Ultimate Fishing Simulator
Developer: Ultimate Games S.A.
Publisher: PlayWay S.A.
Format: PC (Reviewed)
Release Date: 30 Aug 2018
Price: $19.99 – Available Here
Overview
Before we start, something to brag about: I have finally finished the Liege of the Lake sidequest in Final Fantasy XV! It took me a few hours, some broken lines and lures but I did it. And that got me thinking…over many & many years, I have played all sorts of games where fishing is a side activity. Warframe, Final Fantasy XV, Fable, NieR: Automata and plenty of others. Yet, I ‘ve never played anything where fishing is the gist of it all. The whole game. So when I got a chance to check out Ultimate Fishing Simulator, I figured “why not”. I just caught the monster of a fish in Final Fantasy XV so taking this on should be a piece of cake.
Story
Heh, a good one. A story in a fishing game. In any case, there certainly isn’t any there. You have a classic tutorial and tips telling you how to prepare, how to fish, what lures to you and so on. Nothing too difficult to comprehend although certain tips and hints are hidden all over the equipment tabs and options so it’s important to check everything in order to fully understand what is what.
Gameplay
GameplayAfter creating a profile, the game welcomes you with a choice of normal and realistic difficulty. The latter one is a bit gimped and a lot of hints and help mechanics are disabled in order to get a more (you guessed it) realistic experience. I wasn’t feeling quite ready for that one, so normal one was for me. You have plenty of options at your disposal on how to fish – where to start, what gadgets to use and you can even have your own boat later. Unfortunately, most of these are exp locked so you will have to grind a bit in order to get the most of the fishing experience. My first (and only one I could pick at the moment) starting location was a small lake. Since some fish only come out a night, you can tinker with speeding up time if you’re in the mood for some night fishing. Anyway, the whole process and mechanics of fishing are………not that bad, actually. Every time I’d stumble upon screenshots of some fishing sim, it would look like I’m watching some MMO with loads of options and hints and notifications on screen at the same time. Ultimate Fishing Simulator doesn’t have that issue. It’s catered to experienced players and newbies (hey, that’s me!) as well. After throwing a lure in the lake, it didn’t take long for my first fishie to bite. Reeling in is not complicated, as long as you don’t tug too much. After catching yourself one, you have a choice of selling it on the spot or releasing back. Selling it gives you money (doh!) which is necessary to buy new lures and equipment and releasing it gives you experience. That one is also important if you want to get access to new locations and whatnot.
Visuals
VisualsAs it turns out, the game got out of Early Access recently and it certainly shows. There are some remnants of Early Access like the rather basic user interface and menu screens, feels like something that was cobbled up from Unity store. The good news is that subpar UI won’t bother you much since the rest of the game visuals are rather good. Not amazing, but way better than expected. There are plenty of details around you as you fish (so you wouldn’t feel alone much) like wind blowing dandelion seeds and fishes swimming around. They’re usually everywhere else except where you just threw the lure, just to rub it in for you…….Night scenes look great too and despite the fair warning on the store page to pay attention to system requirements, the game runs pretty well and without any hitches.
Audio
AudioI’d say at first that any sort of music or a soundtrack is nonexistent by default and I’d be right but wait!……there is a catch. Ultimate Fishing Simulator gives you the option of tuning into one of many internet radios to keep you company while you fish. That feature alone raised the grade of the game quite a bit. Simple, yet effective. Of course, there are some expected audio bits like wind blowing or lake/sea noises so the game isn’t completely mute. Either way, fishing to heavy metal never felt so good…and weird as hell.
Overall
OverallWhat can I say, my first run-in with a fully fledged fishing game went better than expected. Ultimate Fishing Simulator is surprisingly fun with plenty of ways to spice up your gameplay, yet it never feels needlessly complicated. I still think that the UI could use a good rework but the most important elements here (gameplay and atmosphere) are spot on. If there is one game that should be your entry into the world of fishing sims, Ultimate Fishing Simulator is the perfect pick.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Kukri has managed to open up his own special pocket dimension and thanks to this, the girls have all been trapped and dressed in strange outfits with the only escape being to beat down Kukri and free themselves before his twisted dream of making the entire world his playground comes true. As mentioned before players will select two characters who will then battle through a number of standard fights, viewing a few Kukri based cutscenes in between, before facing off against the big bad and vanquishing him.
Despite its superficial nature players can still find plenty of ways to string together powerful attack strings by mixing up their light attacks into specials or, with the use of tagging in your partner and using items, triggering lengthy combos that will devastate your foe but don’t expect too much of this complexity to really come into play unless you want to take your skills and test them against others in multiplayer.
Players have their standard health gauge as well as a Spirit Gauge that is required to use special moves and unleash a Dream Finisher but the game happens to balance these in an interesting way. The lower your health gauge gets, the bigger your spirit gauge can grow and vice versa, allowing for a potential comeback if you happen to be doing poorly. Both characters on any given side share the same health pool though swapping out midfight is useful as they do not share Spirit Gauges and can often be brought in to defeat a foe for good. It is worth noting that completely dropping an opponent’s health will leave them in a stunned state that allows for an easy Dream Finisher so don’t expect a one sided battle to easily be turned around despite how tense some final fights can end up being thanks to this system.
As far as the soundtrack goes, the background music is a bit standard for a fighting game, even a less serious one such as this. The voice acting is entirely in Japanese and is handled very well, even in Terry’s genderbent case, and there are even voice options to purchase for each of the girls as well.
Players are initially given three chests filled with a decent amount of supplies in the form of extra firearms, medkits, bandages that can be used to heal the technician, ammo, and wall repair kits that are essential for keeping most of the undead at bay. There are a number of walls that players can, generally, shoot through to deal damage to the undead from a safe distance but it is worth noting that these walls can be taken down quite easily if a number of undead are left unchecked. Unfortunately, while repetition will give players the ability to easily tell exactly how much health a wall has, players must simply use a color coded warning symbol to determine when a wall needs repair rather than use actual health meters that would have been far better and avoided the potential waste of limited wall repair kits.
This is essential since while things may start a bit easy with only easy to kill bloaters and standard zombies appearing in initial rounds later rounds will continue to add tougher foes in the form of Ferals that will simply climb over walls to directly attack the technician, Juggernauts that take a massive amount of damage to take down and can easily breach walls, and even “new” Blood Plague Juggernauts that can leave clouds of infection in their wake. Basic blood plague zombies will also appear and just like in the core game, if you end up getting too infected then death will come swiftly.
Repetition quickly becomes the only way to really grind your way through waves and eventually unlock equipment that will make your life easier and make things better for the standard game. It doesn’t help that death is almost a certainty for the most part, even if you manage to stay connected to other players online in a multiplayer match since lag can be a real problem that will see zombies teleporting around and breaking through barriers that were previously pristine or simply disconnecting entirely. Playing offline allows players to avoid the laggy nature that can plague online matches but also robs players of the more enjoyable experiences of working together as a team.
The soundtrack doesn’t really offer anything new as well other than the same standard tones and sound effects from the zombie horde. The new voice work for the random soldiers as well as the technician are fitting for the game but don’t stand out in any special way.