At that time, in naval battle games, the most shocking thing was watching the mosaic aircraft carrier formation slowly sail across the screen. Although I couldn't even see the radar on the ship island clearly, I could put myself into the role of the fleet commander just by thinking about it. Now open the real-time sea map of "Modern Naval Warfare", and the thousands of miles of sea are really concentrated on the handheld screen - from the satellite perspective, the fleet formation, route trajectory, and missile trajectory are all dynamically presented. Even the opening and closing details of the vertical launch unit cover on the destroyer deck can be seen. This evolution spanning two decades is like jumping directly from a black and white TV to an IMAX giant screen.
I still remember that when I played the GBA version of the naval battle game, the so-called "offensive and defensive system" consisted of turret rotation and cannon ball trajectory prediction. Failure to fire within the range was entirely dependent on chance. Now the first over-the-horizon strike mechanism in "Modern Naval Warfare" directly subverts cognition: aircraft carrier-based aircraft must plan a route before taking off, and the guidance direction can be adjusted midway after the missile is launched. When a submarine launches a submarine-launched missile underwater, it must also consider the sonar detection range. The offensive and defensive game has changed from "I predict and you predict my prediction" to a multi-dimensional three-dimensional strangulation. In the past, to defend against missiles, you just clicked the anti-aircraft gun button. Now, you have to simultaneously operate the missile interception system, terminal defense fire control, torpedo decoy release, and have the frigate maneuver to avoid. This operation density is more brain-burning than the PSP pilot who played "Ace Combat" back then.
What impresses me most is the rigor of the ship model. In the "Battleship Gunner" on the NDS back then, all the warships had the same hull with different colors, and they didn't even bother to change the position of the main gun. "Modern Naval Warfare" now includes hundreds of active ship types from 18 countries. I specially compared my country's Type 055 destroyer - the deck tilt angle, the number of vertical launch units, and the island radar array, which is almost exactly the same as the real ship photos in military magazines. It is said that there are also military celebrities involved in the modeling. No wonder a veteran like me, a military fan, can recognize at a glance "This is the Ticonderoga class, this is the Arleigh Burke class". Even the iconic missile tilt launcher of the Russian-made "Glorious Class" has been restored to its original appearance. This detail control is simply a romance tailor-made for keyboard captains like us.
Of course, the replica is not without its regrets. In the past, when I played the PSP version of the naval battle game, the most enjoyable thing was squatting in the dormitory corridor and pondering tactics over and over again after the mission failed. That kind of "poor fun" is hard to find now. Today's "Modern Naval Warfare" has real-time matching battles, and global players attack each other online at the same time. Although it is more exciting, it still lacks the tranquility of the stand-alone era of "one person, one machine, one world". Moreover, everyone knows the charging model of mobile games. Although it is said that there is a "0" fee to enter, quickly unlocking the top ship types still depends on your enthusiasm and strategy. On the contrary, it makes old players like me want to use technology to make up for the gap.
But in the final analysis, being able to relive the time of drawing war games based on paper data on a mobile phone screen, and also seeing the Chinese aircraft carrier formation unfolding in the palm of my hand using holographic modeling, is a scene that the teenager who secretly played "Ocean Hegemony" with a GBA under his desk could not imagine. Whether you are an old player or a new captain, go to the "Time and Space Hunter Zone" to watch the actual combat video. Maybe you will, like me, hear the echo of your youth in the blue tail flame of the missile taking off🔥