Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Turbo Tape Games
System requirements: Windows Vista/Win 7, dual-core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 512 MB GeForce GT 240 or better graphics card, 4 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9-compatible sound device, DirectX 9.0c
Genre: Simulation
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: April 10, 2012

Not since Jane’s Fleet Command more than a decade ago have we had a good naval warfare simulator. Turbo Tape games felt that it was high time that someone fix this, and Paradox agreed. Set in the frigid expanses of the North Atlantic, Naval War: Arctic Circle aims to bring all the complexity of modern aquatic killing to your desktop with an almost slavish attention to detail. Schedule those sonar buoy drops and warm up the Thales MMR 3D — it’s time to hunt down some red outlines!

The Arctic Circle is huge. You just won’t believe how incredibly huge it is. It’s large enough to loose entire fleets of half-kilometer-long ships. Combined with harsh cold weather conditions that mess with radar, the arctic isn’t your mother’s ugly shag carpeting. To assist you in your organized killing missions, your ships don’t just have multiple weapon systems, but multiple radar systems as well. Considering how much naval warfare is just a huge cat-and-mouse game, detection is half the battle (with evasion being the other half). Even helicopters have a few different sensor systems from which to choose, each one with its own unique advantages. It’s like playing an FPS with a handful of different sniper rifles. They all perform the same basic function, but learning how best to apply each one is part of the fun.

Combat might seem a bit simplistic compared to the lavish details imprinted on everything else. Instead of measuring specific location damage or failed systems, Naval War uses a basic hit-point counter. Since modern naval vessels are glass cannons, they’re effectively either alive or in a thousand pieces. It’s a small concession, but it shows that Turbo Tape doesn’t include detail for its own sake, but actually cares about how the game plays out.

Naval War might have a pretty 3D display, but you’ll spend most of your time staring into your radar scope. Sure, it might look like a bunch of green triangles following red lines on a blue background, but they’ll still leave you sweating it out in your command center. If ground combat has weakened your landlubber mind, Naval War: Arctic Circle will give it sea legs with a series of tutorials before sending you through its linear campaign and a collection of single missions. If solitaire isn’t your style, multiplayer’s there to let you test your brass against other admirals. We’ll see how seaworthy this sim is after it launches, but right now it looks pretty darn sober for a sailor.