14 DAY TRIAL // 
10 seconds. That’s the interval that can mean the difference between success and failure in Leviathan: Warships, between sailing away without a problem (apart from a pesky fire and some problems with the left bank of weapons) and gently gliding towards the bottom of the sea while enemies laugh and clap as they move away.
The main mechanics of Leviathan: Warships are deceivingly simple: gamers can issue orders to their ships while the game is paused and the action then unfolds in discreet 10-second chunks, with a change to pause the action at any time to survey the situation.
From this basic structure, Pieces Interactive manages to create a game that has tactical depth but always puts action first, with impressive ship-to-ship battles, moments of amazing triumph and dark defeat.
Each vessel has a number of hardpoints that house either weapons, each with its own characteristics, or other systems, like radar or shields, all with their own cooldown periods.
During the planning phase, gamers need to evaluate their position and their potential choices, then speculate about what the enemy might do and issue their orders using the most probable scenario.
I admit to failing the first missions of Leviathan: Warships about 10 times before I finally managed to understand how positioning, movement and judicious use of shields and long range weapons can allow the player’s fleet to defeat the fearsome enemies it faces.
This is a game that encourages careful movement, attention to detail, long-term planning and patience.
The computer-controlled enemy ships can be ruthless on the offensive and the campaign that Pieces Interactive has created is truly challenging and has a lot of depth.
Leviathan: Warships truly shines in multiplayer, especially if gamers manage to get together a group of players with a similar skill level because each guessed or surprising move becomes a subject for discussion, trash talking and general fun.
Players can design their own ships and fleets in order to take them into battle and the community of gamers is small but dedicated, with many players that are very capable but at the same time helpful.
One problem is that the game makes it rather hard to add friends to lists and join matches.
Leviathan: Warships players , regardless of their preference for single or multiplayer, need to understand the importance of speed, facing, weapon range and turning. Also, the title constantly finds ways to spring surprises on even the most battle-hardened ship commanders.
Graphics-wise, Leviathan: Warships adopts a highly stylized tone that manages to be functional and somewhat good looking at the same time.
This is not a game that aims to simulate every gun and system on a vessel and that works to its advantage as players are free to focus on the wider tactical picture rather than just look at their ships and the way they move across water.
The interface could have used a little more work, mainly when it comes to showing players exactly what weapons and systems they can use during a turn without getting them to click on each ship to manually get this information.
The sound design is also well suited to the style that Leviathan: Warships adopts, but there’s nothing impressive or special about it.
Leviathan: Warships is a solid game concept that could have used a little more attention to detail and a tutorial that’s better structured.
The entire experience is well balanced and uses a number of interesting core ideas and I can easily see the title eating 20 hours of my gaming life, especially if I can convince a number of my friends to stick to multiplayer for long enough to put up a solid challenge.
Pieces Interactive is delivering Leviathan: Warships on the PC but also on tablets, allowing cross-platform play between the two types of devices.
