ways. Which is excellent, Coming to Cold Waters with any assumption that this replaces “Insert your favorite subsim here” will probably lead to disappointment. An open mind is needed blinkered to the past as much as possible and you can see CW for the little masterpiece that it is.
– Real player with 143.5 hrs in game
Sub Command
Not so much a game as a second job: you can let the auto-crew do much for you but let’s face facts: the appeal of this game is how much it demands from you. Want to work out the firing solution for the 89cm ADCAP torpedo manually? Of course you do, this game was written for you.
The plotline (nasty Russians go to war with the USA for some reason) is not really developed - I’m halfway through the US campaign - BUT the opportunity to play the campaign from the Russians' perspective is a very welcome, plus you have to re-learn the entire control system, this time using the metric system.
– Real player with 36.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Naval Combat Simulation Games.
This is the sequel to Jane’s 688(i) Hunter/Killer but now under the flag of Sonarlysts. Most features have already been mentioned in my review of 688(i) so I will try to tell only the difference between these two:
-
Higher resolution and better graphics
-
3 plattforms to operate (688(i), Seawolf, Akula)
-
Single missions and campaigns which can be played as US or russian.
-
Use your voice to command your ship completely (navigation, firing at a certain contact etc.)
The most important part feature, which came afterwards for Sub Command, is the big SCX mod:
– Real player with 31.8 hrs in game
ICBM
ICBM is a great way to kill an hour, along with a few hundred million people. It’s got a bit of a learning curve to it but it’s simple enough that you can pick most of it up in 2 or 3 games.
What I find interesting (and a little terrifying) about ICBM is how nothing is permanent and how the game always keeps you at the edge of your seat, because much like a real nuclear war, you could find yourself and everything you’ve built being vaporized by thermonuclear weapons at a moment’s notice. If you build an airbase, the enemy can nuke that. If you build missile silos, the enemy can nuke that. If you build submarines, the enemy nuke that. The game effectively works out to be a scramble between you and your enemies as you try to keep tabs on where they’re keeping their city-melting goodies, as well as protecting your own, either by keeping them well-hidden, or building enough defences that the enemy can’t smash through them until you’ve already turned their continent into a giant radioactive parking lot. Then there’s also the question of “Should I attack first or is that going to end horribly for me and 85% of my country’s population”, which then promptly leads to the question of “But If I don’t do anything, are all my cities going to be on fire in 5 minutes” which means you’re always guessing, or always trying to find out.
– Real player with 385.2 hrs in game
I had to go back and change my original positive review to inform you not to buy this. Multiplayer community is dead and its been less than a month since the game lauched.
Game already has rampant hacking which ruins the game for everyone. Not to mention that the actual game itself is not really that fun after a few games.
Matches are 95% build up and 4% figuiring out who to attack and 1% fun combat. Most games you’ll build up for 35mins to literally not be able to use a single one of your nukes due to the game ending due to nuclear contamination via a massive barrage two guys release at once and even if you launched right then your nukes would not hit the ground before their nukes end the game.
– Real player with 43.3 hrs in game