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Stimulating sim of naval surface combat in World War II

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 36
Date: November 17, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This three-demensional simulation of naval surface combat in the early days of world war II is just the game naval historians and the avid war gamer has been looking for. All the major vessel classes are represented in all the major engagements in both night and day action from 1939 to 1942. Let the PC do all the bookingkeeping as to who shot who where, you get to do the fun part as to deployment, tactics and the the thinking end of the fighting. With the exception of no land featured in the game, which makes re-supply and bombardment scenarios difficult to simulate, this is a shortcoming that, hopfully future editions or updates will address. All in all, an excellent game!

Fighting Steel

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 18
Date: September 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Hey, I've read all the reviews on Fighting Steel. There is hope. Although Divide By Zero did not do a good job, a group of guys called Navalwarfare Simulations has picked up the ball. They've created patches and updates for virtually every problem with FS and continue to update the game. They've added new ships all the way up to 1946, AND new fleets. They've totally revamped the gunnery and damage control systems. Best of all it's FREE. They're currently releasing the patches all in one easy download. They respond to input and are currently getting ready to release version 7.0 of the FS game. Again All free.

...navalwarfare...

BUY this game. Then download the patches and the newest version. You won't regret it. Included in the download are over 60 new scenarios. I've played over 500 times with no crashes.

Mike

Pretty disappointing

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: February 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Just returned the Fighting Steel to the store... I tried a demo before, but thought that the game is certainly fixed and improved after 1/2 year after the release. Wrong.

How the guys in SSI can release such an unfinished product? This game was hardly a beta. The many years old Great Naval Battles series is 100x more entertaining than this; and looks better in it's 2D.

1/640*480 resolution, in the year 2000 ?

2/no land masses, no ports, no subs, no planes, no manual aim of anything, bugs?

3/no strategic layer at all /those campaigns were a joke

4/unbelievably poor smokescreen/splash/clouds modeling

5/just about everything...

When I learned that there will be no more patches or improvements, since the publisher SSI didn't renewed the contract with DBZ, I just run back to the Babbages /Software ETC/...

***ship 3d models looked quite nice, but thats about all what's remarkable in that title. It's a pity, could be a nice game if done properly.

I tried to ignore the bad aspects and concentrate on good ones /since I'm really interested in the WW II naval warfare subject and this is the only new title available/, but it didn't work, the game is just too bad a never should be released, at least at this stage of development...

Let's hope that someone will do it right in the future. Don't recommend this even as a bargain bin item under $10. Pretty sad.

Run on PII400MHz/128MB RAM, 32MB DDR 3DProphet videocard, Windows 98-SE

Terribly Incomplete

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: July 31, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Land masses played a significant role in the sea battles during WWII, especially in the Atlantic / North Sea Campaigns. Unfortunately, Divide By Zero doesn't provide any land masses. Its like conducting a sea battle where there is endless water and no land. This detracts from the realism of the game.

The US used air craft carriers during the naval battles in the Pacific. Also, the British Navy used air craft carriers in its relentless efforts to sink the Bismark. Yet, this game doesn't provide any air craft carriers, air craft, and submarines. Players are treated to Navy forces consisting of battle ships, cruisers, and destroyers. This is very unrealistic.

Now, for the major problem I have encountered with this game. I have an opponent's vessel completely out of action. I pull up real close to the vessel -- say about 500 - 700 yards. My ship blasts my opponent's vessel with its main and secoundary guns. However, at this close range, most of my shots miss the enemy's boat. How can that be? The enemy his helpless in the water; he is not moving, and I experience such rotten accuracy. even the most inexperienced gunners can hit a target some 500 - 700 yards away.

Another interesting problem. Let's say I have sunk all the opponent's vessels. I click on acclerate end to move on. Well, guess what I find? Some of my vessels have either been sunk or damaged because of "Air/Sea Superiority." How can that be? -- Considering that my opponent's naval force has been sent to the bottom of Davy Jones's Locker. If Superior Air Power is used, then ships should be allowed to defend against it. "Fighting Steel" does not give us the option of fighting air craft.

The images of the ships are "realistic." Battle Damage, however, is not. True, when the main gun batteries explode, they appear destroyed on screen. However, other battle damage is not all that realistic.

For these reasons, I believe the game is still a Work in Process. It is incomplete, and needs enhancing. The graphics are accurate, but they look like unrealistic cartoon images. Overall, it is not the worst game on the market. But, unfortunately, it is not the best either.

Alas, what might have been!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: May 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

When I first saw Fighting Steel on the shelf, my immediate reaction was "Finally, the ultimate follow-on to the Great Naval Battles series." As I read the details printed on the box, my interest peaked and I couldn't wait to get into a major capital ship engagement. Unfortunately, I then installed this turkey and tried to play it.

Simply put, the game requires too much detailed effort to be enjoyable. There are an endless series of menus and sub-menus that must be employed to get anything done. By the time you have formed your forces, set navigational parameters, and maybe gotten lucky enough to engage the enemy, you're more than ready for the action to start. It doesn't happen that way. The game requires micromanagement of every aspect; navigation, gunnery, damage control, and this for every ship. What should be a very enjoyable simulation just bogs down in minutia.

What is even more frustrating is the magnificent selection of available forces. Battleships, battlecruisers, heavy cruisers, destroyers, subs and just about everything else from every major fleet are there, alongwith an almost overwhelming assortment of weapons. This game could have been a World War II enthusiast's dream come true, but it just doesn't deliver on the promise.

Worse yet is the brutal tendancy for the game to lock up in the middle of the action, with no apparent pattern to the problem. Technical support is non-existent, so you just get to start over and hope for something better.

The graphics are good, the sound effects are excellent and, if you can get a battle going, it's quite realistic. The problem is that it takes too long to get there, too much effort to control the forces engaged, and carries no guarantee that you'll get to see anything through to a conclusion.

If they ever get this right, it's going to be great. Somehow, I don't think I'll hold my breath.

Ken Harris review

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: May 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I was really hoping to like this game. You get the impression of playing an unfinished product. Problem #1 : At point blank range with a broadside from any ship, your likelyhood of hitting something is never greater than 10 % a shot. This is understandable at twenty miles but at 100 yard? Problem #2 no lands masses, island, depth? They recreat the battle of Savo Island with no island and no chance of finding a transport fleet at anchor.

no subs, no planes, no carriers, no signifigant objectives?

On the plus side accurate depiction of vessels, and nice 3d look

Incompleted and a little bit disappointed

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

It's been a while since the last WW2 battleship game out on the market. This game broungt some attention, but the contents are not very well.

The game didn't have enough ships to make it a complete WW2 naval game. It didn't have the later battleships which joined WW2. So the players could not enjoy the whole history and battles during the entire WW2.

The models and the resolution of the ships were out of date. This was not a flight sim which the objects moved more than 200 miles per hour. How much computer power needed to make a 20 knots ship looked good ? I don't think as much as 40 fighters and bomber under the same sky in EAW or even the compaign of Falcon 4.0. So what happened to SSI when they modeled this game ? Didn't they notice the change of the military sim market and the power of graphic cards?

If you want some taste of traditional gun fighting naval game, you can try this one. If you want to find some excitment, this game probably wouldn't give you too much.

I loved this game, but that's just me.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: December 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

As a boy, I always wanted to be a in the navy. Unfortunatly, the Dutch Royal Navy academy has a policy of only recruiting people who are able to succesfully calculate a heading and who have at least some grasp of math. Usually, my math teachers started to sob uncontrollably when they saw me entering the classroom, so well... I became an Information Retrieval specialist instead. I was overwhelmed with joy when I discovered Fighting Steel. A combat simulation game! With WWII battleships! Oh boy!

I must say, this game's a blast! At least, when you love either WWII battleships or combat-sims. This is clearly a game for the slugfest- and battle simulation-zealots and not for the action-loving thrillseekers or people interested in having some quick action. When playing the game, expect to be buisy for at leat an hour. Battles will take a LOT of time and effort.

When you like strategic/tactical simulation, or are just fond of historical ships, this is a good game for you.

The ships you can take to sea are the real, historybook celebreties such as the Bismarck, the Yamato, and the Hood, in the thick of battle, you can see turrets exploding, shells impacting, smothering holes in the ship's armour, and then there is a really nice easy-to-use editor to arrange your own gala slugfests.

Unfortunatly, this game has only four stars, instead of five. Why? Becouse this game also has some serious drawbacks. For starters, as already mentioned in other reviews, there is no land to be found. Yes, the developer states in the manual that they deliberatly chose not to incorporate landmasses into the game, but that doesn't mean we have to like it. Another little problem is the fact that the game looks unfinisched at some points. Several of the 3D models models have strange 'holes' in them, and sometimes there are the most odd glithses such as the report of the fact that 'none' has been hit by a shell fired by this and that ship. The last problem I have is the complete abscense of ships other than transports, destroyers, heavy and light cruisers, battlecruisers, and battleships. There are no submarines, aircraftcarriers or anything else not mentioned in the last sentence. This too was done deliberatly as well (or so does the manual say), but again, that doesn't mean we have to like it. Despite all that, Fighting Steel gave me the one thing I bought it for: good clean fun by blowing up historical ships in real-time 3D.

Good concept, but too many bugs!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: July 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I think the concept was great and I especially liked the scenario editor - it's fun to set up whatever kind of naval battle you'd like. Unfortunately, there are too many bugs. The most frustrating is right in the middle of a battle, the game quits and goes back to desktop.

Would really like to see a better version with the bugs "debugged". I agree with the other reviews that improvements need to be made in:
1)land mass
2) range tables (more hits at closer range)
3) later WWII ships included.

What game did you guys play?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

What game did you guys play?? This is a fascinating game. I got it when it first came out, been playing it until this past spring when it finally gave out. Probably played several hundred games and that doesn't cout my son who has played it for several years as well. I'm ordering another Fighting Steel, since I have seen nothing better in shp to ship combat. By the way - have you tried Carriers At War?? AWESOME. Each gen just gets better.

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