Recent reviews by HERO

Old school RTS veteran here, love CoH, love ALB/RD, love WWII. Played 6 hours of the game last night, and wow man, I am blown away.

Two HUGE design points for me that makes this the best WWII RTS game that I've ever played. No joke.

One of the things that I enjoy the most from the game right now is how map control is now free from set VP points. This allows the player to make flanks and thrusts in different areas of the map to apply pressure, and allows a player to be creative and exploitative rather than focus into areas of the map where battle is always contested. This inadvertently mediates one of the most difficult challenges for RTS developers and that is map design. The battlefield is now photo-realistic, and with this change in how VPs are collected, maps can be asymmetrical and somehow still work in an RTS. There is no real one way to play, which in turn expands on the player choices as your unit make-up can be completely different based on location alone. Overall, this also plays remarkably well with the theme of the genre, where there is a very real feel to the tides of war as the game progresses. You know, both mentally and visually when you're gaining or losing ground, and when you're about to be surrounded. This achieves a empathetic connection with the player to the game situation. Often times when designing games, the "feel" of pressure being applied by the opponent is portrayed in an arbitrary and superficial way: Units die, or they blow up, so what? When the entire map turns red around your army after your opponent makes a masterful thrust through an area that you deemed safe, you actually feel dread because you are now cut-off. This is a vibrant and most-welcomed change to static VP points where the scale of battle centers around those areas and everywhere else is a skirmish. This is an absolute brilliant way to not only make the battles themselves more realistic, but is a masterstroke in RTS design that I haven't seen in years.

Another thing that I love about the game is the divisions and how it fits with the overall economy design of the game separated by different phases. Not only do the different divisions come with their own unique flavor because of the unit choices, availability, and veterancy, but they also receive income differently depending on what division they are. This means the certain divisions can be deliberately stronger than others in earlier phases of the game, but they lose steam as the game progresses because their later game units are not as powerful. The same could be said about other divisions where they start out weaker, but become powerhouses later on due to their enhanced economy and more powerful units. This subtly adds additional flavor to the division design and even portrays a sense of story-telling where even when the situation seems dire in the early phases of the game, all is not lost. At the same time, this concept should also reinforce a particular division's strengths, and players should be wary of that and exploit their opponents' weaknesses not only in unit composition, but also during phases where they are weak. All-together, this is simply wonderful design: Not only does this add true identity to the game's different "factions", but it also adds another layer of strategy that otherwise wouldn't exist around the economy system.

Absolutely amazing, 9/10. 10/10 when I see MM working.

Navy Field 2 is a good game in the sense that you're never bored. Sure, the grind to the highest tier of ships can be boring at times, but not every game is the same.

Let me break the game down really quick and justify why I can recommend this game. Each game takes 15 minutes to play and every class has a use. Destroyers can take down Battleships with good torpedo placement and kill subs, Light Cruisers can hunt down Destroyers and aircraft, Heavy Cruisers are very much pocket Battleships and Battleships, well, deals tons of damage from afar but have limited maneuverability and sigh. Carriers are just as important because you're constantly fighting off enemy aircraft, providing your fleet with line of sight, and bombing other ships. Sometimes the matchmaking will get a little wonky and put you in games with higher level ships, but I've had games where my lower tier Destroyer will be able to drop a high-tier Battleship so I'm not complaining. Not too much anyway.

The game is not as Pay to Win as most people make it out to be. It's more of a grindfest more than anything, and the Premium account will make it easier to grind. It's as simple as that, since there's nothing that's actually limiting gameplay. Sure, you can spend gold and buy a few Officers and whatnot to edge out on higher-level opponents, but for the most part they are not necessary for the game.

So let me go back to the 15 minutes per game part. Even if you lose because you got blown out of the water, you can quit the game with some reward and begin your next game immediately. The combat game itself is fantastic for this regard because there's always something to do. Every second I'm managing my ship's speeds, dodging torpedoes, shooting off torpedoes of my own, training my guns for an effective angle and lead, and being aware of the map at the same time. Having played RTS and MOBAs competitively, I would say this definitely ranks up there in terms of active things you can do to improve your game. This is where the skill of the player comes in, and comes in in a big way. A player that can take full advantage of his ship will be able to come up in a big way vs. a player who doesn't, regardless of tier.

Overall, I definitely recommend players give this game a try. It's fast-paced and can be unforgiving at times, but that's what I look for in a game that's designed around leveling up and tiers. You need the combat to be highly engaging so the grind doesn't seem endless and that's what Navy Field 2 does very well. The one thing that the developers needed in the game was proper documentation. I feel that the game right now is a lot of bro-science.