The audio design is just as good as the visuals with impactful weapon sounds alongside the fun and immersive clinking and clanking of interactions, making the player feel like they’re on the cramped bridge of their flagship, and solid, if limited, voice acting. Though its 2D approach isn’t overly impressive graphically, the aesthetics, artwork, ship designs, and UI elements all ooze with style and make the game’s world feel realized, lived in, and grounded.
The standout of HighFleet is undoubtedly its presentation. For a strategy game leaning into its hardcore roots, there’s enough character work and engaging conversations to dabble in light role-playing, which certainly helps with immersion and emotional investment. On the whole, the world-building is quite compelling (albeit a little intimidating and dense) with solid writing, plentiful contextual tooltips explaining lore, and a helping of interesting character choices through minor dialogue sections. There’s nothing quite like the world found in HighFleet: a modern dieselpunk setting inspired by Imperial Russia, the Middle East, Persia, and Afghanistan in its aesthetics and lore. Players will command fleets of air ships on a strategic map, all the while growing their ragtag force by recruiting allies, managing cash and fuel, avoiding dangerous enemies, and engaging in small-scale action-oriented tactical battles. In HighFleet, players will take the role of a commanding officer of an expeditionary fleet with the desperate task of defeating an alliance of rebellious nobles. Can Konstantin Koshutin’s HighFleet make a splash on its own merits and originality?
On top of that, large franchises and publishers have massive marketing machines and infrastructure to back their games up, taking up most of the attention and coverage. Long-standing franchises and established licences like Total War and Warhammer are currently dominating the strategy market, making it difficult for original IPs and indie developers to break into the market and leave a lasting impression.
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