Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts

About

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts is a single player role playing game with a warfare theme. It was developed by Game-Labs and was released on January 25, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Design warships the way you want them, command fleets, win the naval arms race for your nation!

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Play Modes

Single-Player

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts screenshot

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60%

Audience ScoreBased on 5,153 reviews

gameplay121 positive mentions

stability264 negative mentions

The ship design system is intricate and allows for a high level of customization, making it enjoyable for players who love building and testing their own warships.
The tactical battles can be visually impressive and satisfying, especially when players successfully execute their strategies and see their designs in action.
The game offers a unique experience for naval warfare enthusiasts, providing a blend of strategy and shipbuilding that is not commonly found in other games.

The game has been abandoned by the developers, leaving it in an unfinished state with numerous bugs and performance issues that hinder gameplay.
The campaign mode lacks depth and player agency, often resulting in frustrating experiences where players have little control over diplomatic actions and military engagements.
The AI behavior is inconsistent and often leads to unrealistic outcomes in battles, making the game feel unbalanced and less enjoyable.

gameplay
617 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
69%
11%
The gameplay of "Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts" is characterized by a mix of innovative ship design mechanics and frustrating execution, with many players praising the core concept while criticizing the numerous bugs and unfinished features. While the naval combat can be engaging and the ship-building mechanics are well-received, the campaign mode suffers from poor AI, unbalanced mechanics, and a lack of meaningful player interaction, leading to a sense of repetitiveness and frustration. Overall, the game shows potential but is marred by significant issues that detract from the overall experience.
- “The core gameplay is very solid, including the campaign.”
- “The gameplay loop is very rewarding; you select at the start of your playthrough a nation and then start developing ships of different classes and prepare for war.”
- “The ship building mechanics and the battle mechanics are a blast.”
- “Most of them feel irrelevant or punishing — decisions that boil down to 'how much money or prestige do you want to lose today?' rarely do these choices benefit the player, and they break up the flow of gameplay without adding meaningful depth.”
- “The mechanics are janky, the campaign is unfinished, and no further development is being done.”
- “The campaign mechanics are while showing a lot of potential, may look bare bones.”
story
329 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
83%
6%
The game's story aspect is largely criticized for its lack of narrative depth and character-driven elements, with many players noting that the campaign feels like a random mission generator rather than a cohesive storyline. While the naval academy missions provide a structured way to learn the game mechanics, they often lack clear guidance and can be frustratingly difficult. Overall, players find that the game offers a sandbox experience where they can create their own stories through ship design and battles, but it falls short in delivering a compelling overarching narrative.
- “What the game lacks in cinematic flair, however, it makes up for in strategic tension and emergent storytelling — no two campaigns play out the same, and every ship loss or hard-fought victory carries emotional weight, especially if you personally designed the fleet involved.”
- “His playthroughs of the game's campaign, in various nations, were all very entertaining, including the 'admiral's logs' he included, which really helped give a feel of an actual story being played out.”
- “Ultimately, you can play historical navies, or you can design your own, use your own doctrines, and play out the story of your navy.”
- “The campaign seems to have no point and is only really a poor random mission generator that generates missions that can be either pointless (the enemy runs away and can't be caught), weird (opponent ships teleport half-way round the world to be involved), unrealistic (one battleship without any escort to guard two transports), bizarre (one enemy light cruiser attacks a large task force repeatedly, runs away if you try to manually resolve or receives light damage if auto-resolve, and repeats for five months causing the task force to run out of fuel and ammo even though it's been instructed to move back to port).”
- “The lack of a story in the campaign isn't a detriment. Unlike a lot of other games, a lack of story won't hold you back, because it's your story.”
- “The 'naval academy' missions don't explain or advise on how to build the ships for the given objective; it's 100% trial and error.”
stability
268 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
1%
99%
The game's stability is widely criticized, with numerous users reporting it as a "buggy mess" that hampers gameplay. Common issues include frequent freezes, poor AI behavior, and a clunky user interface, leading many to describe it as unfinished and poorly optimized. While some players find enjoyment in the core mechanics and ship design, the overwhelming consensus is that the game is plagued by persistent bugs that significantly detract from the overall experience.
- “It's really clean for an early access game, but not entirely bug free or content complete.”
- “After sorting out a problem of it not rendering the water, now it runs great and I'm really excited to play this too much now.”
- “However, it is overall a buggy mess.”
- “A huge amount of potential, however, it is sadly unfinished and exceptionally buggy.”
- “The game is a buggy, broken, poorly put together game.”
graphics
253 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
53%
4%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the detailed ship designs, impressive naval effects, and realistic water physics. However, numerous players report significant optimization issues, leading to lag and low frame rates even on high-end PCs, which detracts from the overall experience. While the visuals are considered better than those of its main competitor, "Rule the Waves," they are still seen as needing improvement and polish to match modern standards.
- “The graphics are beautiful.”
- “The detail is amazing, the graphics are excellent, the situations, scenarios and especially visual effects are flabbergasting.”
- “Larger battles wonderfully demonstrate the graphic quality of the game, as distant ships fire multi-color rounds depending on the gun diameter and shell type, flying out of a plume of smoke whose color and intensity is dependent on the type of powder the ship uses, all converging on the target ship that bursts into a spectacle of flames once a shell connects makes this game not only fun to play, but extremely pleasant to watch.”
- “Although it doesn't have any fancy graphics, it's slow and laggy, even on high-end PCs.”
- “Very unoptimized. I have an i5 12400F and a 3060. I run this game at minimum graphics settings in battles with 35-50 ships and I still only get 5-10 FPS, and 15 if I'm lucky. I would not recommend this game.”
- “The graphics are simple and the game looks dated, but it is clean.”
optimization
249 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
59%
30%
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with players reporting severe performance issues, particularly during large battles where frame rates drop to single digits. Despite some updates aimed at improving performance, many users feel the game remains unoptimized and buggy, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences. Overall, the consensus is that significant work is still needed to enhance performance and stability, making it difficult to recommend the game in its current state.
- “The ship designer is complex, detailed, and rewarding, letting you tinker with hulls, turrets, armor, funnels, and weight distribution in ways that actually affect combat performance.”
- “The level of in-depth customization and optimization you can give your ships is awesome.”
- “The game has improved quite a lot since the forced release back in January, many content additions, gameplay improvements, bug fixes, performance fixes etc have been done since then, which has turned the game into a much better product overall.”
- “The game is a buggy, unoptimized mess where the AI cheats and just runs away.”
- “The performance is terrible, not aided by the AI's destroyer spam.”
- “The game has horrible optimization; you will lose saves if you play them for too long.”
grinding
60 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
92%
The grinding aspect of the game has been widely criticized for being excessively tedious and frustrating, with players noting that managing fleets, designing ships, and progressing through the campaign often feels like a chore rather than an engaging experience. Many reviews highlight the clunky user interface and AI issues that exacerbate the grind, making battles and resource management monotonous. Overall, the game is seen as requiring a significant time investment for minimal reward, leading to a lack of enjoyment in gameplay.
- “The campaign is a tedious grind with very little fun.”
- “Some users may also find the mid-to-late game grindy, as long wars of attrition can become repetitive without dynamic events to shake things up.”
- “The core of campaign mode was never solid, as even in its most basic form the game loop of managing your economy, researching new tech, and building your navy up was not fun, but tedious and frustrating.”
replayability
45 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
62%
9%
The game's replayability is a mixed bag, with many players praising the shipbuilding system and diverse battle types that offer significant replay value. However, some criticize the campaign's lack of depth and polish, which detracts from the overall experience. While the core gameplay is engaging and allows for varied strategies, improvements in campaign mechanics and additional playable nations could enhance replayability further.
- “Replayability is exceptional.”
- “There is a ton of replayability in a types of battles, from the single combat missions, academy, and the campaign.”
- “With so much replayability and variety in how many different classes of ships to design and fight among pretty much all of the major naval combatants throughout history to help claim their title as master of the seas.”
- “Buy this game, and dream of what could have been with a deeper, more replayable campaign mechanic.”
- “The campaign has very little replayability thanks to bugs, automatic mechanics (such as land battles, submarines, and mine mechanics, to name a few), and general balance issues.”
- “The skirmish mode has no replayability as once you slap together a couple designs that work (as best as the game will allow thanks to the bugs in the combat system) there is no point in playing it anymore.”
humor
38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
97%
8%
The humor in the game is often described as a mix of unintentional comedy and amusing design choices, with players finding joy in the absurdity of ship designs and the ineptitude of AI. While some aspects can lead to frustration, many reviewers appreciate the game's quirky charm and the laughter it brings, particularly when witnessing the chaotic outcomes of battles and the humorous bugs. Overall, the game is seen as a funny experience, albeit one that requires patience due to its flaws.
- “Let’s just say it has a sense of humor.”
- “Very fun to build ships, either realistic ones or funny/odd ones.”
- “Your own ships are hilariously inept, always attempting the most complicated, confusing interpretations of your input to crash into each other and be infuriatingly ineffective.”
- “The last update (1.4) made the AI cheat so much it's not funny.”
- “The jokes in this game fall flat and feel forced.”
- “I expected a lot more humor, but it just feels awkward and cringeworthy.”
monetization
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
3%
97%
The monetization aspect of the game has drawn significant criticism, with many users labeling it a "cash grab" due to overpriced DLCs and misleading advertising that promises features not present in the game. Reviewers express frustration over the abandonment of core gameplay elements and the prioritization of profit over quality, leading to a perception of the game as unfinished and poorly executed. Overall, players warn potential buyers to be cautious and avoid purchasing based on deceptive marketing.
- “When a studio pivots too hard toward monetization—overpriced DLCs, neglected core games, and acquisition over polish—they risk alienating the very communities that built their legend.”
- “I can't give this game a good review despite still finding enjoyment in playing it because it's just such an unfinished mess that's been entirely abandoned after pushing out one final insult in the form of a cash grab multiplayer DLC.”
- “This game is a good concept but poor execution and you can't polish a turd; it's obvious to me that this game is just a cash grab, so do yourself a favor and just don't buy this game.”
music
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
59%
31%
10%
The music in the game has received a generally positive reception, with many players praising the beautiful soundtrack and immersive sound design that enhances gameplay. While some find the soundtrack minimal and occasionally unmemorable, others describe it as fantastic and worth seeking out beyond the game. Overall, the music contributes effectively to the atmosphere, with scores ranging from 6 to 8 out of 10, indicating a solid appreciation for its quality.
- “I have not heard an OST like this one in a long time, and although not long, it is very well done.”
- “The music is fantastic, to the point where I tried to find it outside of the game.”
- “As an amateur composer myself, I can say that the music for this game is phenomenal.”
- “Showed a 'battles...' working at the bottom right, music was playing... and 45 minutes later was doing exactly the very same thing.”
- “Eh, it's got its ups and downs, ups: great shipbuilding, pretty fun battles, country selection, graphics, music, ship naming and style ability.”
- “Music: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ - 6/10”
emotional
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the emotional experience of the game compelling, particularly through the strategic tension and personal investment in fleet design, which makes victories and losses feel significant. However, the lack of a fully realized campaign and the sense of an unfinished product contribute to a feeling of disappointment and heartbreak among users. Overall, while the game offers engaging moments, it leaves players yearning for a more complete emotional narrative.
- “Watching your ships exchange broadsides with enemy battleships, shells splashing around them while fires rage on deck, is a visually and emotionally compelling experience.”
- “What the game lacks in cinematic flair, however, it makes up for in strategic tension and emergent storytelling — no two campaigns play out the same, and every ship loss or hard-fought victory carries emotional weight, especially if you personally designed the fleet involved.”
- “Still, if you really like ships and always wanted an experience of building your own and battling it, with a still more or less bare-bones campaign, it is still very serviceable, but like I said, they started making a thing, reached the midpoint then pulled the plug; it feels so heartbreaking.”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere is negatively impacted by unprofessional behavior, leading to a toxic environment that may deter players from engaging with the game.
- “This kind of behavior is not only unprofessional, but it also creates a toxic atmosphere that can drive players away.”

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241h Median play time

416h Average play time

30-700h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 60 analyzed playthroughs

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Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts is a role playing game with warfare theme.

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts is available on PC, Windows and Cloud.

On average players spend around 416 hours playing Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts.

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts was released on January 25, 2023.

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts was developed by Game-Labs.

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its stability.

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts is a single player game.

Similar games include War on the Sea, Sea Power : Naval Combat in the Missile Age, Victory At Sea Pacific, Rule the Waves 3, StarDrive and others.

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts

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