TransOcean 2: Rivals (PC) Review

Defeat your rivals and take the lead in the shipping industry!

From developer Deck13 Hamburg and publisher astragon Entertainment GmbH comes TransOcean 2: Rivals.

While the first TransOcean game showed you what it was like to found and run your own shipping company in realtime, TransOcean 2: Rivals takes things international.

Things start off easy enough on the West Coast of the United States, right? Oh wait, that would be too simple. We start with competition right out of the gate. With each chapter of the game, comes additional difficulty. Naturally. Each chapter introduces more competition, but it also introduces you to new regions. So while you thought you had things down, running from Ancorage to Los Angeles without a problem, now you have to deal with Lima, Houston, New York, Paris, San Antonio (the one in South America), and plenty more. The stakes have been raised, just a smidge… will you be able to climb to the top?
You will have to keep track of your fuel, and your maintenance, as well as getting your contracts to port on time. Did you arrive to port a few days late? No worries, only the daily late fee. Per contract. The gloves come off here. Pay to fuel your rigs, pay daily docking fees, pay maintenance fees. Sometimes you are stuck with late fees. On top of that, there are nuisances like tug boat strikes that give you the next dilemma: Do you wait a day, and have the tug boats dock you? Or do you take the safety of your ship in your own hands, and try to manually dock that beast? Careful now, if you run the ship into the dock, that is tons of extra down time, AND more maintenance fees.

Want more money? Sure, then buy more ships! And then there is that pesky little detail of making sure that you don’t run out of money! The cheapest ship I’ve seen so far sells for $12,000,000. So you will have to run your fair share of contracts to build up that much. And which model of ship do you want? Bulk? Container? Tanker? Each model varies in size and abilities, and each have their pros and cons. Tankers will bring you plenty of cash, but Bulk ships will earn you reputation points in the region. There seems to be a bit of a balance playing out here, doesn’t there?

Truth be told, just like it sounds, TransOcean 2: Rivals is anything but easy. And while I’ve usually been able to breeze through most other simulation games, the strategy quotient on this one has me locked up.  I have sank ships, and even run them into the dock trying to avoid the tugboat strike. I enjoy it plenty, but when you are awarded the ‘consolation medal’ for not meeting your mission goals, it stings knowing you are going back for more.

The visuals here are no laughing matter either. When you reach port and view your ship, you are treated to what I can only guess would be a 43rd floor view overlooking the harbor: boats, docks, cranes, and all the different subsidiary buildings that you will eventually have to cooporate with. If this was what I had to look out my window and see every day, I would consider getting into shipping too.

I didn’t feel terribly engaged in why I was trying to raise money for a relative’s bail, or why Pinky Ms. Pinkerton was determined to run me out of business. I saw Euro marks, and I wanted to raise as much as I could, as fast as I could. Too bad all those fees got in the way. I would be happy with a fleet of tankers bringing in 3,000,000 everytime they pulled into port. Twelve or so of those, and I would have no reason to worry again. Oh, wait… there are so many fees.

Final Thoughts

When I got my hands on a copy of TransOcean 2: Rivals, I thought “sure, i’ll drive some boats around. It can’t be that tough, right?” Famous last words. This sequel wastes no time making sure you know where you stand. Have $25,000,000 more than your rivals. And more tankers than your rivals. This is but one example of one of the goals you have, for one chapter. That is a lot more difficult than it sounds. If you have any questions as to the logistics of how freight gets transferred from one end of the world to the other, this title will give you a brutal start. There is no hand holding here. Meet the goals, or do not continue.