Interesting Little Game

Well, this weekend I ran across an interesting little game that has, surprisingly, held my interest for more than a few hours. If you’re into fast-paced, action-oriented, adrenaline-pumping, yada yada yada, then you can hit your back button right now and move onto another thread. But if you like a more thoughtful approach, with quite a bit of depth, some minor innovation, and some twists on old ideas, this might be one to tide you over until the 2012 crop of MMOs arrives.

Back in the mid-1980s I got my first computer, a Commodore Amiga. It was a great machine but there was little software available for it for a long time. One of the early games I remember was by a company named Koei, and it was called Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a turn-based strategy game based around the famous era in ancient China and inspired by the (translated 4 volumes) classic literatary work. It was a very good game, and apparently alot of folks thought so as well, since it spawned TEN sequels. I remember trying one on the PC but it didn’t work right so I kinda forgot all about ‘em. Well, they haven’t disappeared, and I stumbled across their first entry into the MMO market. And, no, it’s not a Chinese Kung-Fu grinder.

The game is called Uncharted Waters Online. Set in the Age of Exploration (roughly, the 1500s), you play a character in the world of that time. There are three basic jobs (classes) to choose from: Adventurer, Trader and Soldier, but the combat side of things (unless you choose to be a Soldier) is downplayed in favor of non-combat activities. And it’s, basically, about ships. There’s a bunch of skills to choose from in the three classes, and you’re free to mix and match to your heart’s content. You can change jobs when/if you wish as well. Traders can fight, Adventurers can trade, and Soldiers can adventure, as well as any other combination, including all 3, so the classes themselves merely serve as groupings of skillsets and contribute a bit of an XP gain to improving skills of your class. The XP will bring you through 50 “levels”, spread over the 3 classes. There is also Fame to be gained, again spread over the 3 classes. It’s an odd little combination of skill-based, level-based and fame-based all jumbled together, but it seems to work pretty well.

Basically, a Trader sails around the world, discovering ports (and getting Adventure XP) and buying low/selling high as they amass a fortune. The Soldier sails around the world killing pirates and other badies. The Adventurer sails around world and stalks the lands in search of 16 different categories of discoveries; a sort of Indiana Jones guy. Each class has a “guild hall” in the capital cities where he/she can pick up “quests”, which are tasks provided by the guild and give Ducats (gold), XP, Fame and sometimes items. Then, each country to which you can belong (England, France, Spain, Portual, The Netherlands) has an overarching storyline that follows you through your 50 levels of gaming life, unfolding via event-type quests.

And there’s more. For you fans of PvP, it’s open-world, loot PvP if you choose to be a Privateer (kill ships/players of countries other than your own) or the ever-popular Pirate (kill anybody). But there are severe penalties for doing this, including but not limited to becoming persona non gratis in ports (yes, there are a couple of Pirate Ports), and getting your name colored so that anybody can PvP you without penalty. But I don’t see a lot of PvP going on out there (probably because I haven’t strayed from the “starter” areas yet, i.e., Western Europe). It’s also just not worth it for a pirate to gank lowbies…our ships just don’t hold much yet, and what we carry isn’t very valuable.

There’s a few more interesting mechanics. There’s a stat called “Formality”, which is a kind of social standing rating. You’re not gonna be talking with the King or Queen until your Formality is quite high, for example. Quests (and, I imagine the Storyline) open up as you gain levels and formality and fame and a combination of skills. It’s a very interrelated system that’s a bit tough for me to tell how to min/max yet. But it DOES make me think more than usual.

Adventuring is kind of a vastly expanded version of the old UO/EQ Treasure Hunting mechanism.

You’ll need to hire sailors, buy provisions, arm cannons (with different kinds of shot to do different kinds of damage, decide on upgrading sails, figureheads and crests for your ships, respond to various disasters at see via items and skills. Your personal gear has stats that affect attack, defense and formality (i.e., how sharply dressed are you). There’s crafting (including fishing). It’s a big, complex system in a huge world.

And here’s where the appeal might wain for a lot of folks. The game moves at a glacial pace, not in terms of graphics or animations. Those are very smooth. But it just takes a LONG time to do anything and go anywhere (kinda like EVE in that regard). It’s the kind of game where you can sit back, relax, RP, watch TV with one eye, etc., all the while plotting a long-term strategy of what you wish to accomplish. Questing is there, but you’re limited to 1 quest (plus any storyline quest you’ve got running) at any time, so you can’t just move from hub to hub, grab 15 quests, and drop ‘em off in a loop. The ships do NOT just turn-on-a-dime, and getting your broadside onto that pirate’s bow or stern (which produces a crit) takes practice and planning.

The graphics are OK, on a parr with Dawntide’s, or maybe a tad better. You can color your ships and sails with dyes. I think you can color your gear too, but I haven’t gotten to the crafting yet, aside from turning the fish I caught into preserved fish for higher value sale at ports. You MUST eat and drink, but it’s not for buffs, and it IS for the purpose of returning vitality (which is used up by using skills), so it’s a sensible eat/drink system. And the bartender WILL cut you off if you eat too much or drink too much. lol

All in all, this is an intriguing game that’s different enough from all the other stuf out there to give it a lot of appeal. There’s a lot of other stuf in there too (pets, aides, land combat, housing — instanced like RoM or LotRO), and this post has gone on for a wall-of-text while already. I tried hard to get into the sex appeal of Lineage II, or the old-school comic-book City of Heroes, both of which have gone F2P, but after a few hours, my brain just didn’t want to go on with the same old themepark with different skins. Those two are excellent games, no doubt, even with the changes that going F2P has brought. But I’ve just killed way too many dozen rats over the past few years, and my head felt like it was gonna explode if one more NPC asked me to kill 10 spiders or 11 henchmen of whoever. Uncharted Waters Online is a nice, refreshing change from the Same-o’, Same-o’.

Oh yeah. I’ve already met Shakespeare!

• This reply was modified 157 days ago by  Xix13.
• This reply was modified 157 days ago by  Xix13.