Developer, 100 Games, and publisher, Ultimate Games, have brought the dream of being a captain of my own ship into reality. Ships Simulator is the next best thing coming to the simulation world, with a mix of ship controls and economic strategy that kept me on my toes.

You get thrown into a tutorial where you learn all the fundamentals you need to know in order to play this simulation to its full potential. Being a simulation, the tasks feel realistic, but not so hard that you’ll get sick of doing them.

You are given certain tasks to complete and these will earn your company money, and initially, you are given a huge amount to purchase a ship. The first I invested in was the container ship, as it is something I always get to see in real life. I was then offered the choice to repair it or buy new parts, all to ensure that the ship was running to its full potential.

The first task you are given with the container ship makes you load half a dozen containers before you head out to sea, and this was much more fun than I expected and made me feel like I was supposed to be controlling the ship. I quickly learned that you had the option to speed time up to 4x if you wanted to do some things quicker, which, I’ll admit, I did more times than I probably should have.

The realistic look in this game was awesome, with a particular focus on how the water would react when the ship is plowing through the seas. The way the weather affected the tides, which in turn changed how your ship reacted was amazing, and the sunset and sunrise looked absolutely stunning. Even the shadows and how the sun reflected off various surfaces were incredible to see. The ships could have used a little more texture and finer details, but overall, I can’t really complain. They still look amazing.

I was worried about how this was going to play on the console and how well it could control the ship’s acceleration and movements, but I was surprised at how well the controls played and how natural it all felt.

You mostly use the D-Pad when controlling the cranes to load ships, or you have the option to use the thumbsticks which felt more natural for me, but I would have loved some more options for the speed settings. It’s either on or off, which isn’t a whole lot of control.

There isn’t much to comment on regarding the sounds in this title. There was an interesting choice of what I can only describe as elevator music or music you would hear in a high-class restaurant from a live orchestra. You get to hear the birds swarming around your ship whilst you are working away at the docks doing small upgrades. You can hear the ships running, which is a little quieter than I’d have expected, and the ocean making noises, and these were nice and relaxing.

Designed for people who love a good simulation game, you can pick up Ships Simulator for $22.45 AUD from the Xbox Store. It offers a reasonable challenge without making you feel like you want to pull your hair out, and it has some beautiful scenery to take it.

Written by: Hayden Nelson