PMC Review of Sea Power. Welcome to PMC website for naval warfare game: Sea Power Naval Combat in the Missile Age.
My background on naval warfare gaming dates back to late 1980s when I played games like Red Storm Rising, The Hunt For The Red October and of course the classic, Harpoon. On 1990s Janes Fleet Command was of course ground breaking game, followed by Sub Command and Dangerous Waters. Janes Fleet Command has always been the most memorable naval warfare game for me from that era, Harpoon is cool with the 2D top-down tactical display view of icons, but no matter how cool units and battles you create there, you are always desiring to see that stuff in 3D, just like in Janes Fleet Command, and now at 2024... in Sea Power. I also did play Command Modern Air/Naval Operations (CMANO) and Silent Hunter uboat submarine simulator series, my two favorites are Silent Hunter 3 and then modernized version as Silent Hunter 5. It was late 2010s when Cold Waters came out, that was another big event, its been so long time since 688i hunter/killer and Sub Command days that was cool to get to play with Los Angeless class attack submarine.
This part of the review is written without me ever playing the game, everything I talk about is from watching screenshots and youtube videos, I don't have the game or have I played it yet.
2024-10-26T18:50:23Z For a long time now I've known about this game called "Sea Power" under development, about three or so weeks ago several youtube video creators got an preview build of the game and they started to release new videos, so there is relatively speaking a lot of new videos to watch.
I was very impressed what those videos show, graphics are good and the whole ocean surface, ships, submarines and aircrafts is very believable game world/environment. Obviously graphics are not the same level as some latest 500 meter x 500 meter quake kid 1st person shooter zombie game, but that is because Sea Power literally covers the whole planet earth as terrain size, and to me the 3D models of ships, subs and aircrafts look just great.
Its the overall believability of the game world, ocean waves look great, land terrain and ocean bottom is fine, ship/sub models look great to me at least, missiles flying, effects on explosions, damage to units etc look great to me, its impressive sight to see a surface action group attacked by sea skimming missiles with defensive fire going, chaff etc, its awesome mayhem.
Graphical User Interface (GUI) is nice gray colored one, I like it. Most video creators play completely using the GUI to control units, now this could be completely about these guys not knowing keyboard hotkeys, or it could be that there are no hotkeys for lets say "attack group" or "return to base" in Sea Power, I just don't know as I haven't played the game yet.
Towed array sonars are 3D modeled unlike in Cold Waters, that is a very nice touch. Speaking of Cold Waters, you cannot use submarine periscopes to view, you can only order submarine to periscope depth.
Overall I am very impressed by Sea Power preview build, pre-early-access version, if its looking and playing that good (on videos) at this stage, I cant wait until it gets out of early access, it must be just awesome then.
As said in the opening paragraph, in the 1990s I played Janes Fleet Command a lot and basically ever since I have been waiting for a similar game to be released with modern software technology, meaning obviously better graphics, widescreen computer resolution and working properly in modern windows operating system (I haven't tried but I highly doubt Janes Fleet Command would run on windows 10 these days). What I've seen in all the preview videos, Sea Power is finally that game I and many other naval warfare gaming enthusiasts have been waiting for.
Been thinking a lot that what could the hands-on experience be when playing Sea Power in my own two hands on my own computer with headphones on etc. Mainly trying to figure out what could be a game-breaking issue that I have not seen on all those youtube preview videos. Its hard to imagine what that would be because everything I see in those videos looks so good.
Sea Power to me looks so awesome that I am already planning on "chilling sessions" just by placing a cool ship in middle east or GIUK gap etc in mission editor, then starting to sail around just enjoying the game environment and ship movement in the sea. Yeah I know it sounds weird, why would you play naval warfare game without any shooting or even hunting of enemy units, but that's me, I would sometimes just love such gaming sessions, I guess the game looks so good and ocean etc is so awesome that I'd like to just enjoy it without needing to worry about combat. At least this is my mood after watching all those youtube preview videos, who knows maybe this changes after the game is installed on my computer.
I have seen couple of live stream videos of Sea Power mission editor use, but with 1080p resolution you can barely see what the text reads etc so I honestly have not even carefully studied the videos, so yeah guess I've seen the mission editor in current preview builds, but I simply don't know anything about it, well OK I have seen there is triggers to control mission events like ship reached to specific position or submarine sunk etc.
What else can I say, sign me up hehe. Sea Power looks awesome, but how much of that "awesome" is just my burning desire to get to play the game, as I'm typing this its about two weeks to nov 12th and that waiting time feels like an eternity. I cant wait to get the game when its released. I would like to think that there is no hidden issues within game-play once you get your hands on it, but impossible to say. But what I've seen in the preview videos I'm sold, Sea Power is beautiful and impressive tactical naval warfare game/simulation that I am going to play for years to come.
Writing an game review solely based on screenshots and video footage is a first for me, dunno if this should even be called a review, but I mean I'm just telling you what I've seen and how does it compare to previous naval warfare game titles I've played. I'm really looking forward to playing Sea Power once I get my hands on it.
Early Access begins november 12th 2024, if/when I get it then soon after I'll update this review page with early access section.
Final game meaning once its out of early access its considered officially released as working game, now I do expect development to continue, updates being released etc, but there should be a big difference between early access and final game. I will update this review page with final game section once its out.