When I first downloaded BassDuel, I thought I would know what to expect from this game since I had owned its predecessor, BassTour. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find this game to be much more realistic than BassTour.
The concept of the game is fairly simple: Put on your lifejacket, turn on your live well and LCD graph display, paddle or use your trolling motor or your outboard motor, choose a rod with anywhere from 6 to 20 pound test line and then choose from a wide variety of spinner baits, top-water lures, plastic worms and so much more in a rainbow of colors.
When I first downloaded BassDuel, I thought I would know what to expect from this game since I had owned its predecessor, BassTour. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find this game to be much more realistic than BassTour.
The concept of the game is fairly simple: Put on your lifejacket, turn on your live well and LCD graph display, paddle or use your trolling motor or your outboard motor, choose a rod with anywhere from 6 to 20 pound test line and then choose from a wide variety of spinner baits, top-water lures, plastic worms and so much more in a rainbow of colors. Cast your line and hope you catch a fish.
There isn’t much that you have to do outside of that.
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There were three things that made this game stand out from BassTour. First, this is a two player game. One player uses the keyboard and the other uses the mouse to play the game. The second major difference between the two games is probably the most significant as it gives a better sense of realism to this game. In BassTour, you could cast any lure anywhere in the water. You were able to cast into weed beds with a spinner bait or cast a spoon into a rock pile and you would not snag your lure. In BassDuel I had to break this habit after losing countless lures and losing valuable time and money in the tournaments. Instead, you will have to choose your baits wisely: A plastic worm cast into a weed bed will not snag, but a crank bait will. The third difference which will also improve the sense of realism is the addition of visual line retrieval. In BassTour, you would simply click your mouse where you wanted to aim and you either caught a fish at that point or you didn’t. In BassDuel, you can cast and you see the line being retrieved. You are able to catch a fish on the retrieve instead of only at the place you cast to. These three improvements have made this game much more playable than BassTour.
The games creator, Dick Olsen, hit a home run on this fun and fast-paced shareware game. You can conceivably finish a three day fishing tournament in less than 35 minutes once you learn the keyboard commands to speed things up. Overall, I would give this game a rating of 8 out of 10. It may not be as flashy as many newer games, but for someone with a busy schedule that likes a quick game to play, this is a nice option.
