The sequel to Fishing North Atlantic is almost here, due to release on the 9th of May 2024, and with an upgrade to Unreal Engine 5, a completely new physics based water simulation, multiplayer support for up to 4 players, and the introduction of cargo and service ships, Ships at Sea as it’s called promises to be a pretty spectacular upgrade to the previous games.
Returning to its roots, this next game in the series takes us back to Norway, to the ports in and around Lofoten which we’ll finally be able to explore on foot as we walk around buying supplies and upgrades for our boats.
The map itself is 46km squared, so a little bit bigger than the original GTA San Andreas to give you a bit of perspective, and everything within the world has been modelled to a 1:1 scale which basically means the geography of the map should be identical to the real thing.
Just like in previous games we’re going to be able to head out to sea either manually or with fast travel in search of a wide variety of fish and different ways to catch them, from harpoon fishing large tuna, laying out long-lines or crab pots, or by heading out to deep water to trawl the sea bed. They’re also introducing several new species of fishing including salmon and halibut and spotted catfish, and the money earned from fishing can be used to buy bigger and better boats.
Additionally they’re also introducing different types of industries: cargo transport and service missions. Cargo transport will involve moving freight by boat from one place to another, and service boats will be able to respond to call outs to carry out maintenance and repairs on other boats at sea, though we’re yet to be shown any significant gameplay showing the new stuff in any major detail, so fingers crossed we’ll get some cool looking ships and maybe a couple of small or medium sized cargo ships to go along with the new features.
The thing I’m most excited about is the new water physics and buoyancy system. Apparently they’ve teamed up with Nvidia to create much more robust and believable water physics that will accurately bounce the boat around no matter how big or small they are, so hopefully everything from tiny rowboats to massive trawlers will move a little bit more realistically on the open water, and coupled with the brand new dynamic weather system we’ll hopefully see some rough seas and terrifying storms once in a while too, something that I felt was missing from their last game.
The AI used to power the fish migration and economy have also been completely overhauled, and if you played North Atlantic in the first few months after release you’ll no doubt already know why that’s a good thing, and with a dynamic economy we might actually have a reason to visit other ports to get the best price for our catch instead of just going to whichever port is closest at the time.
It’s impossible to say more at this point as there aren’t many gameplay trailers that show the game as it actually is so for now all we can do is wait and look forward to its release on the 9th of may.
I’ll be covering the game when it comes out so subscribe to the channel if you’re interested in watching Ships at Sea related content once the game drops, but for now I’d like to thank you for watching my video and I look forward to seeing you in the next one. Bye for now!
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