Ironclads: High Seas Reviews

I wanted to love this game. History and alternate history stories have been a hobby of mine as far back as I can remember and the US Civil war is one of my favorite periods. The idea of the Confederates gaining the naval strength to go toe to toe with the Union navy is one of my favorite What Ifs of the war and there as so few naval foused games, especially set in this period, that it seemed like a match made in heaven. Where things went wrong. 1: You can only control the flagship of a squadron directly. In fact you can't give any orders to the other ships at all and can't even order your ships into battle formation as far as I can tell. 2: The flagship's controls are far too clunky and the flagships will sometimes switch their engines to full reverse for no apparent reason. 3: Battles take forever even with the turbo speed option engaged. I played one battle for almost an hour. Not only was the battle not over but none of the 13 ships involved had been sunk or surrendered and the most heavily damaged had only taken around 65 percent damage. This ship started fleeing at 60 percent damage but fled through the heart of my nearest squadron guns blazing rather then running away and soon rejoined its squadron for their next pass. 4: There aren't enough ship classes in the game. There are six ship classes but each side only has three warship classes to choose from. Though I will say that I was pleasantly surprised when I realized they didn't just have both sides using the same ship classes they really need more choices in fleet makeup,

I liked it,...it's not a fast game,...but..if you like to try out think the enemy...it's fun..and keep in mind the era of play.

GAME VIDEO SETTINGS: SteamApps Folder (for example C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Ironclads High Seas\Config.exe) REVIEWS: 100% Wargamer. The Wargamer is pleased to present Totem Games with an Award for Excellence due to exquisite modeling of ship graphics, clean, and simple interface, and study of a neglected topic. ( http://wargamer.com/article/2782/ironclads-high-seas ) 93% SubSim. Simple and quick to understand, No complex table and keyboard commands to memorize. Great modeling, a rare subject. ( http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=143313 ) 85% Armchairgeneral. Passed Inspection: Great graphics, challenging AI, realistic physics, nice interface, neglected topic, useful editor. Failed Basic: No multi-play, lack of weather and land. ( http://www.armchairgeneral.com/ironclads-high-seas-pc-game-review.htm ) SimHQ Review. Good - Value for the price/ Decent AI / Runs well on moderate hardware (and laptops) / Replayable. Could be Better - No multiplayer/ No custom missions / Water graphics too placid ( http://www.simhq.com/_naval/naval_027a.html )

Absolute dog of a game. It's like a cheap mobile game. The 'campaign' is the same battle over and over. The ships are really boring, and even if one of them was unique, you can sink it again and again, or own 4. Combat drags on forever. Graphics weren't very good for 2009, and haven't aged well. Edit: While this game is still an absolute DO NOT BUY, I recommend checking out the developer's latest series which are all titled 'Clad in Iron...' They are much improved in all respects, and the price is quite reasonable.

having played now a littl eof this i think it is an okay game to get if on sale perhaps but its appeal is going to be restricted to only the few diehard fans of the period who like their battles to move at a snails pace and also to how a limited role in activity of the battle itself you can direct the ship column and you can alter its speed and tell it not to fire if you want, though i cant see any reason ever to do so - there is no way to change formations in battle or even to detach a ship from you column - these omissions i find strange perhaps the biggest gripe i would have are the non-existent collision physics - for a historical game like this where the close quarters ship firefights happen alot as the AI will come right in to fight, there are frequent collisions, but the ships just bounce of each stutteringly until one a bounce enough to move away - this is ridiculous when the pointy end of an ironclad civil war gun ship rams into the side of a wooden sailing vessel - there is no destruction occurring at all, except for the slight percentage damage added to the ships damage stat - but this sometimes doesnt occur at all - ram a ship like this would certainly sink at least one of them outright i will recommend the game because it is easy to play with and i think the graphics are nice enough, but with the above caveats about its shoddy collision physics and limited player controls

This game is so bad I'm suprised it hasnt been pulled from the store. I bought it, its now hidden from my library and will stay that way.

For the people who claim the game is slow, it is. That is becaulse of realism. The two hour time limit seems unreasonable, untell you relise that the battle of hampton roads, which was a duel between only 2 ironclads lasted twice that. This game is not for the easly board, but you wont find a better game about ironclads out there.

Painfully dull, slow and boring game. The worst thing here is that the game is very limited. You buy some ships, you make them join the battle (which takes place on some sort of empty arena) and... that's pretty much it. There's no proper campaign, no proper goals and the only things you can control during the battle are moving direction, moving speed and guns. In other words, you can give your ships an order to shoot, or ignore the enemies completely. And that'll be it. There's nothing else about the battles in this game. That alone is enough to make the game feel bad, but, like I've already said, it's also painfully slow and even at maximum speed every action takes forever for your ships to finish. As the result, this game is literally as fun as watching the paint dry. With only three kinds of commands, very slow speed and almost nothing to achieve, it's a royal waste of both your time and money. Even with [b]90%[/b] it's not worth it. Dixi.

a very nice game. for those who complain that there is no tutorial, i suggest that you consult the game manual. its brief, clear and does the job. for those who say its a slow boring game i suggest that realistic naval wargames are obviously not your thing. this game is very tactical and rewarding. my only complaint is that i can t turn the music off!

Well, I got this cos I'm quite a nerd for ironclad ships, but I think I really wasted my money even though I got it pretty cheap on sale. The gameplay is barely there, all you can do is steer your columns of ships and tell them when to start firing. you can't target specific enemy ships, you get very little info about the status of any ships. I was very dissapointed as I really wanted this game to be at least ok.