Not that great – Atlantic Fleet Review

I would like to say that this is a great app (and it should be), but it isn’t. First complaint is that you are limited to only 3 ships. That’s fine for the earlier missions in a campaign, but the later missions will put your 3 against the German’s 5 or 6. That would be ok if you could actually hit the enemy ships. The radar is far less than realistic. If the enemy ship is moving towards you and you towards it (closing the range) the elevation should decrease not increase. But the game will have the elevation jumping all over. The manual describes the radar as a guide. Well a miss is as good as a mile. You can take a shot based on the elevation estimate, set your guns for less than the radar’s estimate and overshoot the target by a full degree. The reverse is true as well. This is all with the wind compensation turned off. Even with it on you can compensate accordingly (or not) and the results defy physical laws. If you are shooting into the wind and you undercompensate the elevation you shouldn’t overshoot the target. Earlier missions you can dial in the target. I’m stuck on #41 and can’t hit a thing no matter how I compensate. The AFCT that a Nelson-class battleship was equipped with was pretty sophisticated when it came to calculating the mean point of impact of a shell. The targeting in this game is like throwing darts with your off hand and a patch over your dominate eye. I wish it was more like the publisher’s “Pacific Fleet” game. Another complaint is that the aircraft carriers will often be spawned with only one plane. Seriously? Out of a rated capacity of 48 you get one? The most is 8 and they could be fighters. Third complaint is with submarines. Often they are spawned so far from the enemy ships that they are useless. They only move about 1/2 the boat’s length per turn, even at flank speed, so typically the target distance increases dramatically with each turn. Since a sub’s torpedoes have a max range of 7000yds, you are screwed if you are sitting at 8000yds behind the fleet and it gains 500yds to 1000yds per turn on your sub. This brings me to the fourth complaint…torpedoes. The manual lists the travel distance for a sub torpedo as 1707yds/turn. Just not so. If, for example, your target is 3000 yds away and it moves approximately one length per turn (and stays on course) you would target the torpedos to hit on the second turn. Nope! The torpedoes will run 2000+ yards upon firing and you’ll completely miss...by a mile. Fifth complaint...a battleship firing its 15 or 16 inchers…a projectile that weighs almost a ton hits a torpedo boat dead on with 2 or 3 hits and the small ship stays afloat taking multiple turns to sink it. So as an old sailor who has played lots of these types of games I find this one poorly done. The graphics are nice, with good detail. That’s as much good as I can say. Don’t waste $10 and just stick with the lite version.
Review by dapperapper on Atlantic Fleet.