Everything looks extremely simplistic, and at first glance could easily be mistaken for Ship Simulator 2008. The graphics are downright deplorable for a simulation title. It was genuinely creepy to realize how silent this game could be. At best, it’s a lonely experience feeling like the only man alive in the ocean. Outside of the constant hum of your engine and the sound of the ocean waves hitting your bow, there’s nothing else to garner your attention. This is all compounded by the complete lack of sound effects in the game. A ship I was supposed to catch in the act of destroying the ecosystem would often run into the edge of the scenery and simply remain stuck until I was done taking my pictures. The game’s limitations worked in my favor quite often, to be frank. The missions are overly simplistic, and I never found a way to explicitly fail one.
The most interesting set has to be a series of missions where you’re working for Greenpeace taking pictures of boats illegally dumping oil or observing some other ne’er-do-well however, it ultimately felt extremely hollow. The campaigns are made up of a few loosely interconnected missions where you’ll be handling some variation of a job at sea.
While there are campaigns available, calling them that is a bit of a stretch. I was able to sail a cruise ship to Bora Bora, chase down a ship dumping into the ocean as a member of Greenpeace, and clear a way for others through the choppy Antarctic ocean. Ship Simulator Extremes tries to mix a bit of flair into the ultra-realistic simulation genre. For a landlubber like me, this took a lot of getting used to, but anyone with a moderate amount of experience at sea will be able to jump right in. The controls themselves were fairly precise however it will take a bit of time until you’re able to properly adjust to the way physics will play out in water.
That means their inertia will result in sluggish controls with swooping turns, forcing you to plan ahead so you don’t accidentally overshoot your target. The boats react very much like their real-life counterparts. Ship Simulator Extremes is a simulator first and foremost. Allowing us to live out these fantasies without being burdened with the more menial aspects found in difficult career fields is the entire appeal of the genre. When we learned that being a pilot is a lot closer to driving a bus through the sky than to our expectations of flying through rings of fire, most of us lost interest. Just about everyone I knew growing up wanted to be a pilot at one time or another. When you’re going to make a game based around trying to get as close as humanly possible to the real thing, you’re going to run into some issues. Due to this, the fan base membership is becoming quiet and even some loyal members have left or thinking to leave.Simulation games are always going to be a mixed bag.
The game has been criticized for not being able to run on very powerful computers for no reason, requiring high graphical performance and like its predecessors not being able to use your own ships. Following a campaign by members of their growing fanbase, VSTEP agreed to include the ports of Dover and Calais (in one environment). Also unlike Ship Simulator 2008, you can launch lifeboats/motorboats off a vessel with them equipped. Sinking dynamics and physics have also improved in Ship Simulator Extremes. Vessels have more usable controls and more realistic ones, unlike Ship Simulator 2008 in which only the whistle, binoculars, thrust, rudder and thrusters (if applicable on the vessel) are usable, although you can listen to the ship's radio but not send out calls. The cruise ship "Ocean Star" from Ship Simulator 2006/2008 is also included, except outside colors have changed and the name changed to "Orient Star". Most vessels from Ship Simulator 2008 are also part of the choice of ships. It was released on August 27, 2010.Īdditions to the game include new locations around the world from cold Antarctica to warm Bora Bora as well as new ships (including official licensed Greenpeace vessels) and new dynamic and more realistic weather and water systems. Ship Simulator Extremes is the name of the latest installment in the Ship Simulator series.