Victory at Sea- new RTS WW2 Naval game

http://www.victoryatseagame.com/
from Elemental Forums

I just purchased a newly released WW2 RTS Naval game: Victory at Sea. Its a campaign sandbox game where you control a naval task force carrying out various missions to win the naval war for your side. You can decide what strategies you employ to accomplish your goals, since its a sandbox style game. As you win victories and accumulate funds, you can purchase more ships.

First impressions:

  1. Simple controls; controlling ships and commanding fleets is easy and straightforward.
  2. Graphics: ships look a bit weird but the graphics look great overall.
  3. Gameplay: ships are easy to control, good interface.

 

If you love WW2 Naval combat, you will LOVE this game. Thumbs up!

 

Official game website.

61,642 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Not bad overall.

Simple, Easy to learn, Smooth game play, and the graphics are decent enough.

Yea the ship models leave more to be desired (Maybe because they are targeting this game for broad range of systems). Modding can fix that problem easily. It can use a full 360 degree free camera that can zoom in really close to the ships (their idea of "free camera" only zooms, and rotates, but the camera angle is fixed). You cant select, and focus on the aircraft ether. I guess because the game considers them a "weapon". I can live with that if i could actually see the aircraft. Which you cant. You just see the icons.

Other than those personal nit picks it is a pretty good game. It's based off of the table top version of the game with the same name. I had fun sinking the Bismark, and Yamato, and generally blowing stuff up. If they keep supporting, and adding a little more polish this could be a keeper.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Major, reply 1

Not bad overall.

Simple, Easy to learn, Smooth game play, and the graphics are decent enough.

Yea the ship models leave more to be desired (Maybe because they are targeting this game for broad range of systems). Modding can fix that problem easily. It can use a full 360 degree free camera that can zoom in really close to the ships (their idea of "free camera" only zooms, and rotates, but the camera angle is fixed). You cant select, and focus on the aircraft ether. I guess because the game considers them a "weapon". I can live with that if i could actually see the aircraft. Which you cant. You just see the icons.

Other than those personal nit picks it is a pretty good game. It's based off of the table top version of the game with the same name. I had fun sinking the Bismark, and Yamato, and generally blowing stuff up. If they keep supporting, and adding a little more polish this could be a keeper.
I suspect the reason for making the models that way is because they are trying to keep the game running at a decent frame rate; the game website noted they have over 80 different ship types to choose from. I can live with that, though (even if the Yamato looks weird with that funky stern). Its certainly popular on Steam right now.

 

One thing I'd like to see in the campaign mode would be for your ships to receive reports of various activities going on in the theater (convoys, invasions etc.); this would make it easier to decide where to go and what to do.

 

BTW word of advice; be very careful who you pick fights with; I made the mistake of attacking the cruiser KLM Blucher with 4 DDs. 3 of them got blown to fish food in minutes. Combat in this game can be lethal very quickly.

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Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

In addition to the campaign modes, VaS also has historical battles like the Denmark strait and user created custom battles. Custom battles are useful for learning how to control ships in battle and improving your tactical skills.

 

One complaint I have is how ships too often fight individually in battle with no formation etc. I would like to see the ability to assign ships to battlelines where they follow a lead ship (your flagship for example); also maybe have formations too.  This would simplify Command and control.

A good example of this mechanic was used in Koei's Naval Ops: Commander; your escorts would follow your ship and you had formations they could deploy to.

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Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

This looks interesting. Is there any economy involved, or its purely combat oriented?

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Timmaigh, reply 5

This looks interesting. Is there any economy involved, or its purely combat oriented?
Basically you accumulate Warbonds by completing missions and sinking ships; then you use them to purchase more ships or salvage sunken ones. You can also sell ships at 25% cost. Simple economy.

 

Some screencaps from recent Missions

 

Attacking a convoy.

 

Engaging a German Heavy Cruiser.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Thanks!

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Hey everyone! I just wanted to update everybody on the latest developments regarding the game:

 

  1. Current version is 1.2.2
  2. You can now play as both the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Kreigsmarine in the Pacific and Atlantic campaigns respectively. The Japanese have some excellent cruisers and the Shokaku class carriers (Excellent carriers). The Germans have relatively fewer ships but have a good DD in the Z class and the Bismarck is a very cost effective ship.
  3. New formation and squadron mechanics added for pre-battle setup (Something a LOT of players requested). Trust me this makes things a LOT easier.
  4. New ships added.
  5. More gameplay options like no aircraft launches at night.
  6. VaS won a TGIA Game of the Year Award!
  7. Smoke screens added.
  8. Subs now have a deep dive mechanic to evade attacks. Also subs have no limits on deployment unlike other ships.
  9. My Screencaps from the game