In the two days since launch the devs have made 6 hotfixes and updates. A lot of people don't understand how beneficial early access can be to test games on way more hardware configurations quickly and cheaply, especially for smaller devs like Misc games. They have to be some of the most passionate small dev teams out there, working quickly and effectively to make the game theyre proud of.

At this point, yes, there are some bugs, and it crashes occasionally, but its not full price, and knowing Misc, it will probably be patched up and running fine by next weekend. Its definitely more finished than not.

I was a big fan of FNA. So needless to say I was excited for this game. Especially for the Co-op multiplayer. Here is my experience with the game in the short time I have played it so far:

The tutorial was a struggle. They give you this rinky dink little row boat to do cargo and basic fishing missions with. You get thrown around and blown away from where you need to go constantly. The waves were so bad they were consistently sending my little dingy airborne.

There are no AI ships driving around like in FNA. This makes the world feel very empty. Almost like you are lost at sea all by yourself.

Once you complete the cargo mission you have to complete Hand line fishing. At first I thought it was going to be kind of interesting. Until it took me about 20 minutes to real up 1 fish because my line was constantly at risk of snapping.

Now I can buy my first boat. Awesome! No more rowboat for me! Well, once I bought the boat I missed my little dingy. The base boat is dreadfully slow. Takes large amounts of damage when bumping the dock. Even at low speeds around one knot or lower.

Everything I listed above I could have turned a blind eye to considering the game is early access. But what made me ultimately decide the write this negative review was the Online Co-op, or should I say lack there of............. When a friend joins your lobby, you are unable to work with one another on the same ship. I am, highly disappointing in the development team for this one. The Multiplayer might as well not even be in game if we cant work with each other!!!!!!!!!!

It really breaks my heart to say it, but I am on the verge of refunding this game at this point. I feel kind of cheated and ripped off. Hopefully things can change for the better soon.

*READ ME FOR TIPS*

First let’s remember this is an early access game. I have 100hrs in Fishing North Atlantic (FNA) so I am familiar with the base for this game. I’ve been waiting for this game to come out and would like to thank the devs for taking the time to ensure the game is on the most recent Unreal engine.

There are plenty of negative (thumbs down) reviews and I am not saying there are no issues, but let me see if I can help you through some at the very beginning of the game.

PC Specs:
AMD Ryzen 9 3900x overclocked 32%
Kraken X62 AIO
32gb DDR4 3200 CAS 14
EVGA 3090 FTW3

Let’s talk graphics as there are plenty of issues mentioned. FIRST THING, ensure you have updated your graphics drivers as NVIDIA had an updated and Ships at Sea (SaS) got some fixes. HOWEVER, NVIDIA states DLSS 2 for SaS but there is only an option for standard DLSS in the graphics settings. There IS screen stutter/tearing. However, you can reduce this greatly. I went through several graphics tests and found some tips/tricks. First thing, try and let the game set your graphics based off your system. Once this is done and you are out on the water in your row boat, scroll your mouse wheel until you have zoomed all the way out. This helped massively with the tearing/stuttering graphics. After this, you can play with your graphics settings to get it as good as you can/want it.

With graphics somewhat set, lets talk tips.
First big tip is DO NOT leave the game even if you save it during the tutorial. When you reload, the tutorial seems to be cancelled out.

Second, if you’ve never used a row boat in real life, this could be frustrating LOL. The devs tried to make it very close to the real thing and when the larger waves hit the port area (yes, it’s annoying but we gotta work through it for now), it can be very hard to control and keep straight. Do your best and remember you cannot turn while you are rowing forward or back. It is a slow process but you’ll get to your destination.

Third, this references the first fishing you do which is using the Jigger. When you row out to the tutorial’s recommended fishing spot, you’ll quickly notice that your little row boat does NOT anker while fishing. This can push that little row boat all over the place. However, you CAN row while the Jigger is in your hand and even while reeling in a fish. The tutorial can be somewhat confusing on how to fish like this so I will try to help (using stock key binding references). You “cast” by pressing “E.” Once the line is in the water, you tap/hold left mouse button to bounce/reel the line in. Once you see the red dot show up, stop reeling, wait for the red to turn green and click the left mouse button. You will have to do this several times to actually hook the fish. Once the fish is hooked, you will just be using left mouse to reel it in. If you played FNA and used the harpoon for any length of time, you will remember, the line went yellow and red and the tension on the line increased. This game does NOT do that. You need to ensure you pay attention to the sound of tension on the line. It is not a fast process to bring a fish to the boat while using the Jigger, be patient! Lastly, the game tutorial says to press “Q” to cancel or stop using the Jigger. This is to simply stop that “cast.” If you want to stop all together and row to a different spot, press “X.”

Fourth, now that you have fish in your boat (tutorial requires you catch 3), you will be asked to go to the dock and sell the fish. I’ll reference FNA again here. If you remember that game when you sell your catch, there is a way to track the money you made off that catch. This game (so far) does NOT have that. You can select to sell all your fish or select to sell just a certain amount. However, once the sale is complete, there is no obvious way to go back and see how much you made off that catch (at least so far as I have seen, or rather not seen LOL). There is a bank option at the door where you get your missions that allows you to take out loans, but I have not seen a sell log anywhere.

Fifth, this will be my last tip for the tutorial area. When you go to buy the next boat, you have to click and HOLD the buy/purchase button for their count of 3 seconds to confirm the purchase, not a bad mechanic as this keeps one from accidentally buying a boat.

There are suggestions I have noted (up through the completion of the tutorial). I know others have listed some as well but I will list mine for you so you can have an idea.

- Add more keybindings for things like player inventory and boat menu.

- Look into keybindings. I have out of the way keys on the keyboard bound to my mouse to make things like picking items up easier. Left bracket is one of them and no matter how many times I go through the bindings and reset them, left bracket opens the pause menu.

- The waves at the ports/docks needs to be toned down for sure.

- The “waves” breaking over the bow of the row boat even on calmer water is definitely a bit much as well.

- As mentioned previously, saving and leaving during the tutorial seems to cancel out the tutorial.

- After saving and reloading the save, my characters clothing is not what I selected.
If you use invert Y on the mouse like me, when you reload your save, the game DOES remember it is checked invert in the settings but does NOT remember to have it inverted upon game load. It is easy to fix by just going back into and out of settings. Nothing even needs to be clicked on or off. Just pause menu > settings > then back to your game.

- The power drill does NOT always make noise when using. Since I had to do the tutorial twice, it actually took me to a different location the second time than the first to fix the port marker. The first time, I heard the sound of the drill but the second time I did not.

- Add a wallet or personal finances area to keep track of what a player has spent as well as what they have made. If it is already there, make it more apparent to every player on how to track their finances.

This is a very promising start to a game many of us have been watching since it was teased. I cannot wait to see the first update from the devs and see just how far this game can/will go. Based off the improvements, my wife will also be buying the game as the improvements come out and then I can leave a detailed review outlining the multiplayer side of the game. I truly hope this read has helped you and before leaving terrible reviews for the game, try some of the stuff listed below. As always, remember this is an early access game and I am sure the devs are hard at work making it as good as it can be. Thank you for reading.