Pirates of the Burning Sea - First Impressions and Why it Was Not A Keeper For Me

So, 'Pirates of the Burning Sea', is it a go'er, or is it one for the Windows Trash Can?

I was one of many who got the invite to Open Beta, and, being a curious sort of fella, I thought, 'Why not!'

So I downloaded and set about creating a character. I buzzed through the character generation pages. I was thinking of hooking up with some old TCON buddies should the game be worth staying the beta course and possibly grabbing me, so created a French character.

The Character generator is, hmmm, okay I guess; you can create a decent looking individual, and make it your own. Better than some character creation generators out there. I created some cool looking duds for him to wear in the char generator too. (aside: I still think CoH/CoV is the best char gen so far)

But there is much talk in dev circles about not making the generators too complex as processing goes through the roof, but this one was fair to middling, I thought.

Okay, on first arriving in game, my first impression was, "Waaaay too clean!" The starter town was way too neat and tidy, brand spanking new, bright colors, not a good start for me, I like 'lived in', not 'yet to be lived in'.

So, I did a quick run through town then went back to the dock and started some quests. (There is a starter quest line on first entering after character generation, but it borked on me and spat me straight into the game, but it was there, should I wish to go back to it)

Apart from the go to A, meet B and go back to A, then back to B, for the initial introductions to NPC's in the town, the quests do get a bit better.

One thing I did not like, was, on meeting an NPC in town, he invited me into his back office, give me the quest, I left and he was back in the room I first met him again.

Several times I had to go back to him, and each time, he invited me into the back office, and so on at each step of a small quest chain, which I found both annoying and needless.

The quests generally need you to go to sea and fight other parties, i.e. usually Pirates. So into the sea battle I went.

Another let down for me. O.o.

I felt like I was on a slightly better version of my old Amiga here. Little ships you steer, try to get a boost from wind direction, maneouver and fire your cannons. Keep doing that till the enamy sinks and then loot it. Or, you can get in close and grapple them, take a boarding party aboard, and fight the pirates.

The fighting was another let down. It works like EQII and other games by using fighting tiles/commands you see in the bottom bar, which you can mouse click or activate with the numbered keys; nothing new there.

On the enemy ship, after boarding, I target the captain, while my men are fighting the crew, and its just a free for all. He was hard to target in the mayhem, and I used my two or three combos and did not see any difference in any of them. I found the combat feedback dead in the water.

Kill the captain or whatever leader title is there and the crew give up, our side cheers and you go back to your ship, loot the enemy ship, and rinse repeat depending on how many enemy ships are out there in that quest.

Later, I got to fight three guys in a land based room, which was a little better in terms of getting visual and audio feedback, it being less busy, but again I was not too impressed, though I am sure like any other game it gets better as you level up and gather better skills.

As you level, you gain xp and buy skills from the relevant trainers.

It all left me cold to be honest. I could see a future of repetitive missions stretching out before me. But, to be fair, in most MMOG's I have played they have tended to be Fantasy or Sci-Fi, so there was and still is a great and varied collection of Mobs to meet throughout the evolution of your character.

In this game, I doubt it will be that varied, tending to be fighting mostly humans, with slightly different dress maybe. I cannot say, as I never made it past one week, I was that dissappointed in this game.

I traveled up the coast to check out the crafting. Another disappointment here too. I took a look and did not even try making anything of value.

So first impressions: needs detail, too squeaky clean to be believable in any immersive way. Ship battles are no different, a slightly better graphic, but still a throwback to far older games of its type.

Maybe, if given the time and sticking with it, with a group of like minded people you enjoy gaming with, then it could work out. But for me it was a candidate for the trash can before I even got to making my 4th feedback report in-game.

For those that do get something from it, I salute you, after all, most of these games come alive in our minds eye, and through shared experience, but this alas did not even tickle me, me hearties.

Yarr!! Blah blah blah!

Leon


~ This commentary was drawn from our itinerant Bothan's experience late in Open Beta - how does your experience in live compare to his?
Post your YARRR! or ARRRR! here...

;-)#