FISHING: BARENTS SEA Review for PlayStation 4

Have you ever fantasized about sailing the open waters in some Northern European sea battling the seasons, rocking up and down, pulling in your longlines and nets but the horrid sea sickness and absolute stench of fishing keeps you from committing? Well, you can come close to achieving that dream with Fishing: Barents Sea brought to us by Misc Games; a deep dive into a fishmonger’s career in Norway’s Barents Sea. If you are a fan of simulators, then this would be the right boat to board. Yes, I just said that. This game really requires you to grind; it is simulating a legitimate career in fishing after all.

There is not much of a story: you inherit your grandfather’s old boat and take on the mantle of expanding the family business. The first few hours of the game are excruciatingly slow; without an upgraded engine, or radar, you basically can’t leave the already discovered circle of sea. I tried to venture out further into the map a couple of hours after I began my journey and it took me about an hour in real time to get to the other side of the map. I don’t believe this is a bad thing necessarily, but just trust me when I tell you, be patient – thankfully there is a fast-travel system.

I don’t play simulators, not because my millennial brain can’t handle the slow arduous tasks, but because I never have the patience to grind anymore. This is where I have to be objective and put myself in the shoes of someone that loves simulators, who has a true passion for living a career they will never get the chance to experience. Fishing: Barents Sea fulfills that dream… minus the stench and the sea-sickness. From managing my yearly quotas to upgrading my little scrappy village boat to a bonafide fishing ship or hiring a competent crew to do the dirty work for me, this game delivers. Even though at first I felt little gratification in laborious tasks such as reeling in my longlines, as my career progressed and my hauls became more plentiful I started feeling that sweet ooze of dopamine I was desperately lacking. The tasks in this game, like netting or gutting the fish, are depicted through crudely animated minigames that feel sluggish and repetitive beyond belief. Thankfully, as I filled my ship with poor saps to do the work for me, and the business began running itself the tasks became less mundane – and ultimately quite satisfying as I saw the money coming in.  

Let’s talk about the graphics: sims are not known for the graphics that some AAA titles bring, but I feel like the vastness of the Barents Sea – an exact replica of the real life counterpart – makes the game feel vastly vacant. Sure, there are some other ships and boats floating around the sea, but their movements are on predetermined paths, to the point where if you are hit by one it will crash into you until it changes the laws of physics and phases through you, destroying your hull. The interiors are quite bland, textures look a decade old and your shadow is missing its head! The water physics are also pretty boring visually, but they become pretty violent during a storm – if you tend to get sea sick don’t play in first person mode during a storm, you’ll thank me later. But, alas, why bother with talking about the graphics? Even someone like myself, who is obsessed with good graphics, got lost in the calmness of this game.

At first I had many gripes with the mechanics behind the game, though I have a feeling that has more to do with me playing Modern Warfare pretty much everyday leading up to this review process which made the adjustment hard. It took me a couple of hours to get into the groove of things, until I realized that Fishing: Barents Sea was just another basic grinding game, like any farming game. And who doesn’t like those? I spoke about The Division 2 as being an Amazon Warehouse Inventory Management Simulator, and I played the hell out of that, so what was the difference here? None! Except, well, maybe the shooting and constant chaos, but you get what I mean. Ultimately, I don’t have many complaints about the game which is why I can’t justify giving it a bad score. It’s a good simulator, it does well at making you manage a company, selling your product; fast traveling is there to accelerate time for those that don’t want to wait, but for those of you that want to experience a slow calming journey across these Norwegian waters Fishing: Barents Sea is perfect for you.

For these reasons I am awarding this game my arbitrary score of 6.5/10

Check Out the Fishing: Barents Sea Trailer:

For more information, please visit: www.fbsgame.net

Petros Gourgouris

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I am a recent graduate at Columbia University. I've been an avid gamer my whole life and truly realized the grandeur which video games can achieve when I played Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater on the Playstation 2.

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