To be honest, as an old player who has worked hard since the Symbian era, my expectations for mobile games have always been quite high. Recently, a friend recommended "Fleet Commander", saying it was an RTS real-time strategy naval battle mobile game. I didn't have high hopes. After all, there are too many games in the mobile game industry under the banner of "strategy". In the end, they are basically automatic battles or krypton gold accumulation. But after playing it for two days, I want to talk about some of the differences between it and similar games. I'm not bragging, it's just my personal feelings.
Let's talk about the problems of similar games first. Most naval combat mobile games on the market, such as "World of Warships Blitz" or some domestic shooting naval combat games, are actually FPS or TPS. The operation relies on swiping the screen with fingers to aim and fire. Although the graphics are cool, it is easy to feel tired after playing for a long time. Moreover, these games are not friendly to novices. The threshold is high, and the matching mechanism is often unbalanced. Once the big money-making ship comes out, you are basically cannon fodder. But "Fleet Commander" takes a different path. It feels more like when we played "Age of Empires" or "Red Alert" on PC. Although it is difficult to micro-manage RTS on mobile phones now, this game focuses on tactical formation and weapon matching, rather than hand speed.
Speaking of advantages, I think the most outstanding one is its concept of "reality reduction". It does not ask you to build a bunch of cannons without thinking, but it really requires you to consider the positioning of different warships: destroyers for anti-submarine warfare, cruisers for air defense, battleships for line support, and aircraft carriers for air support. Moreover, the weapon system is divided into main guns, secondary guns, torpedoes, missiles, etc. Each weapon has different reloading time, range, and damage type. This reminds me of the exquisite feeling of ship matching in "The Age of Discovery" before. There is depth in the combination, and it is not a mindless lineup that takes it all.
Compare it to another type of RTS mobile game, such as "Steel War Zone" or "Clash of Clans", which has a base construction + troop advancement model. Those games emphasize the accumulation of resources and the investment of time. In fact, combat is often semi-automatic and has limited strategy. The battle in "Fleet Commander" is fully controlled in real time. You can adjust the formation, retreat, focus fire on designated targets at any time on the battlefield, and even use the terrain to avoid torpedoes - I think it is rare to be able to do this so smoothly on a mobile phone.
But it's not without its shortcomings. After all, the developer is Xiamen Flash Game, and I haven't heard much about the background of major manufacturers before. The game graphics are generally realistic, but the details are not as high-quality as those 3A games that major manufacturers spend money on. For example, the water surface special effects, explosions and firelights, and the precision of the models can only be said to be adequate, but they are certainly not as gorgeous as "World of Warships". In addition, the content of the current version is not too much, and the levels and modes are relatively traditional. I hope that more PVP gameplay or battles will be updated in the future, otherwise it will be easy to get bored.
The paid model is free download, and the in-app purchases are mainly for pumping out ships and accelerating construction. Telling the truth is not conscientious, but it is not too dark either. Some similar RTS mobile games directly sell VIPs and experience books, which is called ugly. At least in this game you can save up epic ships without spending money, but it just takes a little longer. I give this a thumbs up. After all, there are fewer and fewer mobile games that can make people "live" instead of "krypton".
Finally, let me express my feelings. When I played those Java naval battle games with a few kilobytes on Symbian back then, compared with many of the current masterpieces, the essence of the gameplay has not changed much - it's all strategy and games. It's just that the graphics and details are now richer, but many games have abandoned the core gameplay. "Fleet Commander" is at least moving in the right direction. Even if there is still a lot of room for optimization, as an old RTS player, I am still willing to give it some time and patience. If you also like this type of hard-core naval battles, don't pursue gorgeous visual effects, and focus on tactical thinking, you can give it a try. 😌