Battleship-like party game Captain Sonar is resurfacing with a faster, simpler version for fewer players

Captain Sonar, last year’s party hit that involves commandeering a submarine and launching torpedoes at your pals, is a really fantastic game… if you have enough people around to play, that is.

Luckily, designers Roberto Fraga and Yohan Lemonnier are solving the tricky issue of needing a full crew of eight by releasing a condensed version of Captain Sonar simply called ‘Sonar’ later this year.

Sonar shrinks down the headcount so that only two to four players are needed to get the most out of the game, halving the play time from an hour to 30 minutes in the meantime.

The core gameplay of the Battleship-a-like remains largely untouched, as two opposing teams navigate their submarines around a map while listening out for the movements of their rivals to try and pinpoint their position, before blowing them out of the water with torpedoes.

Sonar sticks with two roles on each sub – the captain and radio operator, who have gained new abilities from the absent first mate and engineer positions, allowing them to fire weapons and use abilities by spending energy without having to juggle multiple responsibilities or hire extra crew.

Also gone is the need for the engineer to disable and repair systems as the subs move around, but only direct torpedo hits will administer damage – instead of adjacent explosions causing wounds.

The real-time mode has been taken out of the game, making it a turn-based affair – which might help eliminate some of the chaos of the original, but hopefully won’t stop the manic fun.

Sonar is out in the US later this year, and will hopefully be cruising its way to UK shores soon.