Captain Sig Hansen was ready for a smoke break. The show floor at E3 was buzzing, and the star of Crave's new fishing-boat simulator, Deadliest Catch: Sea of Chaos was on the scene to promote the game. The concept behind Crave's videogame adaptation of the Deadliest Catch show seems true to the source material, based on our hands-on play time and Captain Hansen's impressions of the game. Players will have a chance to experience the challenges involved in building a capable crew and harvesting the ocean's bounty, just like the enigmatic captains featured on the show.

From a gamer's perspective, Sea of Chaos pulls together many things we've seen done before, but in different settings. Fitting out boats is comparable to what you might have done in some maritime adventure before going into battle; it's not a bad analogy, considering the rough elements involved in this vocation. Commercial fishing boats have a completely different set of load-outs, if it's fair to call them that, and you'll have to decide which boat is the best fit for your task at hand. Customizing boats is an option, but since the boat is only as strong as its crew, there's a significant portion of Sea of Chaos devoted to hiring and using a crew.

There were some interesting aspects to hiring the crew that we noticed while playing the game. Each potential crew member is profiled, showing various attributes that will help once you pull away from the dock and get to work. Hiring stronger crew members is a good thing, as long as you're willing to pay them a higher rate. Some characters are especially skilled in certain areas, which makes deployment as important as hiring. You'll select from a series of challenges, and at each stage, you'll need to select which crew members to put to work. In the level we played, the task at hand involved pulling in crab pots with a simple two-click mechanism that also relied on you to monitor and adjust speed, while avoiding scraping in another captain's pots.

There are additional simulation elements that relate to commerce, but we like the way the action in Deadliest Catch parallels what the guys do out at sea during the show. We're looking forward to seeing more of the minigames and the mission types, but a hands-on session with Deadliest Catch tells us that Captain Hansen won't be disappointed. Landlubbers will have a chance to play this on Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 this Fall.