Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I can't believe I am asking this seriously, but how would you describe the "magic" of BOATS?
Great question!
I shall attempt to describe said
magic with the following numbered list:
1. Personally-speaking, I find naval combat to be endlessly compelling. The idea of being given one tool, and a vast, virtually empty space in which to use it, an immeasurably large playing field with opponents you can barely see, provides a really pure, almost lyrical test of skill. It's as close as we'll get in our lifetimes to actual space combat, and the scenery is much prettier.
2. The game is continually tense, but is appropriately slowly paced. The boats have weight. It takes time to get to speed. It takes time to turn. There is no reliance on twitch-reflex and masterful mouse control. The controls are very simple. Speed up, slow down, turn right, turn left, and then knowing what to shoot at, and when. It's all about planning, strategy, and execution.
3. The rounds last a maximum of 20 minutes. That's important to folks like me/us who no longer have unlimited time to play games. Sometimes 20 minutes is all I can carve out, and here's a way to have a full, exciting, and often epic gaming experience, self-contained in the time between when you have to feed the dogs and when you have to start cooking dinner, or soon, teaching your kid how to speak English.
4. It's an online, team-based game, but given the more "mature", slower-paced, somewhat niche gameplay, it attracts a generally more reasonable, decent community. You'll get your occasional whiner calling everyone a maggot, but they're few and very far between. People generally try to communicate and work as a team.
5. It's free! What you can buy, if you want to pay money, is the ability to buy special (but not overpowered) ships, but mostly it's just for gaining XP faster, which allows you to upgrade your ships faster and buy new ones faster. Both of these are completely unnecessary, and while you may consider the slower progression of free play "grinding", that term is usually used to describe repetitive, boring tasks. Here, the only way to grind is by playing the game, which is never repetitive or boring, so it doesn't feel like much of a grind at all.
6. It's just gorgeous. It looks great (see above), but almost even moreso, the sound design is phenomenal. Zoom in, and you hear the crack and rattle of shells ramming against armor, or zoom way out and just hear the muffled thunder of explosions shaking across the battlefield. Spectating is almost as riveting as playing.
7. With all of the brutal, destructive combat going on all around you, it still manages to be, in a very strange way, relaxing. Something about the open water, and your big ol' lumbering hunk of metal gliding slowly along it... It's just, I don't know...
...magical.
