Well, here’s something you don’t see every day: me struggling to give my opinion on a game. That’s not because I don’t know if the game is good or bad, or if it’s worth your time. It is great, and it’s well worth looking into if you like the subject matter. My problem is that I’m not sure if I’m knowledgeable enough to give it a proper assessment. But that never stopped other gaming websites, so why should it stop me?
Game Overview: What is Sea Power?
Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age is an air and naval combat simulation strategy game set during the Cold War, developed by Triassic Games AB, and published by MicroProse. A glance at some screenshots might instill you with a sense of familiarity, and that’s because the game has the former lead designer of Killerfish Games (Cold Waters) at the helm.
Early Impressions: Gameplay, Graphics, and Scenarios
So, let’s start with getting things out of the way: I have been playing a pre-release version that comes with a dozen or so premade scenarios, each one showcasing different engagements. Some are big, some small, some can be done in 5 minutes, others can take an hour. It’s all fine, these are a great way of getting to know your way around the game, as the version I’m playing doesn’t have a tutorial. I also have a couple of hours in Cold Waters under my belt, so that also helped me a bit. But other than those scenarios, there’s nothing currently available, so you’ll have to get creative with the mission editor, but more on that later.
I’m not going to keep you on edge: Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age is shaping up to be a fantastic game. All the fundamentals are here:
Graphics and Visuals: Cold War Realism
First Impressions are everything, and Sea Power is one hell of a looker. The game’s graphics are really impressive. It follows the Cold Waters art style very closely, to the point I couldn’t distinguish the games if I was blind-tested. Unit models look sharp, and textures look stellar. Even the missiles and projectiles look equally as detailed. Every ship, plane, submarine, and sea, clouds, and weather effects also look good. The ground terrain, however, looks bad, but considering most of the time you’ll be looking at it from a distance, I don’t think it’s worth the performance impact it would have to completely render an entire city. The effects all look pretty realistic.
Realism and Unit Variety
Some games pack a lot of units, like the Wargame series, or Steel Division. But more often than not, those impressive numbers, which sometimes go well into the hundreds, tend to be highly inflated by just having a lot of the same units but with different stats. Sea Power is one game where that’s not the case, as there are dozens of fighter jets, bombers, submarines, destroyers, missile cruisers, aircraft carriers, transport ships, merchant ships, civilian aircraft, torpedo boats, and so much more. I haven’t counted all units, but the Steam page says there are over 150 naval units and 60 aircraft. The fact that each of these has its weapon systems meticulously recreated is impressive, to say the least, and I’m starting to see why the game has been in the oven for so long.
Gameplay Mechanics and Controls
Speaking of weapon systems, Sea Power recreates each weapon system of each ship to a tee, with weapon physics and sensor modeling. This ecosystem of complex weaponry is a tough one to navigate, even if you’re familiar with it. Prepare to get your instruction manuals out!
The controls are ok. The game uses the same control scheme as Cold Waters, meaning that you can control each unit individually, or you can use the map to move them around by setting waypoints. In more chaotic scenarios be prepared to constantly pause the game to issue orders.
Feature Wishlist: Improving the User Experience
For a game as complex as Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age, the mission editor is quite straightforward to work with. You choose a location, plop down a couple of unit groups, order them around, and then you can instantly boot up the scenario and try it out. This is fantastic for fine-tuning the scenario to your preferences. I wish a lot of other games would do this.
The game has a neat Encyclopedia where you can see each of the units, read about them, and study their equipment.
What I would love to see is a way to check each of my unit’s weapon systems during the game so I can see what each does, so I’m not guessing. This wasn’t a problem with Cold Waters because you only had one unit to control, when you’re dealing with dozens at the same time, it can be hard to keep track of what every single one of these systems does.
Final Thoughts: Is Sea Power Worth It?
Of course! But I think some expecting fans might be a bit disappointed at the lack of a campaign at release, but the team has already come out and said a dynamic campaign is set to come out sometime during the second quarter of 2025.
If you’re someone who loves the Cold War, and the naval scuffles that could have been if it ever went hot, you don’t have a lot of options. Fortunately, the one you’re about to have when Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age hits Steam Early Access on the 12th of November.
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