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Steel Ocean

Steel Ocean is a 16v16 WWII naval combat simulator where players take command of one of over 100 warships and battle in vast ocean arenas. Choose between 6 types of warships and clash in various game modes.

Publisher: Changyou
Type: Naval Arena Combat
Release Date: November 12, 2015
Shut Down: May 03, 2020
Pros: +Submarine combat. +Fast-paced gameplay. +Helpful tutorial. +Built-in voice chat.
Cons: -Latency issues. -Heavy grind.

Overview

Steel Ocean Overview

Steel Ocean is a 16v16 WWII naval combat game where players take on the role of navy commanders and take to the high seas to battle. Choose from six historically-accurate classes of warships including destroyers, light cruisers, heavy cruisers, battleships, aircraft carriers, as well as the covert and deadly submarine. Unlock, command, and upgrade over 100 different types of ships by earning experience in battle. Employ real-world naval tactics and work together with your fellow commanders to wrest control of the ocean. Aim down your artillery cannons and predict where the enemy will be moving to connect a fatal shot. Fight in a variety of environments, from the open oceans of the Atlantic and the Pacific, to the iceberg-riddled waters of the Arctic.

Steel Ocean Key Features:

  • Ship Variety - choose between six classes of warships and over 100 ships in total each with their own unique features.
  • 5 Tech Trees - earn experience by competing in battles and advance through a large tech tree and unlocking even more powerful ships in the process.
  • Submarines - take command of deadly submarines and sink enemy battleships in the relative safety of the ocean depths.
  • Skilled Shots - hitting a stationary target is one thing, getting a lock on a speeding warship in open waters is another. Calculate and lead your shots to ensure a direct hit.
  • Environmental Variety - fight across the oceans of the world, battling it out in the vast open waters of the Atlantic, the tropical islands of the Pacific, and the frigid waters of the Arctic.

Steel Ocean Screenshots

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Steel Ocean Featured Video

Steel Ocean - Steam Launch Trailer

Full Review

Steel Ocean Review

by Marc Marasigan

Steel Ocean is a free-to-play 3D naval MMO shooter set in the World War II era. Players take on the role of navy commanders in control of a warships and battle it out against enemy ships in instanced objective-based maps. The game bears many similarities to the widely-popular World of Warships. The game’s graphics quality is lower than that of World of Warships even on ultra settings, particularly when it comes to ship details and the quality of animations/effects. Not by much, but still quite noticeable. The water textures, however, looks great, which, quite frankly, should be expected of a game where 90% of the maps are composed of water. The game also has optimization issues and constantly suffers from FPS drops during combat, especially when there's torpedoes in the water and artillery flying around. The sound effects strike a balance between realism and arcadish, and the background music succeeds in setting the mood in battles but it isn't particularly noteworthy.

Commanding Ships 101

Players start the game with a two-part basic tutorial that walks them through controls for movement, targeting, combat, as well as the use of radar and communications. This can easily be skipped and can be accessed anytime through the game’s help menu. Aside from the tutorial, tooltips and pop-ups regularly appear to introduce and familiarize new players with other important gameplay components, such as ship maintenance and upgrades. An advanced tutorial is also available later in the game for players who want to get into the nitty-gritty of naval tactics.

Just Like That OTHER Game

Steel Ocean is basically a World of Warships clone from the overall feel, gameplay, controls, right down to the menu design with a few minor differences to set it apart from the competition, such as the availability of submarines, one of the most requested ship classes in World of Warships, and the presence of night time combat. For those who are new to the genre the core gameplay of a naval warfare MMOs consists of battling it out against other ships to complete map objectives that range from simple deathmatches, where the goal is to eliminate every opposing ship, to more dynamic ones like capture the flag and domination. A 4v4 battle in Steel Ocean takes at least 20 minutes, possibly longer as players get better and can successfully outmaneuver each other. Imagine how long it would take to finish a 16v16 battle.

Assemble Your Fleet

Warships come in six types: Destroyers, Light Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Battleships, Aircraft Carriers, and Submarines. Each ship class has varying stats and roles in combat. Battleships, for example, are heavily armored and are equipped with heavy-hitting weapons, while destroyers and light cruisers have considerably less durability and firepower but can easily outmaneuver the slower battleships. Players initially start with 4 destroyer class warships. All of the ships are playable but only one can be used in battle at a time. These ships can be upgraded using experience points and silver earned in battle to increase their damage, durability, and maneuverability. Upgrade a ship enough and players eventually unlock better ships. Although end-game (read as: overpowered) ships and ammunition can easily be bought using Gold, the game's premium currency, but, as with any type of shooter, skill still plays a big part in winning battles. A noob commanding a top of the line premium-bought warship would be hard-pressed to win a battle against a veteran in command of a basic vessel which saves the game from falling into the pay-to-win category, but only by a slight margin.

Finding Your Match

Joining matches or creating your own in Steel Ocean is basically the same as any lobby-based shooter like Counter-Strike, War Thunder, and, of course, World of Warships. The matchmaking system is good, and, more importantly, fair, so players don’t end up facing warships that can wipe them out with a single well-placed torpedo. Players can also join Fleets and participate in regularly-scheduled Fleet battles held a few times a week.

The Final Verdict – Good

Steel Ocean is a great game but, and I know I'm going to get a lot of hate from fans of the game for this, World of Warships literally blows this game out of the water. Don't get me wrong, getting to play as a submarine is awesome, and the night time battles lend an element of difficulty missing in World of Warships, but that isn't nearly enough incentive to get players to switch over from the competition, not to mention that World of Warships is better graphics-wise. Naval warfare newbies are welcome to try the game as well as the other submarine-obsessed players but if you've already invested a bit of time in World of Warships then you're probably better off sticking it out for the long haul.

Screenshots

Steel Ocean Screenshots

Videos

Steel Ocean Videos

Playlist: Steel Ocean

System Requirements

Steel Ocean System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP SP 3 or higher
CPU: Intel(R) P4/PE Core 2
Video Card: NVIDIA GT220
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk Space: 6 GB

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP SP 3 or higher
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)I5-3570
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 650
RAM: 4 GB
Hard Disk Space: 6 GB

Music

Steel Ocean Music & Soundtrack

Coming Soon!

Additional Info

Steel Ocean Additional Information

Developer: ICE Entertainment

Game Engine: Unreal Engine 3

Closed Beta 2: November 21, 2014
Steam Greenlight Posting: September 11, 2015

Release Date: November 12, 2015
Steam Release Date: November 12, 2015

Development History / Background:

Steel Ocean is developed by Chinese development studio ICE Entertainment. The game was posted to Steam Greenlight on September 11, 2015 and subsequently approved on September 23, 2015. It was fully released through Steam on November 12, 2015. On February 03 2020, it was announced that Steel Ocean would shut down on May 03, 2020.