This is one of the BEST fishing games out there

[kotchorama]

I'm an avid real life amateur fisherman and also a pretty intense gamer. I'm ALWAYS on a constant look out for the next big simulation fishing game. I enjoy fishing MINI games even on games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Stardew Valley, hell, even Final Fantasy 15. I am WELL aware that there are people out there that DETEST fishing minigames, but I ALWAYS love fishing minigames (except the one in Fire Emblem Three Houses... don't get me started on that one)

I've played MANY fishing simulations from Fishing Planet to Fishing World to Euro Fishing, to Bass Pro The Strike... Hell I even have atleast 3 fishing games for my Occulus Quest 2. I have always enjoyed real life fishing and ingame fishing as well.

Out of ALL of those games that I've played, Bassmaster Fishing 2022 is the MOST refined, close to real life fishing you will get. Yes, it has a few problems: Lure animations in water aren't in, Fish seem to spawn vertically and stay vertically as if they think they're sleeping vampires or something... you get snags when you aren't EVEN on grassy patches, dumb things like that. But the quality of the game... the attention to detail is IMPRESSIVE. It's So impressive that I decided to buy it on Steam AND on the Switch. (I was on the hunt for a GREAT fishing game, and out of all of the ones that were out, this game REALLY stuck out to me)

I get it, if you don't have real life fishing experience, this game can be VERY hard. But I can tell you that if you have some experience like I do, its ABSOLUTELY fun. It's even MORE fun on Switch when the motion controlls decide to actually work. (sure the framerate is ASS, but hey, the motion controls, when they work, are ON POINT)

There are ALOT of little details that Dovetail games did SO great, for example: When you cast, you IMMEDIATELY need to reel in the slack in the line... then you can start working the line. Right when a fish takes your bait, you need to immediately reel in any slack before you go for a hookset, so that you can have a GOOD hookset. When you have a fish on the line, the fighting is really well done. You need to decrease your drag to give the line some leeway. If the fish is swimming towards you, you need to immediately reel in the slack or risk losing the hookset. If you have too much tension on the line, you can do something so SIMPLE as point the rodtip towards the fish, to give you just that much slack. On the Nintendo Switch... you can twitch your lures LITTERALLY like you would if you were out on the water: twitch once or twice, then reel in the slack and you're able to twitch again.... its REALLY well done.

Also, like in REAL life fishing... you can LITTERALLY find fish for free JUST by finding underwater structure OR pads and reeds. You're pretty much guaranteed to have TONS of fish hanging out by the lilly pads and brush, which is JUST like in real life. I've played many fishing games and have been EXTREMELY disappointed that they don't really pay attention to these little details. I LOVE that Dovetail games really did their homework when it comes to placing fish in the bodies of water. in the evenings and in mornings, as in REAL life, you can see that specific fish attack topwater lures. This is such a great detail that most games fail to implement. At night if you use a plastic lure, you can see fish holding choke points in currents JUST like in real life.

You REALLY need to have some sort of knowledge of fishing to be able to be successful in this game. If anything, I think the BASIC casting controls makes this game WAY too easy. You DO need to know what lures to use and where. For basic examples: Crawfish like to hide under rocky structures so if you're close to a rocky dam, you'll get PLENTY of bites using a Crawfish jig. If you find fish holding a choke point, if you use a swimbait you're pretty much GUARANTEED to catch fish. If you use a topwater frog on lillies or brush, and it's either morning or evening, again, you're pretty much guaranteed to get bites. The only other thing that needs to be said here is that you REALLY need to know what type of retrieve you need to use for the baits to become even more effective.(AKA: walking the dog for a tube topwater, Twitch or stop and go for a frog, jigging for a jig etc) I have a feeling that many of the people that post negative comments of this game litterally just cast out any lure and just retrieve it without any sort of technique.

I don't have long playing Bassmaster 2022 on Steam (have only just "freefished") and I already have around 25k-30k from just 2-3 outings. As I said before, this game is so WELL done (despite its flaws) that I decided to buy it on Switch as well. It's a WHOLE other ballgame when you can use motion controls to cast and fish. The motion controls are very WELL made.

Please excuse my wall of text. But I HAD to come out and let people know how AMAZING this game is. If you have some decent experience with ACTUAL real life fishing, you'll feel RIGHT at home with all the techniques and types of lures and fish fighting that is on offer here. It's REALLY well done, I can't emphasize this enough. If you're just a casual video game fisherman ("Oh I've fished in Red Dead Redemption") it WILL be very hard to get into, and that's okay, since I can tell just by playing the game that this game was intended to be a REAL LIFE Fishing simualtion, not an arcade fishing game.

As a real life amateur fisherman and avid gamer I'd give this game a rating of about 8.5/10 and only because there are a few MINOR things that detract from the experience that can be addressed at any time when Dovetail games can get to doing so. I'd also personally say that this is the MOST enjoyable fishing simulation experience I've played so far despite its flaws. I definitely recommend it, but it's NOT for casuals that enjoy playing fishing mini games or instant gratification fishing games. You DO need to have some fishing experience to be able to manipulate little fishing quirks to your advantage that the normal casual Joe will have a hard time with.

[BuckarooBass]

OMFG, I agree TOTALLY with your review. I am also a fisherman in the physical world. It is clear to me that most (if not all) the complainers here are clueless about fishing in the real world. I have tried/fished EVERY fishing sim on the market and Bassmaster 2022 is the BEST!
I cannot add anything to what you have said. There are gamers here that will NEVER be happy with Bassmaster 2022 until water splashes out of their monitor screen when a fish strikes. Enjoyed your review! Good fishing to you my friend!