Naval War: Arctic Circle Impressions

The game was released by Turbo Tape Games/Paradox Interactive in April 2012. Long story short it is a real time naval strategy game. A DLC named Operation Tarnhelm was recently released adding some new missions; however some glaring issues have yet to been fixed. While the game is interesting and immersive, it struggles to be anything more than a bargain bin diamond in the ruff.

Several users have reported repeated freezing, although I have not experienced any yet in working through the various interactive tutorials and attempting the first single player mission. However, what I did run into was the patently absurd omission of a save game feature.

It has been reported that Turbo Tape Games was of the following philosophy during the development phase: “…a conflict between realism and gameplay, gameplay will win every time…” Apparently they got that in the wrong order. A save feature is a must in any game which features missions that can take 30 or more minutes to complete (even with time compression).

I really want to like NWAC, but at this point I am approaching it with much caution. Although I do have some time to video game, what I don’t have is extended periods of time to keep a game running in order to come back to and finish a mission. Real life interrupts on a frequent basis, and while I may think I would love to be launching Tomahawks at Russian warships all day long, I also have the laundry to do and groceries to buy.




2 comments:

  1. I was the same i got this on Steam on a discount and i really wanted it to work. I think it looks great but like you i also spend a lot of my time getting interrupted by my kids wife etc so a save ia must.

    Great blog btw.

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  2. The link http://www.navalwargame.com/ was removed from this post as that site is not responding and is being reported as a broken link by a link checker utility.

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