



If you time it just right, your guy will gaff the fish and swing it inboard. As each hook nears the boat, a circle on the screen contracts and you have to try and stop it as close to the centre as possible, with the possibility of bonus fish being awarded depending on how well you do. A simple button press starts the retrieval, and this then actions a little mini game. This retrieval method is fairly easy too at least once you have manoeuvred the boat into the correct position. Luckily, in the game at least, there are handy colour coded rings around your gear, and retrieving the line while the ring is blue sees you get the best results. Trying to find the right area on the map, then laying the gear and cooling your heels for 18 hours for the best results, gives the fish time to find your bait. The act of longline fishing is a physical one, and it’s easy to see just how tough the real fishermen out on the ocean waves have it. Another advantage of the bigger boats is that you can have minions to do the donkey work – or “crew” as we should call them. Yet as you progress through the Complete Edition of Barents Sea you’ll gain access to bigger and better boats, which will allow you to trawl for fish instead of trying to catch them one at a time. Obviously different fish are in demand at different times in different ports, so tailoring your catch (as far as possible) to the market conditions will pay the biggest dividends. For instance, krill will attract redfish while shrimp will catch more cod than anything else. You have four choices of bait to put on the hooks, each of which will attract different fish more strongly than others. As the name suggests, longline tackle consists of a long length of line, with many hooks dotted along its length, which are then baited before being dropped into the sea to see what comes along. Borge is a small vessel, with only room for you and four sets of longline tackle. The game opens with you inheriting your grandfather’s old fishing boat, a rusty tub called Borge. Luckily, as some fish quite like the cold water, there is no shortage of things to try and catch – cod, haddock, pollack and redfish, in addition to the mighty king crab to locate and extract. The Barents Sea is a chilly bit of water located off the northern coast of Norway and Russia, just south of the Arctic Ocean.
