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	Naval Ops: Warship Gunner
	Developer: Koei Publisher: Koei Genre: Real-Time Simulation / Strategy Players: 1 Similar To: N/A Rating: Teen Published: 11 :26 : 03 Reviewed By: Matt Hart Overall: 6 = Fair

Screenshots

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Intro
For those who have been patiently holding their breath in anticipation of a naval combat simulation, you can finally exhale, for Koei, king of obscure games, has released Naval Ops: Warship Gunner. While naval game fans may be familiar with their real-time strategy P.T.O. series, Naval Ops brings quite a different approach to the seas, blending strategy and real-time combat with a wide assortment of weapons and ships, ranging from World War II era to the future - where lasers are king. Sure, it's a bit far-fetched, but so are most games. The big question: Does it work? Well, kinda.


Gameplay: 7/10
There are definitely not too many games like Naval Ops: Warship Gunner out there. In fact, I think the closest possible title would be the Rainbow Six series. Both games utilize an extensive planning section before each mission where equipment is selected and a briefing meant to familiarize oneself with the mission objectives takes place. Then, both games thrust you into a mission where, depending on your planning, your strategy is put to the test in an arcade style shoot-a-thon. Succeed, and the next mission opens up with new equipment available. Fail, and replay the mission.

But don't let me fool you, Naval Ops isn't nearly similar enough to Rainbow Six for me to recommend that fans of the latter go rushing their way to the ol' video game store and scrounge for a copy of Naval Ops thinking that somewhere, hidden in the depths of a naval combat game is the opportunity to go around capping international terrorists in the head with an MP5. To be honest, there simply isn't a game that features gameplay anything like Naval Ops.

For starters, let's look at the story: You play as the captain of a World War II era Destroyer - either American, Japanese, British, or German, each with their own set of stats. Somehow, the very fabric of space-time gets ripped, and you're subsequently deposited into an alternate dimension. Lost, without friends, and in a different dimension, you don't exactly know what to do until a group calling themselves the "Freedom Fighters" recruits you to help them wage war against an evil, oppressive regime calling themselves the "Empire." Whatever, it's still better than the plots of the latest Tomb Raider games.

The gameplay is by no means simple, and the learning curve isn't exactly lessened by an informative tutorial. While there certainly is a tutorial, gamers will still feel as if they are thrust into the middle of the ocean in a boat with no maps and no sailing experience except for that time you flipped a canoe on a school field trip (ahem) and told to sail home. Normally, this isn't a problem, as many gamers hail from the I-don't-need-a-manual-to-tell-me-how-to-push-buttons crowd, but Naval Ops is so incredibly deep that the lack of any such feature is a crime, plain and simple.

See, because as I stated earlier, there's two major parts to Naval Ops - the planning and the shooting. Each mission starts with a planning phase, where players pick their ship and can then choose to use cash earned from beating prior missions to upgrade their ships with guns, radar, helms, engines, right on down to even a new bridge. Then, using these parts, gamers can then outfit and customize their ship right down to the placement of the boilers. New equipment is unlocked by investing money into several research categories: Air Tech (planes for carrier-type ships), Engine, Metallurgy (for new and better ship-types and helms), Weapons, and Electronics (for better auxiliary equipment). But because this is an alternate universe, the possible advances go farther beyond then our wussy Earth weapons. For instance, this alternate dimension features cool laser weapons that are both the bee's knees and the cat's pajamas. Unfortunately, it's many, many hours before players will get the pleasure of laser devastation. But with the amount of innovations and weapons possibilities, most players will hardly notice. Gun geeks will wet themselves with the wide array of gun types available. We're talking high-angle guns, torpedoes, missiles, rockets, depth charges, and 10 different calibers of deck guns. It's insane, and that's the problem. Newbies will simply be overwhelmed with the amount of choices and what to do with them. While the manual is very thick, informative, and helpful, and in-game tutorial would be immensely helpful. Koei has even included several helpful options for those not so brave to begin the complex task of ship-building. For instance, gamers can bypass the entire ship construction process, and instead opt to simply purchase a pre-built ship - a nice option to be sure, but gamer-built ships have the potential to be so much more powerful than the pre-builts that it's almost necessary to master the complex building process in order to beat the game. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention: the menus? Yeah, they're slow. Not like 3-legged dog slow, but like molasses in Alaska slow; we're talking slooooooooow slow.

But gamers willing to wade through the complex and tricky planning menus will find themselves with a very arcade-y naval combat game that's actually kind of fun. Each mission has an accompanying objective and they run the gamut from the kill everybody in the ocean type, to kill everybody on land from the sea type, to the much-hated escort mission. The variety does a lot to spice up the combat, but adversely, the escort missions do a lot to break controllers (c'mon already, nobody likes these things). The mechanics are actually quite complex, but luckily the tutorial is helpful this way. Calculating distance and lead time is one of the key aspects of combat in Naval Ops, without mastery of these two skills, you can be sure to meet your demise in the watery depths of an alternate dimension. Gamers are also responsible for both piloting their ship and manning the guns, which makes for a very chaotic gameplay experience. Often times, mission odds will be stacked against you, and sharing navigation and gunning responsibilities while dodging fire and targeting makes for a very crazy experience. But, it's not a bad hobo-who-hears-voices-that-tell-him-to-cut-you crazy, it's a good endearing-hobo-who-tells-you-stories crazy. Luckily, sunken ships will reward you with various power-ups, some of which will provide you with new parts, while others will refill your health. Additionally, ships can also repair mid-mission using a lengthy repair process that helps knock the difficulty down a peg.

Upon successful mission completion, gamers will be rewarded money based on a number of factors including ships used (for instance, a modest destroyer yields more money upon completion than a pimped out battle cruiser), ships destroyed, and time completed. However, it seems like the money won from one mission is never enough to upgrade your ship, and subsequent playthroughs of previously won battles is necessary to get the really cool weapons. Even so, the length is kind of short, with no multiplayer to speak of. The only other mode available is the World War II mode, where any technology that wasn't available then isn't available, making the game much more challenging without laser guns.

Graphics: 6/10
Seeing how the game takes place at sea, there sure is a lot of blue and grey. And while there are several missions where blowing up land things is necessary, even the land things seem blue or grey. Luckily, the ships all look good and very true to life, at least according to The History Channel. And once gamers access the laser weapons, the rather drab colors get some spice, as lasers can never be drab, as dictated by sci-fi canon. The menus are well-designed, and rather good-looking, but move too slow for them to be graphical standouts. The game's HUD is particularly colorful and helpful, but in the long run, Naval Ops just looks kind of "meh."

Sound: 6/10
My most surprising find of this rather obscure title is that the voice acting isn't really that bad. I mean it's not LucasArts good, but it's no slouch either. On top of that, guns are appropriately boomy and the lasers do that cool laser sound. Other then the armaments and warning alarms, there's not really much to the sound except for the in-game music. The same music I immediately turned off due to someone in the development phase deciding that one song for the entire game is a good idea; "We'll just put on repeat." Ugh, turn it off!

Control: 6/10
Well the menus are pretty simple to navigate (just slow), the battle section of the game is pretty complex. Because gamers are expected to steer their ship while targeting and firing on the enemy, every button has a necessary purpose. Players can opt to steer with either L1 and R1 or the left stick, while the d-pad controls engine output, the face buttons control weapon selection and targeting mode, and the right stick controls binoculars. Taking everything into effect, every button on the controller is used and none for a frivolous purpose. In short, it's a handful. The in game tutorial does a lot to ease the learning process, but unfortunately, the control still feels flawed, and that's never a good thing.

Overall: 6/10
Naval Ops: Warship Gunner is an innovative, bold naval combat simulation-a unique game in a unique genre. And although it boasts many positive features, like being the sole naval combat simulation title for the PS2 for example, Naval Ops shoots just a bit short of its target. Complicated, slow menus, a difficult learning curve, bland graphics, and complex controls all keep Naval Ops from naval supremacy, but there are many things to like. For gamers looking for a naval combat simulation that features deep gameplay, a technology tree bigger than the Keebler Elf hide-out, and the chance to shoot lasers in the midst of World War II era ships, look no further than the best (and only) naval combat simulation available for the PS2 -Naval Ops: Warship Gunner.

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