Seaworks: Trap Season looks like Deadliest Catch meets a cosy life sim
Let’s get this out of the way. ‘m British and don’t understand crab fishing. However I know more about i than most other British people. When our first kid was bornn and it was decided that she would never sleep, ever, I binged hundreds of episodes of Deadliest Catch in the middle of many long nights. I know more about crab fishing than you do – unless you are Captain Sig Hansen.
Now I am aware there was an official Deadliest Catch the game, which I somehow missed ouit on playing, but now I won’t have to go back to it as Seaworks: Trap Season may have been designed specifically to drag me back to those bleary-eyed nights.
Announced by Aerosoft, Binary Impact, and Alchemical Works, Seaworks: Trap Season is a hands-on crab fishing and life simulator set in the Pacific Northwest during the 1990s currently in development for PC via Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation and it’s going to be shown off at gamescom in a few days. Woop.
Players begin with a small boat, a basic cabin, and a fax machine used to receive fishing orders. From there, the aim is to earn a fishing licence, accept bounty jobs, and slowly build a sustainable life around the sea. Preferably without getting your fingers chopped off.
Crab fishing is only half the battle in Seaworks: Trap Season
Heading out onto the water involves placing crab traps in promising locations before returning later to haul them aboard. Every trap must then be sorted by hand, with sick crabs, rubbish, and other unwanted catches removed before the remaining haul can be sold.
Crabs can be sold fresh for a quick payday or processed to produce a greater return. Successful jobs reward money and experience, allowing players to improve their equipment, cabin, and boat.
However, simply finding somewhere filled with large, juicy crabs will not guarantee success. Weather conditions can change while players are at sea, waves affect travel, and stamina limits the amount of work that can be completed in a day.
That introduces an element of risk to every trip. Do you remain at sea long enough to haul one more trap or turn around before deteriorating weather transforms an honest day’s work into a very expensive mistake?
Keeping the boat afloat
The fishing vessel is your most important possession, and it requires regular maintenance. Damage must be repaired, fuel needs to be managed, and barnacles must be removed from the hull.
Ignoring that last job reduces the boat’s speed and increases its fuel consumption, potentially eating into the profits from an otherwise successful catch. Players can also customise their vessels with different colours, although I imagine keeping the thing afloat will take priority once the weather turns.
There is more to Seaworks: Trap Season than fishing and maintenance. Time spent ashore can be used to upgrade the player’s cabin, customise the boat, and repair structures scattered throughout the islands, including lighthouses.
Its world is randomised for each playthrough, with jobs, routes, weather conditions, and opportunities changing between runs. Rather than memorising the perfect routine, players will need to adapt to the current season and make the most of every period of calm weather.
It’s actually Deadliest Catch without the license, isn’t it, and with much more of the fishing lifestyle (and a bit less of the arctic). Maybe it’s just me, but this looks cool, and I want to play it. Probably in the middle of the night for old time’s sake.
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