I’ve parked my carrier about 3km off the shore. I’ve learnt the hard way not to get too close to the land – once from running aground and severely damaging my hull, and the other from getting close enough that I was within the attack range of the automated vehicles patrolling the island. While my carrier is a formidable weapon, packed with both amphibious craft and aircraft, and sporting AA missiles, CWIS guns (automated anti-air and anti-missile gattling cannons), torpedoes, cruise missiles and a devastating 160mm cannon, it’s distressingly bad at close-quarters combat. So rather than getting turned into a colander (again), I’ve stayed well back, near enough to the land for the sea to be relatively calm, but far enough away for safety.
Checking the currents to make sure that I won’t drift too far, I head over to my vehicle command screens. The first thing I do is launch several amphibious vehicles, setting up a series of waypoints which will activate upon my command. Three of these are loaded with cannon, the last with virus bots – small machines which if kept in the vicinity of the island’s command centre, will bring it under my control (provided they survive that long). Secondly, I launch an aerial drone, and put it into a high altitude patrol pattern, then take manual control of its camera, and methodically tag every enemy vehicle and structure I can find. Again, this was the result of a painful lesson, where incomplete reconnaissance had resulted in my ground forces being wiped out by foes I had not spotted.
Then I commence the bombardment. Volleys of shells drop from the sky, lighting up the island and incinerating anything too close. A cruise missile takes out several enemies lurking in the water. A strafing run from my plane takes out another two, whilst return ground-fire warns me that there is at least one enemy I failed to spot. Only when I’m happy that I’ve sufficiently whittled down my foes, do I launch my ground assault. In the past I would have taken manual control of at least one of the vehicles, but I’m now confident enough with my planning to watch the entire thing unfold on my command screen. I watch with a sense of a job well done as everything unfolds without a hitch. The island is captured, all my vehicles have returned with no or minimal damage, and what’s better, I now have a means to replenish the ammo I used in clearing out the island. Taking a moment to establish my new supply line and order a few hundred rounds of 160mm ammo (excessive, perhaps, but why not?), I single out a new island, fire up my engine, and head back out to sea.
First up, a warning to newcomers: Carrier Command 2 is an older style of game. And I’m not saying that because of its retro-style graphics (which simultaneously manage to look old but way better than any old game could ever dream of), but because of its gameplay. While it is billed as a real-time-strategy, it would be fairer to say this is in fact a simulation (and a surprisingly comprehensive one at that) which requires strategy in order to succeed. If you come to it expecting lightning fast action, and to surf adrenaline highs, then this probably will drive you mad. This is because Carrier Command 2 is the polar opposite of the ‘dive in and wing it’ style of action game (even amongst the RTS genre). Rushing in is the surest way to incur serious damage, lose valuable and hard to replace equipment, and waste precious munitions. (Actually, rushing anywhere in a huge ship is pretty impossible.) Careful thought, planning and preparation is key at each and every stage of the game. So if you’re looking for a ‘slow-burn’ style of game requiring considered strategy and patient execution, then read on.
As the name suggests, Carrier Command 2 puts you in command of a carrier – a mighty ship loaded with land vehicles and air drones. Dropping the player onto the planet of Telos, a world made up of numerous islands housing automated factories, the player’s goal is simple: defeat the enemy carrier. The enemy carrier’s goal is equally simple: travel to each island and plant an explosive. When all the islands are mined, the resultant detonation will fracture the planet’s tectonic plate and ruin it as a production facility.
While the player’s goal is simple, there are quite a few factors complicating it. In the first place, the enemy carrier starts on the other side of the map, and that’s not somewhere you’re going to get to travel to without several hours of time and plenty of fuel. In the second place, you simply do not have the resources to immediately do this even if you wanted to. To get them, you’re going to have to conquer multiple islands and use their production facilities to set up a logistics chain to keep your carrier supplied. Third and finally, the enemy carrier will move and capture islands of its own, including yours if you leave them unattended.
So let’s talk firstly about controlling your carrier. As the player, you actually take the role of a person inside the carrier’s bridge (though you can freely wander around the humongous structure if you wish) controlling the various systems. Each of these have dedicated control systems on the bridge, including: master switchboard, helm, navigation, logistics, weapon controls, and drone command. While you can play Carrier Command 2 as a multiplayer game, with each player taking control of part of the ship’s systems, it is more than possible to play the game in single-player mode as each of these can be automated to a degree.
There’s also a fair amount of customisation possible with some of the systems. Weapon systems can all be individually engaged, for example, or controlled via the master switchboard (handy for instantly bringing all weapons online, though at the expense of speed). The helm has three monitors, each which can be made to show a different level of zoom and readout. For example, I had one monitor set for long range cartography, another set for mid-range and showing currents, and the last a close-range scan showing me ocean depth.
Speaking of customisation, there are the drones you control. Unlike other RTS games where units have fairly fixed roles and abilities, in Carrier Command 2 each drone instead has some basic characteristics (such as speed, armour and whether it’s a plane, VTOL or helicopter) and then a number of hardpoints. These hardpoints can be customised with a wide variety of weapons, including multiple types of cannon, several different flavours of missile, bombs, torpedoes, vehicles (if using aircraft as transport) and utilities (RADAR, cameras, extra fuel tanks and so on). So while you may have a hold full of the same chassis, each can be modified to fulfil a specialised role, provided you have the equipment.
Which brings me neatly to actually using your drones – the bread and butter of your strategy as you are controlling a carrier, after all. Upon arriving at an island, it may be tempting to unload every vehicle at your disposal and storm up the beaches. Nothing could be more guaranteed to have your entire force ignominiously wiped out, and costing you the game in the process. No, as the introduction to this review suggests, taking any island, no matter its difficulty rating (ranging from 1 to 4 shields), is a matter of cautiously scouting the area and building up a clear picture of just what forces there are, and how many. While this can be done using your ship-based scope, my preferred method, provided I had first dealt with any anti-air emplacement, was to send up a speedy air drone to about 1,700 metres on a looped patrol pattern.
While my scout is getting ready to launch (as the game is actually a sim, your drones reside inside your carrier and have to move to either the exit ramp or – in the case of aircraft – to a lift to reach the upper deck), I will usually set up a number of other waypoints, set to activate upon my signal, in order to actually capture the island. By this time, my plane is usually in the air, and I can then take direct control of its camera (actually, you can take manual control of any system of any vehicle you control excepting logistics barges) and use it to scout out the enemy forces, noting numbers, locations, turrets and the like. If it’s dark I can even launch a flare to improve visibility. Once scouting is complete, it’s up to the player to determine the best way to deal with the threats.
Tempting as it may be to hang back and rain fire using the carrier, this is not always the best way (though it does look spectacular). For instance, the carrier’s 160mm cannon only holds 20 rounds in its magazine and takes a long time to reload. As it fires 5 rounds at a time, you only get four shots before it’s effectively out of action. And while you may have more rounds stored in your hold, unless you’ve made sure to capture an island with has a munitions factory on it as well as the blueprint for 160mm ammo, you’ll very quickly run out of those. This encourages you to mix up using your carrier with ground and air assaults, and, crucially, setting up a reliable logistics train.
To replenish all your equipment, you’ll need the island’s factories. Once captured, you can order them to produce specific items provided you’ve got the funds. However, before you can use this new equipment, it needs to be first sent to a warehouse, and from there to your carrier via barges. All of this takes time, and poor planning can see you run out of ammo, vehicles or even fuel when you need it most.
While this all seems like a lot, it is actually fairly intuitive once you understand how it all fits together and just what your options are. Pulling off a perfectly executed assault brings with it a sense of quiet satisfaction that never grows tired, while losing any vehicle feels like a real disaster, especially if you don’t have the facilities or funds to replace it. And a large part of this is due to the fact that, at the time of writing, there is no feature to accelerate or compress time. Reloading weapons take time. Building new vehicles, shipping them to your warehouse and then to your carrier takes time. If you’re stranded in the middle of the ocean with your nearest fuel-barge half-an-hour away, then you’d better grab a cup of tea and do something else in the meantime. It is a slow-paced game, but I think that’s actually part of what gives Carrier Command 2 its distinctive flavour. This is the sort of game you fire up in the evening, capture an island or two, and then come back to it the next day. To beat the campaign took nearly 18 hours, including a few aborted attempts, and I suspect that was on the quick-side.
If Carrier Command 2 has a fault, it’s that not all the systems are fully explained either in the tutorial or the manual. Also, the tutorial is liable to set the player off in literally the wrong direction with it’s command to ‘capture an enemy island’, which will likely see the player steering to the nearest island, instead of first consulting the logistics screen to see which island produces what, and so what makes the most sense to capture first. Thankfully there are a few incredibly dedicated players who have put tutorials up, which make the systems extremely easy to understand, and I would definitely recommend watching them.
Carrier Command 2’s slow pace, the need for methodical planning, and an emphasis on a simulated world from the ship right down to the torpedoes, gives it a feel quite unlike any other game I have played. To be honest, I first found the various systems overwhelming (though to be fair, that’s a criticism that can be leveled at nearly any in-depth sim), and the lack of ability to speed up time rather frustrating. However, there was enough there to encourage me to stick with it, and I’m quite glad I did. Once I had become at ease with the controls and logistics, and ‘gotten’ the more sedate pace, it became quite enjoyable and put me in mind of the older flight sims that I used to be fond of. Capturing islands was always satisfying, as was jumping into the camera of an aircraft and calling in supporting fire. And the final battle was a heady mix of methodical planning and manic darting between various systems to manage weapons, helm and countermeasures (and even then I barely scraped through with 6% hull integrity – and only then thanks to a lucky shot from my cannon which took out the enemy’s CWIS guns and allowed me to drop a cruise missile right onto their bridge). I definitely intend to try a few different campaigns and see what I can do with different loadouts.
Carrier Command 2 is squarely aimed at a niche audience. If you’re looking for high-octane action, and games you can complete in 30 minutes, then this is definitely not for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoy simulations, you’re looking for a game that rewards methodical planning, gives a sense of quiet satisfaction, and the feel of being in command of a huge military vessel, then Carrier Command 2 is definitely worth your time. ■