Fighting Steel

by Mindscape

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002S5Q0
• Item model number: 54021
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 10, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,102 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

GameSpot Review

With Fighting Steel, SSI and developer Divide By Zero attempted to combine a tactical wargame with a 3D combat simulation in an effort to bring WWII naval surface combat to life. To some extent, they succeeded. Fighting Steel is a very detailed and generally deep game with an impressive 3D engine. Unfortunately, the game's best features are all but lost behind a poorly designed interface, insidious crash bugs, and a handful of design flaws.

Fighting Steel brings to life naval gunnery battles in the South Pacific and North Atlantic from 1939 to 1942. American, British, Japanese, and German navies are included in the game, and you can command any one of them through a historical or fantasy campaign. If not for its other failings, Fighting Steel would have tremendous replay value, as you can play a mini, short, medium, or long campaign with an adjustable "random setting" that can shake up the forces at play even in the historical campaigns. Also, you can play as any of the four navies, which can make things interesting.

Twelve historical single-battle scenarios are also included with the game, along with a scenario editor. The editor is fairly simplistic and easy to use. With it you can create some impressive fantasy engagements, such as the Yamato vs. the Bismarck or a 1940s version of Jutland with two huge fleets pounding each other to dust. I was a little disappointed that the game only included ships commissioned through 1942, however, since that meant no Iowa-class battleships. Of course, the fact that the game only simulates surface combat means that there are also no carriers or submarines - two ship types that played just a minor role in deciding the outcome of the war.

For the most part, Fighting Steel does a good job of re-creating the WWII naval surface warfare. The game includes over 1,000 ships (from 90 classes), 50 different guns, and 13 different torpedo types. The range, effects, and effectiveness of each weapon type appear to be accurate. Each ship is also rated for crew quality, crew fatigue, and night-fighting abilities.

Each ship class has been modeled accurately and stunningly in 3D (especially the Yamato, which looks great). Just for the hell of it, you can even deck out your ships with custom paint schemes. Weather and time of day play a part in every battle, as the game will reduce visibility for night battles, heavy seas, and rain. Also, you can turn on smoke screens, fire star shells, and track targets with powerful search lights. In fact, the 3D engine is one of this game's strengths, just as it was the only positive point in Buccaneer, Divide By Zero's last effort.

Fighting Steel gets another nod for sound effects, which are fantastic. The rolling, thunderous roar of a battleship's heavy guns, the steely hiss of a torpedo hitting the water, and the groaning of twisted metal on a damaged ship all combine to create a highly immersive atmosphere. It's a little disappointing that all ships seem to have the same range of sound effects for their main guns, but the overall effect is still quite impressive.

Campaign gameplay is very similar to Avalon Hill's Wooden Ships & Iron Men, only on a larger scale (since that game only gave you command of a single ship). This is not necessarily a good thing. You select ships for your cruising force from a list of all ships available on a given date, then hit the "next" button to see if you're lucky enough to have a battle break out somewhere. Engagements seem entirely random in this game, as in Wooden Ships, and that makes the campaign feel tacked on and unrealistic. How about allowing me to assign different task forces to different cruising grounds? How about forcing the player to spread his forces thinly in an attempt to hunt down an enemy battleship? How about letting players react to a meeting engagement by sending in reinforcements from other locations? A grand strategic view of the campaign theater would make this a very different game, it's true, but the resulting game could be so much better.

A new interface would also help Fighting Steel tremendously. As it stands, you have to wade through countless buttons and menus in order to get anything done in this game. The pop-up ship-status windows are a great feature, but the rest of the interface is confusing and unintuitive. Issuing navigational commands can be a particularly difficult task, and the gunnery commands are even worse. Why, for instance, do my ships continuously lose targets and stop firing, even when other enemy vessels are in range and I have assigned my ships a fire mode (range, battle line, or threat targeting)? When they lose one target, they should have enough initiative to start pounding on another - it's that simple. Having to go through each and every ship's gunnery target menus is an extreme example of unwanted micromanagement.

Even with these flaws, however, Fighting Steel is a good game. It's fun, it seems to be fairly realistic in most regards, and it can be quite addictive. The 3D graphics are very good, and it is downright thrilling to see your heavy ships pound the enemy with their 15-inch guns. Getting your fast-moving destroyers in among a slow-moving enemy convoy is especially gratifying. The real problem with the game, then, is its stability - or complete lack thereof.

Simply put, Fighting Steel is crippled by crash bugs that lock the game and the PC at seemingly random moments in gameplay. Even with a beta patch from the developer (version 1.01), the game continuously locked up in battles of all sizes, at all times of day, and at various stages of the action. These crashes rendered the game nearly unplayable - the only saving grace being a save-game feature (which works at any point in a campaign or battle) and an auto-save feature. But these are slim compensation when the game locks up every single time you try to finish a battle.

A few more weeks in testing could certainly have helped Fighting Steel. As it is, SSI and Divide By Zero will have to work feverishly on a patch to correct the game's instability. To its credit, SSI has been quick to address the game's problems thus far. Hopefully, it will be able to clean the game up entirely in the very near future because there's a very good game behind the bugs. Until the problems are fixed, however, purchase and play Fighting Steel at your own risk.--Michael E. Ryan
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fighting Steel, August 31, 2002

By 

Mike (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighting Steel (CD-ROM)

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

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stimulating sim of naval surface combat in World War II, November 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Fighting Steel (CD-ROM)

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!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Alas, what might have been!, May 4, 2000

By 

John A. Kuczma "RogueUlfric" (Marietta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fighting Steel (CD-ROM)

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.