Gone Fishing: Angling on steroids!
Wow, you can find a game substitute of any hobby these days. But weirdly enough perhaps Gone Fishing is a hidden gem because it takes the time consuming drain out of real fishing and puts some of the best parts into a game. Check out what we thought of this production below…
Gameplay: Imagine real fishing, and then amp up the speed of everything. So you put bait on the end of your hook, cast out your line, and wait for the fish to come. But instead of waiting for several minutes for a response, the line will be tugging in seconds! A button in the bottom right hand corner will indicate when the fish is on the hook and you can retract the line. Once you’ve pushed the button then you need to play a little mini game where a little fish will appear on the screen and randomly move up and down. You then use a kind of spot light which you need to track the fish –its actually some simulation of pulling the rod back and forth or reeling in the line. Once you’ve done this long enough, a green bar will fill up and you’ll have caught a fish!
After successfully bagging a fish, you’ll be given the weight of it and you can share a picture of your catch on Facebook… Just like real fishing! But most of the time you’ll get a weenie fish and so you’ll be selling it off instead. You get silver coins for each sale and if you accumulate enough you can upgrade your equipment (stronger rods, various bait, different feed and nets).
So the game sounds simple enough, is it fun? It definitely starts off as quite an intriguing game. Like we’ve mentioned already, compared to real fishing, this is stunningly fast-paced. You wait for fish to take the bait in seconds! Of course that’s not the end of it, and you have the surprise fish at the end of every line you throw out.
Really?… So should I download it? Well as a short little play around it definitely has a few good elements to it. Aside from the guaranteed fishing there’s a quest system and an achievements list, both of which can help you focus on an aim. If you’re a fishing noob like me then you’ll probably think that you only need a rod, line and hook in order to fish. However, its actually much more complex than that because there are different strength rods, various baits and different feeds. This game has incorporated all of this complexity and almost adds a puzzle game layer. So if you use the correct combination of rod, bait and feed then you’ll be able to get a particular type of fish more often. In other words, it’s not just a mindless mini game.
What kind of person would play this? Someone with a lot of time and that person is probably used to playing repetitive games just to level up or earn synthetic currency. This is one area where this game seems to be fairly generous because there seems to be a decent amount that can be enjoyed without having to spend any money. But of course the developers need to make money somewhere, and some items can only be purchased with gold coins. The game gives some free gold coins occasionally but unfortunately its nowhere near the levels that you really need them to purchase items properly. We suspect that some fish or achievements can only be achieved by using your credit card.
Does this beat real fishing? Unfortunately having never been to real fishing I can’t say if this game is better, but it does give me a feel for some of the parts involved in angling. I suspect there’s no realism or skill in this phone game and as a result the “catch” at the end isn’t satisfying. Presumably nothing can really replace proper fishing where you’re out in the fresh air and enjoying the beautiful scenes of nature itself. There must definitely be more satisfaction if you can catch a real slithery creature and hold it in your hands.
If you do download the game, try playing with headphones on and the sound relatively loud. Then you can enjoy the extremely realistic sound effects! I played whilst I had an annoying fly in my room and the in-game sounds scared me so much because I thought I had a fly buzzing directly around my head!
Good and bad points: There’s quite a lot that can be played if you’re willing to grind through this game. Overall the polish is excellent and the game is pretty solid. There are multiple fishing grounds each of which have their own plentiful supply of different species. The downer is that if you’re really enjoying the game then you’ll probably have to fork out real money to enjoy everything.
Rating: 2.5/5 Gone fishing is a well polished angling game that captures many of the fun parts of the sport. Unfortunately when you look at the core it really is quite repetitive… though perhaps this can be a reflection of real fishing? In short, it’s fun and enticing in short stints but there are probably more engaging and rewarding games to be played out there.
Developers: Drimmi
Gone Fishing QR Code (Click on the image or scan the barcode with your Android phone to goto Google Play) 
