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Steel Diver
Steel Diver is a 3DS
game that you'll either love or hate as it's not your traditional
Nintendo style of game and borders more on realism as opposed to arcade
cutesy fun. In essence, Steel Diver is a submarine simulator but throws
in a few interesting twists and turns like mini-games to make full use
of the innovative controls and design of the new Nintendo 3DS console.
The main crux of Steel
Diver is the Mission Mode that transforms you into a captain of a
submarine as you engage in a variety of different missions. However
before jumping straight into the missions, the Steel Diver is given the
chance to select their own submarine for their top secret missions and
each of these underwater vehicles have their strengths and weaknesses.
Spice up the gameplay with a variety of different objectives and a
mini-game here and there and Steel Diver is a very interesting option to
3DS gamers. Add in a damage meter for your vessel and strategy is a key
part of ensuring victory for the player. However once your health
reaches zero, you will need to restart your mission. Discretion is
sometimes the better part of valour!
As mentioned, realism
plays an important role in this game and best of all, the controls have
been flawlessly implemented onto the 3DS that actually make navigating
these steel behemoths a joy. With that said, even though the controls
are quite simplistic, you use the stylus or your fingers to move two
levers for movement. One lever will allow you to submerse or rise,
whereas the other lever is used for movement. To add a spanner into the
works, you also have a wheel that can be used to tilt your submarine as
you attempt to avoid mines, missiles and other underwater nasties. There
are also some interesting battles to be had in the game and some of the
more powerful underwater vessels will definitely give you a run for your
money. The problem with submarines however, is that their mobility is
quite limited so you need to use your surrounding environment to assist
in this dilemma. It's a clever balance incorporated into the title.
There are also a healthy
amount of challenges and puzzles along the way which such as requiring
you to clear your underwater path, avoid enemy missiles and attack your
enemies. Thankfully the game doesn’t throw you in the deep end (sic)
straight away and the first few missions are relatively straight forward
but these levels will also either grab you or turn you away. One of my
colleagues was given this game to review but after the first few levels,
he needed to pass it on, hence the review from me. But for me, it's
something a little bit different than your average Nintendo DS or 3DS
game and I've spent hours underwater, so to speak, trying to solve these
challenges in unique ways as the difficulty does go up through the
progression.
The only drawback for me
was there were only a handful of missions in this game and even though
you can attempt to play them with the other submarines; the replay value
of the title will start to wither very fast, unless you're a true
perfectionist. However once you have finished the Mission Mode or if you
need a break, the game contains another gameplay mode called Periscope
which is basically a first person perspective shooter as you attempt to
destroy your enemies around you by moving the DS around. It's kind of
cool. Finally, there's a multiplayer mode which is basically a
turn-based strategy game that unfortunately is a little drawn out but is
ideal for those fans of military strategy games.
Finally we have the 3D
graphics. Graphically, Steel Diver is a little average in terms of its
graphics and even the use of 3D. For a strategy and simulator game, it
does look acceptable but I like my games a little bit more graphic
intensive as the entire premise had this real Spartan feel to it. For
the most part, my 3D slider was turned off in Steel Diver. Sound effects
mirror the graphics and are also rather simplistic but I must admit that
some of the explosions did sound rather cool such as the whizzing of the
torpedos. Music was quite ambient and didn't really compliment the
gameplay that dramatically but it was still quite acceptable.
In the end and as
mention, Steel Diver is a game you'll either love or hate. As opposed to
running out and purchasing it, you might want to test it out first
unless you're a fan of simulators and then I would recommend that you
run out and buy this title. It's great that Nintendo are supporting
other genres than their core games and hopefully Steel Diver will lead
to other ventures into uncharted waters as opposed to arcade endeavours.
For me, Steel Diver was an addictive experience and was just what I
needed in all these 3DS remakes! |
