Leviathan: Warships

Genre: Action, Strategy

Developer: Pieces Interactive

Publisher: Paradox Interactive

System: Windows, Mac, Tablets (apparently)

Leviathan: Warships was easy to spot off the port bow of the good ship Ten Minute Game Review. I mean, with a trailer like this or one like this how can anyone say “no”?

Naturally, I had come to assume that the entire game would float on such sexually-charged narration, but my hopes would soon sink much like the first boat under my command. Why do I suck at this? Well, to be fair, I have absolutely no knowledge of boats or how they function, but considering some of the art on the loading screen depicts massive sea creatures looming above the waves I don’t think that will really matter much in the grand scheme of things^{[Cetacean Needed]}.

I suspected from the beginning that this was not a game in which one simply jumped into the deep end. So I began as I do with many games, by giving the tutorial a quick look. Man, was it boring. The tutorial wound up eating most of my time with Leviathan. I may not know anything about ships, or how the game is supposed to function, but the game’s need to prattle on in little text boxes after each lesson felt a little unnecessary considering it obviously didn’t save my ship during the first mission. You don’t need to explain in great detail that I just moved forward, but it would be nice to have a better idea of how the ship functioned in combat or, maybe, that it was possible to run aground. Steer away from the rocks and the shoals! Apparently I learned everything I need to know about sailing from the Canadian folk band, Tanglefoot*.

 

OK, so maybe I should have known better than to sail my ships in shallow water, but it would seem that some of them can without issue. How was I supposed to know that? I guess my real gripe with this game is that it doesn’t hold your hand quite enough in the early stages. I felt like it was a pretty steep learning curve and I would not recommend this game to the casual player. All that being said I still get to captain boats! How frickin’ cool is that?!

Happy Thoughts: Boats! Boats! Boats!

Sad Thoughts: Boat sink and go bye bye :’(

The Bottom Line: I have a lot of faith that this game will pick up and become a lot of fun to play so if you like turn-based strategy games, check it out. Of course it’s always possible that I will instead be driven mad and spend the rest of my life hunting the seas for the white whale that took my leg. Stupid jerk whale.

Man, I really hope I'm the first person to make that "Cetacean Needed" joke...

*Check out the full song on Spotify if you like.