Core concept is good, but lacking in so many ways. – Virtual Regatta Inshore Review

The Good: this is an enjoyable racing game that has some real-world feel in tactics and strategy. It is definitely helping giving me some mental exercise in thinking about whole course thinking during pandemic and subsequent real-world sailing. The Feature Request: - Race Replay: If I could save/replay races, even reduced to the 2D map, this would be invaluable. I would be happy with this being a VIP feature. Any method of highlighting the good/bad from a race as well - like a Play of the Game, to let me see where the big gains were made. The Bad: - Rules Implementation: There seems to be some issues here around the idea of opportunity to keep clear leading to competitors using the rules as a cudgel. There are spots where the give way and keep clear boat switch very quickly without a clear reason. - Controls: Having one button for each direction with no adjustable sensitivity leads to situations where maneuvering is either too sensitive or not sensitive enough. There are far better control schemes out there for mobile games touch interfaces; using a gesture type slider with proportional control would be helpful to improve maneuvering. - The layout of action buttons (tack/gybe, vmg, luff, spin) could be clustered in a square rather than across the bottom of the screen, or provide the option to rearrange. Separate tack/gybe controls or actions (such as hold and flick up/down), as well as VMG upwind/downwind, spinnaker hoist/douse buttons would help avoid unintentional actions that ruin races. - Pay to Win: The monetization scheme feels all wrong. To pay for VIP features but still require further payment for reliable access to race help and design boosts is frustrating. To pay this much for a game that has such issues with controls, crashes/lags, rules implementation, and the fact that it feels like it hasn’t received significant improvements to keep it up to mobile gaming standards in 2021 is frustrating.
Review by UrsusDenali on Virtual Regatta Inshore.