The sound is pretty much what you would expect: engines, horns, and waves crashing against the boat. With all of this graphical splendor, it’s strange that channel markers present on the map are not rendered in the game world, but I guess no game is perfect. The ocean waves are also well done, with a good physics model present. All of these adjustments are made to the background of the menus, so you can see your changes in real time to perfect the conditions you will experience. You can set the date and time, along with the concentration of four cloud types, wind speed and direction, wave height, rain, fog, and thunder. In fact, the sun changes orientation with time of day and time of year, which will alter the sunrise and sunset times: very neat. The thorough weather effects in the game let you create any type of environment you wish. Non-playable boats are a little rougher with low-resolution textures and the visible damage system isn’t quite as realistic as it could be (most damage is shown as a rusty paint spot), but the ship still look fantastic. You can even walk around in them, so their interiors are almost as impressive as their exteriors.
All of the fourteen ships in the game are highly detailed and full of animations that make them seem like real boats.
The locations don’t span a large area, so the level of detail is less impressive than games that cover the entire world, but Ship Simulator 2008 still has great backdrops to your boating adventures. Reflections are nice, creating a mirrored look that works very well. Each of the game’s coastal environments is very detailed, with recognizable landmarks and few repetitive buildings that combine to produce believable vistas. Although you wouldn’t think that an ocean-based simulation would be able to show off much graphical flair (the ocean is fairly featureless), Ship Simulator 2008 does its best in rendering a realistic environment. The graphics of Ship Simulator 2008 are terrific. Driving a boat might not be as exotic as flying planes or blowing stuff up with tanks, but there is still the potential for some entertaining gaming to be had.
With a look into the future is Ship Simulator 2008, the second title in the series (apparently, in some countries, September 2007 counts as 2008…how futuristic!).
While they aren’t nearly as popular as the droves of flight simulations available, there have been a number of titles covering the nautical side of things, like Days of Sail and Virtual Sailor.
What say you? An accurate motorized boating simulation with a number of good features balanced by a few limitations: 6/8īoating simulations have their fair share of fans. The Not So Good: Needs a tutorial or more explicit objectives, pointless free roam mode with no dynamic real-time missions, no sailboats, no ship or environment editors, overt realism won’t appeal to everyone The Good: Decent mission variety with a number of ships in a range of environments, outstanding graphics with comprehensive weather options, mission editor and other features (like multiplayer) to be included in future patches Ship Simulator 2008, developed by VSTEP and published on Gamer’s Gate.