Let me state my position first: I am an old stand-alone player, and I get a headache when I see the krypton gold and card drawing system. This new era of fishing is made by the Yao Ji team. The picture quality is really top-notch. The 3D deep-sea effect is more exciting than any fishing game I have ever played. The scales of the fish swim past the reflection, and the bubbles pop up from the bottom of the screen. It really feels like diving to the edge of the coral reef. The special effects of the skills are also really powerful. If you throw a chain lightning, the whole screen will be filled with fish, and the feeling of instant explosion will be great. To be honest, a single-player fishing simulator cannot give me that feeling.
But therein lies the problem. Its charging mode says 0, haha, everyone understands it. Free entry, what next? If the fishing game was like a stand-alone game with no online presence, no rankings, and no season rewards, then I would still be able to play it, but this season's iterations, daily tasks, and activity rankings are frustrating. I got off work at ten o'clock in the evening and wanted to quietly fry a fish in the deep sea. The system kept sending me a message saying "The first place in this server has surpassed you by 2 million points. Go and catch up!" I just wanted to watch the fish swim, not others.
Speaking of which, we have to mention the core differences between stand-alone games and online games. For stand-alone fishing games, such as the old stand-alone version of Fishing Master, I spent two cents to buy it out. Whether a fish fried or not depended solely on my touch and luck. If I lost, I lost, and if I won, I won. I won't feel aggrieved, and I won't be treated like a leek by the system. There is no social pressure in the game, there is no "gang mutual aid", and there is no "first deposit gift package" squatting in the corner of the screen and waving at me like a clown. You can say that fishing alone is monotonous, but it is that monotony that gives me a corner where I can really relax after work.
In the new era of fishing, the feel is really good, the picture is really fierce, and it is really exciting when the explosion rate is high - the bomb fish is in the soul, and the points are falling down from the full screen. At that moment, I thought "Ah, this is the best fishing of the year"! But as soon as the next season starts, new fish species, new rankings, and new limited-time tasks will be released, and I, a free fisherman, will be forced to become a working emperor again. Playing online games is like working part-time, clocking in, competing for rankings, and looking at your face - playing stand-alone is like taking a walk, where you go wherever you go, and no one is rushing you.
To be fair, Fishing New Era is much better than the purely gold-based web games I have played. Its explosion rate is really impressive, and free players can also enjoy the thrill of continuous explosions. The skill combination is also very particular, and it is not the kind of mindless one-click clearing the screen. It's that it obviously gives you a good entertainment experience, but it insists on tying you up with seasons. It's like going to an amusement park, queuing for an hour, having fun for three minutes, and then the broadcast tells you: "Thank you all tourists, please come early tomorrow." A stand-alone machine is like your own bathtub, it is always there, the water temperature is always right, you can soak for a day until your fingers get wrinkled.
You want to ask me whether I recommend this game? I recommend it, but you have to control your own mentality when playing. Play it as a stand-alone game - block the chat channel, ignore the season rankings, don't top up money, only go in and fry a few fish when you feel down, listen to the clattering sound effects, and watch the fish swarm for a moment. It transforms into the most beautiful "stand-alone" fishing device, quietly accompanying you to relieve stress every day. But if you get involved and want to hit the rankings, want to be number one in the server, or listen to the bait of "ten times the explosion rate for a limited time", then it will become a dull knife, slowly harvesting your time, temper, and change in your wallet.
What the stand-alone game taught me is: the meaning of the game has never been to beat others, but to spend a small period of time with you. I am trying my best to make you stay, but my soul ultimately belongs to the unchecked deep sea. 🐟🌊