Ship Simulator 2008, obviously enough, offers players the opportunity to captain modern ships. The premise is simple enough to satisfy anyone looking for a decent seaborne simulator, while the atmosphere and effects are complex enough to keep interest.

The range of crafts included in Ship Simulator 2008 is wide enough that it’s hard to see fans of a particular type of vessel being disappointed. I have reservations about conceding that it’s possible to “navigate” using an oil rig, but if ever you’ve wanted to be at the helm of an oil rig, you’re not likely to get many better opportunities.

Of course, it’s not all piloting oil rigs and supertankers through nightmare storms; Ship Simulator is relatively light on drama. Thankfully, there’s an abundance of bells and whistles to keep players amused when there’s not too much else happening... an all too frequent occurrence.

Shipping isn’t this Attractive

Initially, Ship Simulator 2008 isn’t all that visually impressive; the ships themselves don’t look particularly highly detailed and the water leaves something to be desired, which is effectively the gamut when a game revolves entirely around shipping. Fortunately this initial impression is swayed by the environments, which almost make the game worth playing alone.

Ship Simulator features a “free-roam” mode, which effectively allows the player to choose any craft, on any featured stretch of ocean, and then decide on a particular weather type and time of day. It’s effectively a kind of shipping zen garden and it’s here that the visuals become most obviously impressive.

While configuring the options (the time of day or night, the weather etc.) the menu’s background changes to reflect environment in which you’ll be shipping. This is important for two reasons. The first is that you’ll know precisely what conditions you’ll be labouring in. The second is that, if you’re playing free roaming, you’re likely to spend quite some time just floating about the ocean, enjoying the scenery. The option to view that scenery as you configure it means that you can make an environment to suit your tastes, tweak it slightly and be on your merry, sailing way with a bare minimum of fuss.