Review: Ironclads 2 War of the Pacific

[admin]

I think people often overlook how much setting can have an impact on wargames. With the tried and true eras of WW2, the Napoleonic Era, Ancient Rome and so on...

http://www.wargamer.com/reviews/review- ... e-pacific/

[Bismarck]

Good review. The line-ahead battles get boring quick. The developrs' very first game dealing with coastal forts was much more interesting. It bothers me that no other company is doing mid-19th century naval games. An engine based on the board game "Shot and Steel"(?) would be great.

[Jack Adlevankin]

1. Whether it is necessary to demand from a game for $9.99 the advanced training mode? A manual it is old-fashioned, but is still effective.
2. I played two new games of a Ironclads series. The ram and collisions work perfectly. At a game forum nobody described your problem. Maybe it is necessary to contact developers before publication of the review?
3. On decks of the ships there are crews (sailors and officers). It is visible on video and screenshots.
4. Camera Management (manual, page 2). Camera zoom: scroll the mouse wheel up or down or use the "+" and "-" keys on the keyboard. In maximum zoom can be seen faces of sailors.
5. Music in a game disgusting. Awful music.
6. You can separate warships into a new column, and the action starts from selected warship to the last one in the formation. The selected warship will be the flagship of a new line ahead battle formation. To unite all separated columns back into the initial formation, you will need to order each warship to return. During the battle you can temporarily separate a warship from the battle formation (to repair it, for example) and then return it back to the formation.
7. The author could not compare a game to other representatives of a genre. Perhaps the author does not play naval sims at all. It is a genre, very special and very boring for most of gamers. And it is boring for someone to play actions.

I do not share opinion of the author. I consider that it is very good age of steam naval sim. It is a game which fans made for other fans.

[EICJoe]

7. The author could not compare a game to other representatives of a genre. Perhaps the author does not play naval sims at all. It is a genre, very special and very boring for most of gamers. And it is boring for someone to play actions.

I do not share opinion of the author. I consider that it is very good age of steam naval sim. It is a game which fans made for other fans.

Sean wouldn't have been given the review if he didn't have a base enjoyment and experience with Naval Sims. If that was the case (as it does happen sometimes), it's usually stated that someone is lacking in experience, but I try to avoid that as much as possible.

As for Sean comparing it to other games - It's a combination of review style + games played. Sean may like Naval Sims, but may not have considered the ones he has played to be comparable to this. Similarly, he may just not like comparing games to other games, or it's just not something he naturally does when writing.

Bar certain important things, I let reviewers review games how they like. It's all subjective opinion at the end of the day - there are few wrong answers.

[Jack Adlevankin]

Least of all I wanted to offend the author. However it seemed to me that so ambiguous review as well as a game. It seemed to me that the author is very far from real time naval simulators. All known to me naval sims in real time very long and absolutely not dynamic.

This text is the first look, but not the review. I ask forgiveness for sharpness. Such is my personal opinion after 40 hours of a game.

[EICJoe]

Least of all I wanted to offend the author. However it seemed to me that so ambiguous review as well as a game. It seemed to me that the author is very far from real time naval simulators. All known to me naval sims in real time very long and absolutely not dynamic.

This text is the first look, but not the review. I ask forgiveness for sharpness. Such is my personal opinion after 40 hours of a game.

No worries Jack - thanks for contributing to the discussion

To be fair, claims that reviewers don't have much experience with the genres they review is something I see a lot, so I used this as an opportunity to get some Editorial things out in the open so people can see how we try to approach things.

I'll let Sean know you have some concerns, and he may be able to address them himself.

[SeanICBM]

Hey Jack

Thanks for your comment. I'll just go through your points in order.

1)I wasn't complaining about reading the manual just making a comment, if it came across as a negative I apologise.
2)I recreated the effect I described twice and even when that didn't happen the collision effects were lacklustre.
*Also it's not common practice to contact devs before releasing a review unless something is horribly broken but a deeper browse through the forums wouldn't have hurt.
3)You are correct about the sailors and the camera, I apologise for those mistakes.
5)I'm not sure if you mean that there is music in the game and it's awful or if you're disagreeing with the idea of music in a game.
6)That's true but I personally barely that feature and the AI rarely used it as well.
7)My last review on WG was Atlantic Fleet, a naval game. I also have a fair amount of experience with sub sims and other naval strategy games such as Jane's Fleet Command and War Plan Orange.


You're more than welcome to voice an opinion and I take no offence from it. My review was less technical since my previous ones have often read like more like a manual than a review.

Last of all keep in mind that at no point did I say the game was bad. I thought it was dull at the very least but that doesn't stop other enjoying it. The game is indeed made by and intended for fans but that's why I thought it felt so stagnant and at the end of the day fans will pick up the series regardless of what I say.

Hopefully this answers all of your worries

Sean

[Bismarck]

Sean,

Look on the bright side; Jack's comments were not the ad hominim attacks I get occasionally.
We might want to look at the series latest offering,,Ironclad 2 American Civil War.

[Jack Adlevankin]

I hope that developers will be able to realize the plans. But I understand that a lot of money is necessary for this purpose.

In the middle of the page:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/0 ... -reflects/

[reszo]

Very good review! I reallly like it and definitely going to play.