The closed beta has less content than the alpha. There are missing factions. The progression is missing. And Rare has been hinting at later content too.
In other words, the final game might still feel empty. But this is not it.
I tried it last night. It isn’t as much fun to me as being part of a crew. But it was a nice way for me to get to try various things at my own pace.
I got to try picking some voyages, exploring islands and solving treasure, finding birds circling a ship wreck and diving for treasure. All good fun.
If I saw even a hint of a sail, I’d make a detour and avoid confrontation though.
But I love the co-op experience of sailing together and sharing the navigation duties. Having someone in the crow’s nest looking out for ships or wrecks, taking care of the sails, the navigation, …
I’m pretty sure that will remain my preferred mode of playing.
Still nice to be able to go solo when you want to though.
Will there be towns? I mean, something more than a hub with 6 buildings that exist to interact with 2 quest givers and 3 traders.
And will there be neutral ships, that don’t depend on quests to appear? Merchant ships doing trade routes between settlements, military ships escorting them or maybe patrolling or fighting between them…
Well that’s one mystery solved, apparently I was thrown in the ship’s brig by my teammates who voted to do so -
I don’t know if I’m quite as sanguine about this feature as the author of that piece. I guess the remedy is simple, drop out and rejoin with a (hopefully) friendlier crew, just seems like it has potential for abuse though I guess every multiplayer game has to deal with such problems.
Well, that’s one game avoided. It’s amazing that developers don’t understand that people are idiots.
Its not enough to make me bail out on the game, though I will likely be less inclined to jump into a session with a bunch of random players.
There’s no ‘friends only’ party mode? Seems like an oversight that can be reasonably easily fixed.
Great to hear. One of the reasons I’m so pumped about this is because of the parallels with Guns of Icarus Online’s excellent co-op ship crewing and controlling, as well as the co-op competitive combat. This sounds broader and more involved (and polished) but principally similar, which is really exciting. I’m a sucker for pirates too so this is win-win if Rare pull it off.
Yeah, I agree with @TurinTur that when you’re on with a good crew, communicating and working together, the experience of manning a pirate ship, finding a goal and working together toward it, it’s immersive, for lack of a better word. It feels like sailing a ship.
Yeah exactly, that functioning-together-as-a-unit co-op synergy is a thing of beauty when it clicks and few games come to mind that really crack it. This seems to, Guns of Icarus Online, Overcooked, Affordable Space Adventures, Evolve, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime perhaps? Either way, it’s one of my favourite aspects of multiplayer gaming.
Forgot about that one, yeah it’s a great example of a cooperative game. My son and I love to play it.
No need to avoid the game for that. You have to stumble on a crew that would vote to do that (hasn’t happened to me yet) and all it means is you can religious with a new crew. Considering the pace of the game and the time it takes to go hunting for treasure, that’s only going to be a tiny 1 minute inconvenience if it happens. Doesn’t hurt you in any way.
And as you merry reliable players, you can always go adventuring with them in the future.
The brig is kind of a funny feature. It’s no big deal.
There is. You can invite friends or party members to join your crew on the main screen.
Part of my problem with the brig was that I didn’t understand what was going on. I was locked in a cage with no means of escape and nobody would respond to me. I thought maybe it was a glitch, especially after I died and respawned right back into the brig! Now that I know what’s going on yeah, I’d just bail out and try again.
Well to be honest most of you guys do deserve to be thrown into the brig. Sounds realistic to me.
Well, you probably did engage in piracy.
But I was thrown in the brig by other pirates! Maybe I wasn’t being piratey enough?
I had forgotten until I watched some of that, that this game is first person. That’s pretty cool. A point in its favor.
On the other hand, pirates. I still don’t get the appeal.
What would be a better setting to sail through a storm with friends, explore mysterious islands and search for treasure?
Pirates are perfect because they enable the coop sailing, covering the lanterns at night to avoid being spotted by other ships, the fun sea battles firing broadsides at a ship you just outmanoeuvred.
And the setting fits the fun little moments, like drinking grog and playing sea shanties on the way home. It keeps the game whimsical rather than grim and dark.
If you enjoy none of that, I don’t think having pirates is the problem. It’s just not the game for you.