Actually those pirate hats and eye patches are totally unnecessary since there’s no sign of shooting cannons or boarding enemy vessels. However, what you can do in this game is load containers onto monstrous container ships, towing an oil platform back to the harbor with the world’s strongest towers or you can also go on rescue missions and help people in need. To get some action into Ship Simulator the creators have also added a powerboat which serves no better purpose than to cruise around over the massive waves of the Atlantic. All these sailing thingies can be used on the open seas as in world’s greatest ports (Rotterdam, New York, …).

How sad it may seem, this game can only be played by one player (so no multiplayer possibilities). This loner can choose between three modes: execute standard missions, some free roaming or custom missions built by other players. Both mission-modes serve you with some objectives you have to complete. Now, what are those objectives? Well, you can tow, load, … indeed, all things I’ve mentioned before. I smell repetitive gameplay! Ship Sim has nothing more to offer when we’re talking about modes of play.So, as said, it tends to get boring, but what did you expect from a simulator, let alone a ship simulator.

Although there’s not an awful lot of variation in things we can do, there are certain elements which help forget this “problem” a bit. The weather for example is one those elements. Next to that, I feel it’s one of the greater items this game has to offer. Realistic waves sizing up to ten meters in height, actual sea storms or clear skies with the sun high up on the horizon, … Add some nice wave effects to that, and you feel like you’re at sea, sensing you afternoon meal coming out in a way you wouldn’t want it to.

Yet another aspect which has the possibility to give this game an edge over other ship related games is the size of the vessels. For example, let’s say you’re sailing on a thug and you’re goal is to tow a super tanker back to port. The feeling you get while floating next to this giant can be described as “wow”. Such a towing boat is rather puny compared to one of the world’s biggest boats. It can latterly take up to a few minutes to sail past this massive pile of iron.

How strange it might seem, there’s yet another positive point I want to discuss. Ever wanted to walk on the deck of the Titanic? Ship Simulator 2008 offers you this possibility. Not only can you command this giant of old, but thanks to the walkthrough camera you can also walk around on every boat in the game. On the other hand, don’t expect to find highly detailed interiors since the devs seem to have forgotten to add decent textures. Most walls are composed out of one single color which causes the ship to look quite dull. So on one hand it’s too bad we don’t get to see detailed inside images, but on the other hand it does add a cool perspective to the sailing experience.

No game is perfect (sadly) and this counts for Ship Sim as well. As mentioned earlier, there’s no multiplayer capabilities which could have been fun. Perhaps some co-op possibilities where you can tow a tanker together with your friends or something similar. On the other hand, this could not have increased the replay-ability. This is the kind of game which gets so boring after a certain period of time, it will probably disappear in your closet for a very long time. This is mostly thanks to the lack of options and different mission objectives. Then again, it does remain a simulation so I guess this is mainly aimed a boat-lovers, so if you’re not one of those it would be best to save your money and leave this game as it is.