4 – Cold Waters
Of all the games on this list, Cold Waters is my favorite modern one. Why isn’t it atop, you ask me? Well, because I can recognize that this is a personal favorite, and to call it the best of this illustrious bunch wouldn’t do you any good! But why do I enjoy it so much? Well, for once, it places you in control of a single nuclear submarine during hypothetical Cold War escalations or full-scale conflicts in the South China Sea. Success relies entirely on managing your acoustic signature, hiding under thermal layers, and deploying wire-guided torpedoes or towed sonar arrays to hunt down enemy ships and subs without giving away your own position. It’s almost an action game of cat and mouse, as you weave and wave under the sea to be as sneaky as you possibly can, while being as deadly too. What makes Cold Waters so special is also the fact that, despite all of the depth its systems entail- and believe me, you’ll need to learn at least how radar and sonar work- it’s super intuitive and easy to control. There are no hidden menus and no convoluted UI. Just a couple of buttons to press, and you can control your sub using WASD, which is a Godsend.
3 – Task Force Admiral
I have published so many articles about Task Force Admiral that when it came time to review the game, I had so very little to say about it that it felt a bit underwhelming, and despite that, I still found words to name TFA as the best World War 2 tactical naval wargame I have ever played. It strikes the anvil of perfect balance between a fully fledged simulation (with air physics too!) and a phenomenally well-designed user interface, giving players only the bare necessities they need to perform their duties as Task Force leaders, focusing only on the bigger picture, and leaving the day-to-day nitty-gritty of operations to their officers. The big decisions can be catalogued as such: decide where to move, and decide when, what, and how to strike. Strike with too little force, and your planes will be picked off one by one; send a full force to a wrong location, and you’ll find nothing, and your ships will be left holding the bag, lacking air-cover and risk being destroyed by the enemy’s air force. Strike true, and glory is yours. It really does capture the feeling of analysing your options, committing to a decision, and then seeing its outcome unfold, with all the tension that entails.
2 – Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age
Developed by Triassic Games and published by MicroProse, Sea Power brings the high-intensity, Cold War-gone-hot scenarios of the 1960s through the 1980s to life in jaw-dropping visual detail, being the prettiest game of the bunch, and also one of the most accessible. Currently moving through a massive early access phase, the game features highly sophisticated sensor modeling where managing active radar emissions, sonar thermoclines, and early-warning aircraft patterns is necessary to survive lethal, long-range anti-ship missile volleys. Its highly tactical gameplay loop perfectly captures the terrifying, hair-trigger speed of modern naval engagements, where a single undetected radar signature can seal your fleet’s doom. In my review of Sea Power, I highlighted its incredible scenario editor, which allows players the ability to create very complex missions, anywhere in the world, in just a couple of minutes. Pick the location, the forces, set the sides and objectives, and go! It’s so smooth, its example should be followed by every other title around, even the ones that are set on land.
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