King of Seas | Preview

In recent years, the video game market in Italy has grown exponentially, not only due to general sales, but also due to a significant amount of new studios opened in our territory that are slowly beginning to show the world our local creativity.

Among them is 3DClouds, a small studio that has managed to present a couple of rather interesting products over the last few years, such as All-Star Fruit Racing and Xenon Racer. Now the team wants to take a concrete step forward, creating increasingly complex products that are slowly able to increase the general experience of the software house and their importance in the market. A difficult journey, which begins with a story of buccaneers and pirates that takes the name of King of Seas.

Over the last week, the opportunity has arisen to try a 45-minute preview demo , which gave us an appetizer of the adventures that we will live in King of Seas and the different mechanics proposed. Between a few cannon shots and a couple of trade routes we had fun, rediscovering that light-hearted, and now forgotten spirit of the legendary Sid Meier's Pirates!, But not without some limits.

Towards the legend of pirates

The story of King of Seas revolves around the Kingdom of the Seven Seas, born after a bloody war between sailors and pirates, which forced the latter to exile to the ends of the world.

We impersonate one of the sons of the King, found himself shipwrecked after a naval battle, which among many things also led to the death of their father. Fate, sometimes uncontrollable, has led the pirates to miraculously rescue us and make us part of them.

The goal of the game is clearly to find out who sank us and who killed our father, but at the same time, it is also to become a legendary pirate, known and feared by all the Seven Seas. To do this, it will be necessary to explore, loot and trade in an adventure, which in its final form should give us about twenty hours of longevity.

Even if you vaguely remember Sid Meier's Pirates! - also because of the isometric view - you absolutely must not be misled, there is clear inspiration, but on a playful level we are talking about a profoundly different game.

If the original work of the 80s is based more on an adventure, in this case we are faced with a more role-playing game, where the aim is to obtain experience points to unlock new abilities and be able to acquire more powerful and better equipped ships.

The map, rather large , has several islands, with ports where it is possible to dock to trade goods, to be able to hire some other members for our crew or to obtain secondary missions.

Obviously it is essential to shoot down other ships, especially merchant ones, in order to recover money and goods to be smuggled, just as it is important to explore to find useful objects, or chests abandoned in the middle of the sea.

The fights, very important, are quite intuitive and are based on s both on the skills acquired and on the ship available. Each boat, in fact, has its own speed and firepower, so it is important to evaluate which one to use according to the situation.

Although the demo was limited to this, we can say that the game set up from 3DClouds proves to be fun and well thought out, but still limited from a content point of view. The final version will contain several other things, such as the conquest of ports and all the branching of skills, so we should wait to verify its solidity in its full form

Rough seas

3DClouds has done well From a technical point of view. King of Seas is a simple game, so simple that it can be played on any type of device with very few compromises.

The isometric view, enhanced by an essential graphic style, allows a sober and relaxing experience, perfect for unplug from more committed titles. To give an extra touch we think the nice and light-hearted dialogues, with all hand-drawn characters that give an extra touch of style to the whole narrative part.

The audio sector is to be commended, especially the one dedicated to soundtrack, with musical tracks contextualized to the setting, which accompany our journey in a decidedly graceful way.

Pulling the sums

King of Seas is a title that could give a good dose of fun, especially for enthusiasts who love to sail trying to become real legendary pirates. Right from the start it is impossible not to compare it to the wonderful game of Sid Meier's, both for its structure and for the atmosphere, leaving however many doubts on the playful sector apparently still too limited, but which aims to open up in its final version with the conquest of ports and much more.

A time of 45 minutes cannot be sufficient to deepen an open world video game with role-playing elements, consequently our preliminary judgment is postponed pending a new demo, which we hope you can dispel our doubts and give us a light video game, but also and above all of quality and substance.