Tight Lines Fishing, from SocialSpiel, is an odd looking game that doesn’t make the best first impression, but has a strange way of growing on you. A collection-oriented fishing game, it seems rather dull at first, but has a simplistic charm that is actually a bit soothing. Though it is not quite the same as actual fishing, the game does attempt to emulate it as best it can on the social network.
Tight Lines Fishing, from SocialSpiel, is an odd looking game that doesn’t make the best first impression, but has a strange way of growing on you. A collection-oriented fishing game, it seems rather dull at first, but has a simplistic charm that is actually a bit soothing. Though it is not quite the same as actual fishing, the game does attempt to emulate it as best it can on the social network.
You take on the role of a son or daughter who has inherited some land that holds a wonderful fishing hole. Because of this, the whole point of the game is to fish, fish, and fish some more. In essence, it becomes a collection based application in which you attempt to fill out a journal of various aquatica and items.
The gameplay is simple. In order to fish, you merely need to approach the water and click where you wish to cast. After a second or two, the shadow of a fish will be visible and when it bites, you will receive a red and green bar. As a line bounces back and forth within this bar, you must time a click so that the line lands within the green space. The more difficult the fish is to catch, the smaller this green space will be. Once caught, the species will be added to your journal, and you’ll earn some coins and experience.
As you level up, you will be able to enter the store and purchase any number of equipable items, such as fishing poles and clothing, that will boost your fishing prowess. There are three stats to worry about, including fishing skill, mastery, and luck. The first makes it easier to catch bigger fish (it seems like this expands the size of the green area on the catch bar). Mastery will hook fish faster, and luck increases the chances of finding more rare fish. In addition to these items, you must also purchase lures in order to fish at all, and specific types of lures will often attract specific types of fish.
One nice feature is that lures can also be crafted by items that you find around the game world. Every so often it is possible to “poke” objects in the environment which, will result in random items, coin, and experience to collect. The items are sometimes part of collections that are stored in your journal, while others are used to create lures from scratch. Both poking and fishing consume energy, and other than waiting long periods of time for it to regenerate, the only way to get it back is to eat food. Thankfully, this can often be found in some environmental objects and crafted as well.
Tight Lines Fishing also comes with a bit of a virtual space element, as it is also possible to buy buildings and decorative items to dress up certain areas of the level with. Unfortunately, this aspect of the game feels a bit like an after thought as the decorum is extraordinarily limited and it isn’t possible to really create anything truly special looking. Moreover, while some of the buildings offer benefits (such as extra coin every 24 hours), most require friends to accept help requests so they can be built.
Likely, the reason the virtual space feature was added is because the fishing aspect can get boring. All it really consists of is clicking, waiting, and clicking again at the right time. The game is very niche, and really only appeals to players that enjoy things such as crafting in other, larger, core games. The game does have a very soothing presentation to it created largely by the serene music and tranquil sound effects. It’s like listening to a relaxing nature soundtrack, but with a game tacked on to it. The only downside to it is the hideous grin that the male avatar always wears.
Tight Lines Fishing is average in terms of its level of fun, and for most, it will seem boring. However, for a select few, it’s actually a very nice experience. It isn’t going to win any design awards by any means, but it can be alluring to try and complete collections. It’s also surprisingly calming to just sit back and listen to nature; even if it is artificial. If nothing else it’s nice to just have running in the background for the sound design alone.
