Fishing: Barents Sea - Line and Net Ships

I went in expecting this DLC to be a quick vessel reskin, and I came out with a colour-coded spreadsheet of quota targets, fish seasons, and unlock distances. That is the Fishing: Barents Sea ecosystem in miniature: more content than the surface suggests, delivered with less polish than it deserves. The Line and Net Ships pack adds five vessels to the base game's progression ladder: the 23-foot Tobie and the 1920s-era Fix for longline work, and the Sharky, Snarset, and Moby D for players ready to juggle both line and net fishing. Each ship carries its own quota, which means picking up this DLC effectively multiplies the number of active objectives you can run at once. From a resource-management angle, that is the real sell. The Moby D, a 66-foot wooden-and-steel hull based on a 1970s Norwegian design, is the headline vessel and sits in a practical mid-fleet slot: big enough to carry crew and serious net hauls, small enough that you are still hand-managing most operations rather than watching automation do the work. The Fix, oldest of the bunch and based on a real Norwegian working boat, doubles as a surprisingly useful early-game radar platform once you upgrade it, making it a legitimate scouting tool rather than pure nostalgia bait. The quota system and seasonal fish behaviour that the base game established carry over cleanly. Different species have different windows, locations, and bait requirements, so planning a multi-vessel rotation across line and net capable hulls is genuinely interesting on paper. The depth-of-decision that sim players want is there. Where it frays is execution. Community feedback at launch flagged catch-rate inconsistencies on the Moby D, net-tear problems on the Sharky in rough water, and the fact that the DLC ships lack interior cabin spaces that the base game's Hermes trawler has, which is noticeable if atmospheric immersion matters to you. Handling at turbulent sea states, particularly tight reversal manoeuvres needed to haul nets cleanly, can feel sluggish in ways that tip the challenge meter from satisfying to frustrating. For newcomers to the base game, the progression unlock system is worth understanding before spending on this DLC. Ships become available based on actual kilometres driven, not fast-travel distance, so the Moby D and Snarset require real time on the water before they are accessible. That is a feature, not a flaw: the game rewards consistent engagement, and players who already have a few hours logged in the base campaign will find the DLC vessels slot in naturally as mid-tier expansion rather than a cash-grab shortcut. The base game itself teaches its systems clearly enough, and the difficulty sliders (skip the heat map, use only the fish-finder, for example) give veteran players room to self-impose challenge without arbitrary friction. The overall package is exactly what niche sim DLC should be: more of the specific thing fans came for, priced to match the scope, with rough edges that reflect a small studio rather than negligence. It will not convert anyone who bounced off the base game, and the Moby D's handling quirks are a genuine irritant if net hauling is your primary loop. But for players who found Fishing: Barents Sea's quota-and-upgrade rhythm compelling and wanted more hull variety to plan around, this adds real strategic width.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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