RETRO – The commander of the US Navy fleet has an immense power: with an order, the commander can destroy, ships, planes, and even cities with the units. He has such a huge arsenal that he can level any threatening country to the ground. Jane’s latest RTS game we can experience the power of a navy fleet commander: the ability to launch F/An 18 Hornets and F-14 Tomcats from motherships, attacking with submarines using high-tech torpedoes – unless our submarine gets a hit first!

The fans of pro simulator games have been getting a lot of great games from Jane’s franchise. Almost all of the famous vehicles have received their own game such as the: Apache combat helicopter, the i6888 super submarine, and the F-15 fighter jet, etc. All of these games were highly sophisticated and well crafted: the vehicle’s models, the enemies’ behavior was integrating into the programs.

Of course only those were able to enjoy the realistic movement of the vehicles if they were good enough to memorize keyboard combinations, read the thick manual, and finally completed all the training missions. Because of this, it could take days or weeks, for a simple player to start properly with his vehicle, not to mention attacking and killing an enemy.

Command, Defend and Conquer

With Fleet Command Jane’s franchise wishes to conquer the RTS fans: this time we will not sit in unique vehicles, instead here we will command the battles through strategically from a god’s viewpoint. We will not be able to command them like in a real simulation (maybe in Fleet Command 2) – but we can give them multiple orders such as: go to the location, sweep and clear, attack, rescue a downed pilot. Although in Fleet Command the fighter jets are always implemented in a very complex way, however here the fans of RTS games will not feel lost. For one, everything is happening in real time, and for two, the unit selection is just like in any other C&C clone.

Scourge of the seven seas

There is a total of 34 missions, and four campaigns that can be completed around the world – of course, all of them are near oceans, such as India, China, Russians, Iraq, Iran, and other enemies that try to attack the free world. Usually, these terrorists seek to do friendly visits to neighboring countries with their armies, and it is our job to talk them down – with our weapons of course.

Visual strategy?

Although it is exciting to dodge incoming attacks and destroy the enemies via a map for hours upon hours is probably the dream of only the RTS fanatics. That is why Jane’s uses a detailed graphics engine to render every unit in 3D and to see them in action. The camera can be changed and rotated as we wish, and see our rockets hit the enemy, and as the flames engulf the plane.

Of course 3D card and sound card is supported, so a lot of effects can be seen in the game that heightens the experience such as the fog being transparent, the explosions have a multitude of colors and from the right angle we can hear as if the Rockets went by next to us, or how the engines roar from within the battleships belly.

If someone has not been convinced after the events in Kosovo about the need for the USA to be up to date with its weaponry, then this game will. As our enemies will always attack with the latest weapons, and they are also very aggressive. If they see our ships, planes, they will fire massive amounts of rockets against them. Of course, all of our units have countermeasures, but if this happens when we are in a desperate situation then it is impossible to avoid a direct hit, and our favorite groups are at the bottom of the ocean. Just to make it even more challenging, we have to obey the American mentality, where we can only attack if we are confident that the unit has hostile intentions – this means we will have to identify it at first. This is okay, but I do not think that I ever met a friendly rocket that was going near my units.

This game is not for those who wish to sit back and relax or those who enjoy turn-based strategy games. Real-time is real time, and we will have to be ready for anything during the missions, to find the enemy and to miss the shots against us. So that they get sunk, and not us!

For the armchair general hidden in you!

Jane’s simulator games have been considered the best for the past two years by fans of the genre. As for me, I have always had an admiration from a distance for these programs. Because I loved how detailed these games were, but on the other hand the complex UI and the use of every button combination that existed have scared me.

At first, I thought that this game would be involved as the Talonsoft’s Battleground series, but I was pleasantly surprised. Fleet Command is easily controllable, and the controls can be learned rather quickly. Even though this part is easy the gameplay has a lot of depth: we have to consider where we attack from and with which unit, otherwise they might get taken down quickly.
Those who are fans of modern combat vehicles will feel as if they are in heaven: the models are detailed down to the last nail, and all of them have detailed information thanks to Jane’s embedded database.

Those who are fans of modern combat vehicles will feel as if they are in heaven: the models are detailed down to the last nail, and all of them have detailed information thanks to Jane’s embedded database.

What I enjoyed, however, was the beautiful 3D graphics that allowed me to rotate the camera: there is no better sight than tracking a rocket and then watching it as it hits a ship, which then sinks slowly down to the bottom of the ocean.

-Bad Sector- (1998)

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Sonalyst Inc.

Genre: Tactical simulation

Publication: 1998