‘Ultimate Fishing Simulator’ is brought to you by the development team Bit Golem, Pancake Games, and 3T Labs and published by Ultimate Games S.A. It was originally dropped on the 30th of August 2018 and the developers are still pushing out content. We will be covering in this review the new ‘Florida’ DLC. The Florida DLC takes you to Florida’s stunning Dry Tortugas which is an absolute haven for any saltwater fishing enthusiasts.

If you have a basic understanding of fishing you’ll be sweet in this title. Some in-game mechanics will help you fine-tune your skills though, like the “Encyclopedia”, which will help you learn fish breeds and what bait there is more likely to take. Having a basic understanding of fishing will help with the different rigs you are using; like floats or sinkers and if you want to run bite indicators, which is a nice touch. There are currently 12 DLCs for the base title which you can find in their Steam storefront (Here). You would be looking at a whopping AUD $7.50 so you are not going to break your bank adding this to your collection.

The DLC location has 16 different fish breeds swimming in its waters but in its current state, it feels like only 15 as you can’t catch the “Blue Marlin” because it just stares at your hook and swims off. I thought it might have been an operator issue but I have confirmed with other anglers and it has been confirmed it is currently broken. I’m still hunting for the “Atlantic Goliath Grouper” which lurks in the deep seas and will catch this elusive little sucker.

I love the leveling system. When you catch fish you get three options; Sell, XP, or Keep. The first option gives you the money to purchase new equipment but you will need to make sure you keep an eye on your funds. The second option gives you ‘XP’ so you can level up quicker, which in turn, will unlock some perks to help with certain aspects of the game, which will be explored further into soon.

The third option is ‘Keep’ which goes well with another DLC that has been released by the developers which is the “Aquariums DLC” which lets you showcase some of the biggest fish If you decide to keep them and show them off. I preferred the money too so I found myself selling more things than keeping.

The more fish you sell, the more experience you gain, which will level you up and allow you to gain skill points to spend on perks in the game. These range from being able to use the boat in different ways to increase your strength for longer casts. I found myself upgrading the “More XP” perks as it meant I could level up quicker which gave me more opportunities to spend skills points where I needed to.

The developers have made this game super beginner-friendly with the controls and there is not that much involved to master them. There is a legend in the bottom left corner you can enable and disable with a simple keypress which will guide you with what you need to press. The one thing that annoyed me was when you are on the boat and have a brain fart and hit “B” it teleported you back to the mainland which wastes so much time making you go back and forth. Annoying when the load times can be a bit tedious as well. You use the mouse lots once the line is in the water with positioning where you can adjust your drag, where to pull the line, or just to reel it in when you have caught that underwater record.

You can’t go wrong with fishing title graphics, the developers went for a realistic look, and it’s pretty immersive. They did super well with most of the textures around the place and the water looked absolutely stunning. I was pleased to know when you were in the boat it produced a wake behind it when you were heading out to sea. The lighting looked stunning and would be great if you are a gamer who lives for those screenshots to post on social media to show your gaming photography skills.

The one thing I did not like is that when you are fishing you can see your arm and both hands which works out well but when you are in an online lobby but when you find someone else independently on the map you are on, they are just a big green balloon shape and looked like ‘Baymax’from ‘Big Hero Six’. Don’t get me wrong, I love Baymax but it’s weird seeing other people looking like that in a game knowing that I look human in my own perspective of view. I would have loved to see the other characters’ models and where they were fishing so you could implement things like crossing lines or the dreaded when someone comes past in a boat and picks up your line which is rare as hen’s teeth but happens, believe me.

Sometimes, it’s the simple things in life that make something great, and hearing the waves crashing in this title brought me back to when I was younger and fishing every second weekend, whilst living up in Far North Queensland. I love the audio scenes the waves made and brought back some amazing memories but unfortunately, the boat audio let it down massively. It sounded like they just pulled a mower audio clip and planted it on a decent-sized boat which made zero sense. The score was lifted a little again with the menu music. It had that super country instrumental feel which was upbeat and some awesome guitar instrumentals that lifted the mood before you threw the line in the water. The game does have an “Online” radio which each channel seemed to be the same regardless of the name and it all seemed generic, copyright-free like music.

If you love fishing or want to get into fishing without heading out to sea or throwing a line off a dock then Ultimate Fishing Simulator is a great fix for your fishing needs. The Florida DLC brings lots of fun to the experience and that fishy Floridian flavour; a nice addition to the game without breaking the bank.

Written by: Hayden Nelson