Recent reviews by DPSimulation

When one of the first popups after getting fully in game is a list of known issues you know you're in trouble.

AI with zero concept of any intelligence.
Some simply weird facial recognition.

Fans of the horror genre wanted another title from Konami. Well it's here, Silent Hill: Football. It's that scary in it's current state.

With 62 hours playtime, I feel I can now give more thoughts on Steel Ocean.

Front End

It took some time to figure out where everything was, but i've started to learn about things such as the barracks and tech tree. The latter has now had the British fleet introduced meaning there are now six different paths to go down, although the French and Chinese are limited to one 'gold' ship each.

I've noticed that many people have complained about 'grinding' in this respect, or that the game is 'pay to win'. I suppose it entirely depends how much time you want to give the game. Me personally, I feel that there is enough variation in battles that I can go out there and try and earn EXP for upgrades and give myself a wide variation of fleet options, in fact I quite enjoy it. For others that won't be good enough, people naturally want to upgrade as fast as possible and will pay to do so.

Gameplay

I really like the game and play almost daily depending on how well the server wants to welcome me during a battle. The gameplay itself is good, and as someone who plays primarily as a battleship, there is something to like about the skill required to hit a moving target 5km away.

A recent update seems to have also added improvements to how the ships look when turning at high speed, with a very visible leaning motion, a nice touch. Also with the recent promised addition of the British tech tree, battles are becoming much more variable and as I have rarely been matched in the same battle type in consecutive games, the whole variation makes it more interesting for me.

Teamkillers & Community

The first problem that I have come across and something I have seen discussed widely on the forums, these 'teamkillers' seem to generally be denoted in battle by a blue name? They are basically there to mess up your day and it's something that I feel needs addressing. This is especially more relevant as I have seen discussions on forums that suggest that should you defend yourself against these people, it is at detrement to the rewards you yourself receive at the end of a battle.

It's important to note that the teamkillers I speak of are not newer users firing torpedoes without looking, which is itself is a problem but an understandable one. Teamkillers for me are ones that come in all shapes and forms, they roam the initial battle area with no purpose other than to kill you in close combat at the earliest opportunity.

It's also worth noting that any teamkiller can be reported during battle with an option specifically for reporting them for firing on teammates. However, as many of these users have had Chinese usernames and the game is seemingly developed in China, I'm not sure anything is being done, or will be done given I've seen the same names repeatedly doing the same thing without sanction.

Server

The biggest problem with Steel Ocean, presumably for users not in North America at least. Given that when loading the game, NA is the only available server, this is leading for problems that are well documented on forums. Although I cannot measure an exact percentage, i'd wager that 20% of the time, battles are unplayable due to an enormously high ping, for me at least. In a handful of cases, ping has risen to it's highest level and after 30 seconds of the battle freezing, i've been thrown out completely.

Another small portion of the time the ping rises sufficiently high that weapons cannot be discharged or the ship cannot be manoeuvred, this may manifest itself by putting you in an uncontrollable spin until the ping drops to such a level that you can regain control. The main issue for me here is that there is no discernable way to recognise it will happen, it's very random and a battle can be fine for the first 5 minutes, only to become unplayable at a key point. Equally, it can start as unplayable and then become playable after a minute or so. Other times a whole battle can pass of without a problem.

Further servers have been requested in on forums, most commonly one in the EU. This has been acknowledged a couple of times by devs and I got the impression that it was being seriously considered. Another post this morning by a dev on the forums suggests to me that it isn't being seriously considered and it's more of a problem for us than it is for them.

Overall

The gameplay and general community experience means I am still going to recommend this game, the teamkiller issue isn't enough to sway towards a non-recommendation. Server issues are swaying towards this though and should the situation get any worse than it currently is and make the game unplayable for longer periods, I'll have to consider it.

I paid £0.49, completed it, laughed a lot and donated to charity whilst doing so. What is not to like?

Tunnel Interviews............ :D

Nothing more needs to be said currently. I'll review further after sleep and sustinence.

It's really a tricky one this, there are both positives and negatives, but the latter isn't related to the game which as always, is a must buy if you don't own it in any other form. If that's all you need to know, don't read on, buy it and i'll focus the rest of the review on what could have been.

A turn based strategy offering, Colonization is a timeless classic that has immense replay value and an excellent soundtrack to boot. If a turn based strategy game is your thing, you cannot be disappointed, it's impossible.

However, if you did already own it in another form, whether DOS, Amiga or other, what reasons are there to buy here, other than to have it in your library? I cannot honestly see any other reason.

The files and structure are identical to those that have been freely available (rightly or wrongly, it's always a point of debate) as 'Abandonware' for many years now. To run those files, you would have needed DOSBox which has handily been included as part of this package. That may in fact be a positive, Colonization in your Steam library, with one click access to DOSBox and no need to mount a path or create a config file. Some mention of DOSBox on the store page would have been helpful though, given other reviews now appearing about the release.

But it could have been so much more, more than what is offered which is essentially old files bundled together by someone that has bought the rights and is selling them at a price, albeit very reasonable. It's just a case of doing very little work and putting it for release on Steam.

What about achievements? Imagine 'Achievement Unlocked: Armed Natives & Subsequently Beheaded'. What about visually improving the look of the game itself? Of course, there is a certain romance about playing an older game and the way it looked all of those years ago but it can work, look at Leisure Suit Larry & Secret Of Monkey Island, there is a place for a visually enhanced version of an older title. Such a missed opportunity in my opinion, Colonization: Special Edition* could have been something to take an even bigger pride of place in the collection.

*And no, 'Civilization IV: Colonization' isn't it......

And apparently if I update this review I receive some sort of silly badge.....