Sea Wolf (2012) Review

Date Released:  January 9th, 2012

Date Reviewed:  February 02, 2012

Reviewer:  Jon

 

Some of you may be thinking to yourself “Sea Wolf, that sounds familiar”.  If this is the case you are probably remembering the 1976 Midway classic arcade game of the same name.  I suppose if we are to do a history lesson I may as well mention the fact that the ’76 version of Sea Wolf was actually based off of a 1966 electro-mechanical arcade  simulator under the name of Sea Devil.  Both of these vintage machines were very unique for the simple reason of the periscope interface in which the player used to interact with the game.  Gameplay however was pretty basic and consisted mostly of a static sea line with a reticle that the player could move from side to side.  Ships would pass across this sea line and armed with torpedoes the player would be tasked to sink them while avoiding mines.  Operating under a time limit, the player would be able to add more time to the clock by reaching set scores.  This resulted in a game that was both challenging and addicting.  I took this opportunity to revisit the classic game to help put things into perspective for this review.  My hope was that this reimagined version would not only keep the gameplay fun and fresh, but stay challenging enough to warrant multiple playthroughs.

Note: The app is listed as an iPhone game, but was played through on the iPad.

Graphics / Animation / Sound

I was very curious as to how the classic game would be updated and if by doing so, would it drastically change the feel of the game as I have noticed in other series?  The ’76 version as you would expect consisted of a series of simple lines and beeps for sound effects.   Gameplay was very basic and there was never any progression.  (like most arcade games of the time)

Sea Wolf (2012) however contains a pretty slick presentation worthy of most military games out there.  All the neccesary shades of green are present and the soundtrack is patriotic enough to get you prepared for the all out warfare that is to follow.   The backgrounds are fairly simple consisting of a generic ocean and matching land masses to fit the theme of the level.  The game does a great job however of mixing up the experience by adding nighttime levels,  falling snow and a moving train to the mix.

The enemy ships look well done and there is never any confusion as to what you are looking at.  Multiple ship types (which will start to smoke if damaged), planes that fly by overhead, and flares that light the darkened sky are all wonderful elements that really add to the experience.  All of these elements look and sound great.  In fact, the first time I heard my .50 cal start to fire I immediately felt engaged in battle.  The animation of the boats exploding however are only a few frames, but this doesn’t seem to impact things too much.   With every hit, the screen shakes and the illusion of cracked glass appears gradually adding to the immersion factor.

Game mechanics / Length / difficulty

Gameplay consists of really utilizing the touchscreen and the device’s accelerometer.  Tilting the iPad/iPod from side to side will result in the selection of the torpedo tubes.  There are five total and they all angle to varying degrees of the screen.  There are two buttons on each bottom corner, one of which fires the torpedo while the other launches the flare. (once unlocked)   The other weapon in your arsenal comes in the form of a .50 cal deck gun that you  activate simply by touching the screen anywhere.  This gun will be used for taking out planes, enemy emplacements and supply crates.   Once you get the hang of the controls, it really feels natural and you will be suprised at how many things you can do at one time.

Each round ends once either the objective is acomplished,  time runs out, Sea Wolf gets blown up, or you use your last torpedo.   There are eight missions in total and as you progress new elements are being consistantly added to keep the gameplay fresh.  The objectives are usually score based, but there are also a few other tasks as well.  I generally enjoyed going through all of the missions, however the experience seemed kind of short.  I suppose this is a good thing as it keeps you wanting more and with the ability to leave the game and return to your progress later it makes it easy to keep coming back.

The mission structure as I stated above adds elements as you progress which in theory can make each level more difficult.  In some cases this proved to be true, but overall I never felt truly challenged.  My first playthrough was on the easy difficulty setting as i wasn’t sure how the gameplay would work.  Once I completed the game on easy, I immediately switched the game to hard.  I was kind of let down in the fact that there wasn’t a whole lot of difference between the two settings.  I was actually able to complete the final mission on hard quicker than the easy difficulty setting.  I don’t really feel that this hinders the experience, but I would like to see an improvement with this in either an update or a sequel if one is made.