Deadliest Catch is a Discovery Channel series about crab fishermen. For the select few who make up this niche market, it's a fascinating look at one of the toughest jobs in the world. Does anyone else care? Probably not. But they might if they're gamers, especially those who seek new and original content. From 24 and Alias to Lost and Desperate Housewives, history has taught us that TV shows can't be made into good games. Deadliest Catch, an unusual strategy game from Liquid Dragon Studios, begs to differ.

Catch Me If You Can

The average game doesn't need a tutorial. We all know how to jump, collect coins and use weapons. Deadliest Catch is nothing like that. As a strategy game, you might have grand visions of Command & Conquer, or less conventional strategy games like Pikmin, or simulators like The Sims. Deadliest Catch isn't like them either.

By going out to sea, you're leaving everything else behind. Nothing for miles – just water and whatever crew members you decide to take along (all of which must be hired; their pay comes from your final income). Ice, rock, and other natural hazards must be watched carefully. Other ships also pose a problem, as you must treat the water as a road with unofficial traffic lights. When other ships are in trouble, you may be asked to help. The execution is easy: if you choose to help them, sail in their direction. But the result of your actions, no matter how kind, could have devastating results. Once captured, crabs don't last forever. The longer you're out at sea, the lower the chance they'll make it back to one of the ports.

That's another issue you may not have expected. As a fisherman, you'll need to dock and unload frequently. If there's a line of boats already there, it could be several hours or even days (in game time) before your boat gets any attention. There are multiple ports, but none of them are close together. The further you travel, the more fuel you'll waste – another item that cuts into your bottom line.

A new survey is conducted every year to determine the number of crabs and their location. It looks like the perfect roadmap to crab fishing, but there's one problem: these are living, breathing creatures. They never stay in one place for very long, thus making the survey a solid guide but not a perfect map. This can be changed at the start of a new career – easier settings employ fewer real-world restrictions. The more realism you want, the more challenging the game becomes.

When it comes to hiring crew, you'll need to balance their experience and financial demands with your inability to pay everyone an equal amount. It's impossible to set sail with the best, most hardworking crew on the planet. By reading the bios of each worker, you should be able to score a solid cook (necessary for sustaining morale), an experienced engineer, and someone who knows first-aid. While these are important, they're considered secondary tasks – primary jobs are allocated to the deck boss, deck hand, and bait boy.

I know very little about crab fishing (or fishing in general, for that matter), but this game taught me that the plotter – a computer map system for setting up each task – is an invaluable tool. This is where you'll get to view the crab survey, locate other boats, check the weather, drop pots, and advance time. I think of Deadliest Catch as more of a strategy game than a simulator. But like a simulator you will always be waiting for something to happen. After dropping your pots (special cages used to capture crabs), you'll need to wait a day or so before retrieving them. From the plotter screen, players can speed past a day in less than a minute. If you need to travel somewhere during this period, it's best to set up a waypoint, which allows the boat to travel automatically while time is advancing.

Ship Out (of Synch)

Deadliest Catch doesn't have the most exciting introduction. The starting mission is just one of four tutorials that must be completed before the main campaign becomes available. They're a blessing and are actually a lot of fun. They set the stage for most of what you'll do in the game.

But that first scenario is really rough. Not in the challenging way, but in the "Whoa...how'd this game slip by the quality assurance people?" kind of way that will surprise even the most loyal Deadliest Catch viewer. With waves crashing, your ship swaying and the camera tilting like some action flick, the game is almost beautiful from this point of view (behind-the-boat camera, a wide shot of the sea, etc.). But the frame rate is scarily slow. I've seen games lock up on occasion – more commonly, they slow way past their 30 or 60fps status, reminding players that we are decades away from technological perfection. In Deadliest Catch, slowdowns are replaced by an excessive amount of lockups. No matter what it seemed the frame rate couldn't recover. The only bright spot was that this mission was very short.

While this doesn't represent the entire game, it is something you will have to contend with frequently, though not with as much intensity (most missions/areas run slowly but do not lock up).