Every year there are a huge number of different game simulators, whether it’s the sensational Stray which is also a simulator, or the snow removal simulator that we talked about earlier, but now let’s try something more different and catch crabs from the bottom. This is our Deadliest Catch: The Game PC review. Does it manage to haul up a keeper? Let’s find out.
Deadliest Catch has been a popular series on the Discovery Channel for quite some time now. It tells about the life of a fisherman who risks everything for a handsome salary at the end of the season. Now that the series is popular, it’s quite normal for developers to try to put the formula into a video game. Some are trying to cash in on the hype. Others want to expand the experience to what you like. But unfortunately, because of how poorly this game was put together and made, it reminds us of the bad movie-based games that often flooded the market years ago.
The game does not have a story. You start on a boat as a captain and must score the most points on the leaderboard each season. There is no plot here, only the course of the crab season. So, the goal is simple – be the best captain you can be, but you won’t notice anyone around you, and there aren’t any characters or your boat, so don’t expect more career mode immersion or any conversation.
We have a fishing boat that we can send wherever we want. When you select a location on the map, options will be displayed that gives you a rough estimate of its depth in that area. I am not the most experienced fisherman, but I understand that different living creatures are found at different depths, and if you need to catch one type of crab, for example, you need to choose the right place for this. Next, we teleport to the place, and the process of capturing marine life begins, which is not so simple because there are no conventions and simpler elements. The developers promised us hardcore and provided it almost in full – the game requires you to do all the same actions as ordinary fishermen in the real world. No one will catch crayfish for you. You need to do it yourself, even in the correct sequence. Otherwise, nothing will come of it.
To begin with, we need to take the cage on the deck and then use the magnetic crane to put it in place of release into the sea. Next, we need to pick up a buoy so that it is clear where to throw the hook to raise the net. Afterward, we plant bait for our underwater inhabitants inside the net and press the reset button. I’ll give you a little advice – throw two or three of these nets in a row, then go to another point and throw more nets there, then swim from one point to another, collecting prey. Raising the net is also interesting – you swim up to the ship, throw a hook, hook the rope to the lifting mechanism, pull the net, then throw the crabs on the table and start sorting out the catch. Not all crabs can be taken, so you should pay special attention to this – only a certain size and men.
The game is attractive primarily because there are no particularly automatic mechanics that will do everything for you. No one will control the ship for you – you need to succumb to the move yourself, approach the desired point, and so on because you control the ship completely on your own. Next, you need to manually unload the nets, load baits into them, and raise them from the bottom – you do all this yourself. You even choose the crabs yourself. For example, on my first run, I caught 300 crabs, and I will say that it was not the most fun time to disassemble this huge bunch.
And if you do not release the female or take too small a crab, then you will be fined and you will lose money, and if you do everything right, then there will be no problems with earnings. There are also all kinds of improvements, tricks with lures, and so on – all this allows you to immerse yourself in the fishing atmosphere and get more positive emotions from it. Hiring workers to make the gameplay as easy as possible is possible, and I advise you to hire them at the first purchase.
The graphics and visuals in Deadliest Catch aren’t all that great, I’d say not at all. The game will remind you of cheap simulators that come out every few months. In some details, I even remembered pixel horrors, as sometimes not so much. Not too much attention to detail, textures don’t look very good. It seems that Discovery (or those who sponsored) are not serious about this project because what we ended up with is more like an advertising campaign to attract a large audience. The animations are very basic and tend to glitch due to the many bugs present in the game. The weather will change quite a lot in the open sea, and the soundtrack is not to say that it pleases. In its current state, this is unlikely, as there are many bugs, glitches, and the overall gameplay feels wrong. The idea of having a game where you catch king crabs is cool, especially when you can drive your own ship and make history, climb mountains and build your empire… But that’s not here, except for crabs, of course. The graphics are of budget quality, and there is almost no sound. The mechanics are clear from the first exit to the sea. The absence of any events or what is happening in the world is depressing and frustrating.
Deadliest Catch: The Game is now available for PC via Steam, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
Our review was completed using a Steam key provided by PR.
