Rating: 7/10
This is a strong 7 because it is very fun, however, there are many points that could use improvement. Lack of certain item upgrades and some fish fights are plain. I imagine improvements will be made since it is a new Steam game and I hope the developer, Dazed Games, adds more content. I'm sure they will since this game is very successful for being out for less than a week.
Overview
First person shooter combined with fishing in a 3D world with islands and plenty of ocean water. Use a fishing rod to catch fish and attack them using a variety of weapons, including fists, knives, and guns. Sell the fish for money and use the money to improve your weapons and buy bait.
Story
You are on a boat and crash on an island. Now you must catch fish to survive. NPCs don't add anything to the plot, but that's okay.
Gameplay
You start on an island with a lighthouse and collect clams on the ground to sell for 1$. Then you can get a small fishing rod for 3$, and catch fish for food and money. The fish you catch are alive and will try to flop back to the ocean and escape. They must be killed before they make it back to the water, so you can use different strategies such as trapping the fish in a corner or blocking them with your body as you attack them. As you progress, some fish will try to attack you.
Sometimes when you catch a fish, there is a small chance for it to be a "drip" fish. Instead of selling the fish, you can throw it in the machine to have a chance to unlock a random skin for a weapon, boat, or fishing rod. It would be nice if duplicates were prevented, but drip fish are common enough that rerolling isn't terrible.
I do appreciate that the developers added white dots onto all of the items on the ground so players can see where items are. Enemies are red dots, and fallen players are orange dots. Especially since some items and fish are really small. Another fun thing they added was the seagulls taking the fish from you, and fallen players as well.
Use money to buy and upgrade your weapons. Upgrades include increasing damage, reducing recoil, larger magazine size, and different scopes. Increasing damage can be upgraded multiple times depending on the island. There is only 1 main fishing rod, with the other rod only used on the first island. For some reason, there isn't an option to upgrade the fishing rod which would have been nice. Upgrades for a fishing rod could have been to increase the fish's value, or increase drip fish chance. Interestingly enough, there are no armors or damage reduction items, but aren't really needed with the current enemies. There are also plenty of fish to heal with.
Weapons include brass knuckles, knife, pistol, shotgun, uzi, sniper rifle, and assault rifle. Dynamite is also available, but it is difficult to hit an enemy with, and I mostly use it for dynamite fishing, which I think is a great feature. The guns are easy and fun to use, and a nice addition to the shotgun is it pushes you up when you aim down, so it can be used to get on top of roofs and jump really high. All of the weapons feel great to use, and each have different shooting/attack styles depending on what your target is.
An item storage does not exist in the game, but one should be added to the boat which is shared by players. Maybe as the boat engine is upgraded then so is the storage. It would be nice if the boat would change to a different boat too.
In the 1.0.9 version they added a difficulty setting, options include easy, default, and hard. It doesn't do anything besides changing the fish's health and damage, which is kinda pointless. I also don't like how it can be changed mid game, which kinda ruins the purpose of trying to complete the game on a higher difficulty.
A feature unlocked on island 3 is cooking. Fish can be cooked to add up to 1.5x value, or burnt to add 0.1x value. When the fish is held above a grill for a few seconds, then it's value will rapidly increase from 1.0x to 1.5x, but hold it above the grill longer and it will rapidly decrease from 1.5x to 0.1x. This is a nice feature, but gets repetitive later in the game. The lava on one island instantly cooks the fish, but still feels repetitive. Giving the fishing rod an ability to automatically cook fish when caught would be better for late game. All items can be cooked, including fishing rods and guns. This will permanently change the appearance of the item, which makes the skins you unlocked for it useless.
One feature that is annoying is how non-fish items can be "cooked", which permanently changes their appearance and their value. This occurs when a gun is held above a grill or placed in lava, which most of the times is accidental or because of dying near lava. I think it is funny that guns can be cooked, but at least allow players to change the gun back to its original skin if desired. Burning a gun will give it a full black color which actually looks good, but then its skin can't be changed.
Boating is really cool, but there is no point unless you are going to another island, which isn't common. I think if there was a map added, and the map would display many islands to be able to visit. Maybe add random boss fights in the ocean which would be cool, especially with 2 or more players since 1 player could drive while the other shoots. Maybe even pirates that randomly appear and try to attack your boat and you have to fight them off. A fully upgraded boat could have mounted turrets too.
There is a fishing log which can be accessed by pressing TAB button, which shows which fish and drip fish you have caught throughout your playthrough. There is a total of 49 fish. Fish that are caught by other players in your game also get added, which I don't think that's how it should work. I think the game is easy enough for the fishing log to be unique per player and per world. Maybe even show the quantity of fish caught, too, but would carry over in to other worlds I create. For example, if I caught 100 of a fish in my friend's world, then it would show 100 of that same fish in my other world, or all worlds, also.
More stats could be added to the game, such as which player is dealing the most damage to a boss during a boss fight, or DPS. This would be nice to see which players or weapons are best against certain enemies. Maybe even a stat to show how much total money you have earned in the world, along with other players.
Bosses include a crab, piranha, pufferfish, albatross, and whale. My favorite bosses are the piranha and pufferfish on islands 2 and 3. The piranha flops around while summoning other smaller piranhas that you have to dodge. The smaller piranhas can be killed and eaten for food during the boss fight. The pufferfish is fun because it slowly grows larger as you deal damage to it, and it is satisfying to use the uzi on it. The pufferfish will roll around to try to hurt you, but you can use the trees and hut on the island to block its attacks. The albatross is mostly annoying, since it is a small target and mostly flies around. The whale just flops around mostly, and is so large that it can be somewhat difficult to dodge. It's nice that it is a large target though.
Graphics
The graphics are perfect, with plenty of render distance for the ocean and sky. I think other graphics should be added as you travel with the boat, such as seagulls flying through the sky or fish swimming through the water next to your boat. Adding weather effects would be cool too, especially being able to see a storm in the distance.
Music
Music is good, but only plays when you are near a radio or boss fight. The radio music is actually good, which is a shame because it is only heard when you are near the radio when it is playing. Otherwise, the music stops after a bit then it is quiet.
Controls
Controls are okay, but it would be nice to not have to hold shift the entire time to run. The current controls are to walk with WASD, then hold shift to run. It should be the opposite. My pinky finger gets tired from holding shift most of the time, so it would be nice if it was automatic run or at least toggleable. I'm not sure what crouching does, if anything, maybe it increases weapon accuracy? I haven't noticed a difference though. Moving and jumping is smooth and satisfying to control.
Replay Value
Great replay value, it is fun to start a new file and fight the bosses with bare minimum weapons or try to beat the game as fast as possible.
Post Game Content
Not much to do once you defeat the final boss besides fully upgrade your weapons and catch every single kind of fish. There are achievements too that can be completed.
Conclusion
This is a difficult review because I don't play any indie games, and for a game made by two people it is outstanding. I kept it at a 7 because it is really good in its current state, but it is vastly different than other games on my blog list so it is difficult to compare this 7 to another 7 on my list, or 10 rating, etc. There is a lot of potential for this game, so I hope for the best.
I'm sure the developers were not expecting this game to be as successful as it is, so I would think most of the suggestions I have mentioned in this post were thought of already, but skipped just to get to a faster release date.
I'm currently trying to complete the game in under an hour, but so far I can make it to island 4 in about 30 minutes and then getting to the albatross is very difficult.
© Cbreezewebs