Russian Fishing

On TV, fishing is all glamour, large motor boats, fast-moving action, and massive marlins flapping about helplessly as a bearded man in a cap shouts at the camera.

In reality, for nearly everywhere else who isn’t located near the south-east USA, most fishing is spent sat quietly on a lake, sipping a beer and relaxing, waiting for that magic moment where the line starts twitching.

Likewise, Russian Fishing could be well called UK or Canadian Fishing considering its setting along a wooded lake, with not much really marking out the home of the former Soviet Union other than maybe the types of fish caught.

Gameplay follows the familiar fishing route in that it begins by picking a position on the lake (out of nine, with three unlocked at the start), casting the line, and then sitting back to watch the clouds move slowly across the sky.

Unlike real fishing, where it can take hours or even days before something exciting grabs the end of the line, Russian Fishing usually keeps you waiting for around 10-20 seconds before something bites.

Once the bite happens, you have to to lift up your rod with the ‘8’ key to nab the little blighter in the mouth, then reel it into the safety of the boat by holding down the ‘5’ key.

Making life a little trickier is that during the catching process the increasingly angry aquatic beast will try to break free. Rapidly tapping the directions shown on-screen calms it down, but this starts to increase line tension, which can only be lowered by pushing the rod back down.

The frantic nature of these sections is tempered nicely by the calm waiting period, which also helps increase the importance of each catch. It’s enough to make letting a 220 gram perch slip by at the start of the game almost heartbreaking.

As well as the inevitable waiting period, another reason for this sudden depression when a fish is lost is that every catch adds coins to your bank balance - the bigger, rarer types of fish counting for more than a common-or-garden fish (or ‘common lake’).

Its here where a few issues rear their heads, as the interesting upgrades like new boats (which unlock new areas) and radars cost an absolute ton of cash to buy, meaning you’ll be spending rather a long time stuck in the same three locations.

It would also have been a little more engaging if all the types of fish caught were tracked, as well, because the current system of displaying only the top three catches can get a little clogged up with the same type of fish.

At least it includes global leaderboards to keep mobile fishers fighting for the one that got away.

You won’t be catching any Marlins in Russian Fishing, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any excitement to be had just off the shores of its fresh water lake.