Pirate waters. Buccaneers review!

A game about sea and land battles, factional feuds and plots. Spoiler-free review.

The game is announced for platforms: Xbox One, Windows.

There is also a very interesting. I won’t spoil it. In short, in the end our task is to lead our faction to victory. It could be England, France, Spain or pirates.

Plots are presented mainly in the form of dialogues with key NPCs and small text inserts.

The gameplay is a first-person ARPG, where we explore the world, participate in naval battles, fight in boarding battles, or even storm cities.

When creating a hero, I recommend not skipping the training mission. Here they will teach the basics of ship control, naval combat and boarding.

Our hero will spend most of the game time on deck.

As a rule, the task is to defeat an enemy ship (sometimes several) or a fortress. We turn the steering wheel, aim the guns, shoot.

There are three classic types of shells: cannonballs (damage to the hull), nipples (we knock down sails, slow down the enemy) and buckshot (to thin out the team).

Naval battles are very arcade-like. There is no wind direction, the ship can turn on the spot with the sails retracted. On the one hand – simplification. On the other hand, it gives more dynamism and, ultimately, interest. I remember how in one game I had to tack for 10-20 minutes to get a good shot.

In addition to shooting from cannons, there are also regular battles with enemy NPCs during boarding or landing on land. Our hero can fight in close combat, shoot with a pistol or musket.

Sometimes naval battles are massive. Then a fleet of up to four ships appears on each side. You can (with appropriate leveling) include captured vessels into your fleet. Sometimes helper ships are sent on assignment.

In order to patch up holes, sell the extracted cargo, get sailors, stock up on provisions and get new quests, you need to visit ports.

The towns have governors, trade and https://brucebetcasino.co.uk/mobile-app/ repair services. Inside the settlements there is a system of fast movement between key points if you don’t want to run.

On the board located in the mayor’s room, you can take a bounty hunting task. They are updated as they are completed and become more complex with our development (new ships, improvements, etc.).d.).

At the shipyard you can pretty much upgrade the abilities of the ship and crew.

An interesting point is that some equipment requires faction membership.

The guns are very different. Especially in terms of firing range and damage. It is noteworthy that not all guns can fire all types of projectiles; it is worth paying attention to this when installing. T.e. Having bought some powerful cannon, you may find that it does not fire with nipples, which means it will be very difficult to disrupt the progress of the enemy ship.

At some point it will be necessary to decide which faction the hero will join along the way. Each provides unique and significant bonuses. It will not be possible to change this decision in the future.

Each faction occupies part of the larger world map. There is the possibility of fast movement, but you can also swim somewhere physically if you have such an interest, the world is not made conditionally.

By completing tasks, the hero gains experience, which is converted into development points. There are three upgrade trees, each of which provides significant benefits.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of the game and summarize.

+ Simple but nice graphics.

+ Excellent music and sound accompaniment.

+ Although simple, they are good, dynamic battles, including those involving several ships on each side. There are boardings and storming of cities.

+ The plot was enjoyable, although it was quite simple.

+ Quite a lot of types of ships and their equipment.

+ Good leveling of the hero, significant for the gameplay.

+ Good study of factions and implementation of their struggle among themselves.

+ It seems like (haven’t checked), in addition to the normal mode, there is VR support.

+ There is Russian localization of the text. Not without errors, but can be rated as good.

THINGS THAT CAN BE BOTH A PLUS AND A MINUS:

+- No realism delivered. There is no tack, no wind direction, the ship can turn without sails right on the spot. Personally, this suits me, as the battles become more dynamic. But some people may not like it.

– Some of the buildings in the towns are made incorrectly with walls and closed gates through which you can pass. This is especially true for forts and all kinds of underground premises.

– It seemed that the game was playing along with the opponents a little. This is expressed in the fact that enemy cannons fire very accurately, three nipples completely stop the enemy ship, and you can rain dozens of shots on enemy decks with buckshot and cause minimal damage. At the same time, the incoming damage is too great – a ship two classes lower can cut off half the hull of our vessel. To summarize, it seems that the balance needs to be adjusted a little.

– The ships of the attached fleet are somehow quite useless. Four ships in terms of efficiency feel like one and a half, despite the fact that our ship is one of them.

– I didn’t like how getting into the shipyard worked. We approach the door to some barn, open it and here we are on a completely different coast. It would be worthwhile to play this out in a more attractive way, for example, as a crossing along the road.

– There are small shoals of Russian localization. Not critical, but sometimes catches the eye.

Games about pirates of the Caribbean, sailing ships, cannon fire and the like, and with a good soundtrack, always attract attention, this is an almost win-win theme. And this particular game does not disappoint, it plays cheerfully, although it looks visually simple.

PS: I probably didn’t cover all the aspects, I might have missed something. I will be glad to add/correct the review or answer questions along the way in the comments.