River-Simulator 2012

Being a ship captain does sound like a fascinating and intriguing occupation, but there's more to it than just sailing the oceans of the world unhindered. For starters, ships also have to navigate on rivers and dock into harbors, which is much easier said than done most of the time. Moreover, the loads they carry are more often than not incredibly heavy and unstable, which means that every maneuver must be carefully thought through beforehand.

River-Simulator 2012 is a fun video game that allows you to experience the joy of being in charge of a ship, as well as maneuver it to the best of your abilities on the treacherous waters of the Dutch border. This way, you can experience what it means to have such a large machinery under your control, as well as feel the unease whenever things start to get out of hand and a collision seems to be unavoidable.

In order to properly relay the atmosphere, the game uses a very realistic physics engine, which makes the vessels almost as difficult to manage as they are in real life. Naturally, the actual controls are nowhere near as complicated, since you can simply steer the ship using the arrow keys on your keyboard alone. On the other hand, any kind of maneuver must be executed in time, since it takes quite a while for your input to be transmitted and the machinery to work its magic.

Although most of the ships available are rather big, since they are designed to carry things around from one port to the other, there are also a few lightweight alternatives that can be taken for a ride, such as a speedboat. The large vessels are the main attraction, however, since the missions usually require you to pick up various goods from one harbor and deliver them some place else. In case you get impatient along the way, you can easily activate the fast-forward function, which speeds up everything and makes the road far shorter.

On the other hand, the ride is by far the most interesting part of the game, since the river itself, the surrounding environment and the ships are designed as carefully as possible, in order to make you feel as comfortable as possible. Moreover, you can change the time of the day with the click of a button and enjoy the sunset or the sunrise whenever you desire, in order to enrich the trip.

River-Simulator 2012 is definitely a one-of-a-kind game, mostly because it really tries to keep as much of the real job as possible and relay the experience in a very convincing manner. Beside that, the graphics are quite nice as well, especially since the transitions between night and day produce wonderful lighting effects out on the river.