Britannia rules the waves? Not on this Japanese developer's watch it doesn't!

Take away the opportunity to indulge in obscene acts of personal gratification without your loved ones back home finding out, and what's left for a wargoing seaman? Big guns, that's what. So, fans of Naval Ops: Warship Gunner may be disappointed to learn that the action bent of that effort has been toned down for this sequel, in favour of a more cerebral, broader-viewed experience.

The meat of the game is building and arming your fleet. There are dozens of ships and each can be tinkered with enormously. You can load and arm to a silly extent, but bear in mind that an overladen vessel will move with the grace of Free Willy on the end of a harpoon. Time spent tinkering will reap rewards when you're ready to do battle... and it's this which disappoints.

In a way, Commander falls between two stones - and here's a cross-genre comparison to highlight how. If Micro Cabin had treated its game as, say LMA Manager, things may have panned out dandy: put in the back room spade work amid the functional menu screens and sit back to see what ensues. But in making the battles fully hands-on, it also needs to provide the graphical muscle to make them exciting to play. It hasn't, and the result is that lengthy strategizing ends in battles soured by blandness.

In being both action and strategy, then, Commander sadly doesn't have the balance to be classed as first rate in either.

Graphics 50%
The battlefields, especially, are lacking.

Sound 60%
Good battle sounds, bad voice-acting.

Gameplay 60%
Solid enough strategy, but light on action.

Lifespan 70%
Tons of tinkering and battles aplenty.

Overall 60%
An adequate strategy game which, with a little more love lavished upon it, might have been so much more.