Sea Dogs Preview

It all began with the Pirates!

Oh boy... Pirates! The game that appeared a long time ago, and kept producing generations of computer-game addicts for the many years to come. I have a friend who bought the computer because of the Pirates!; and probably because of the fact that none of us wanted to look at him for five hours each day as he commands his ships. Baring that in mind, its rather surprising how few games actually tried to imitate the legend... Corsairs, Cutthroats: Terror on the High Seas, Shipwreckers! and Age of Sail are some of the rare games that tried to take us back to the XVI and XVII century, the time of mighty Pirates and big voyages (oh, I forgot the the Monkey Island series)...

Fortunately, Bethesda Softworks decided to try to refresh this genre together with Akella from Moscow, well known for software development and publishing (they published UbiSoft's POD in Russia). And the first shots of Sea Dogs sure reminded me of Redguard, BethSoftworks' two-year-old title even though the developers refuse to admit the two games have anything in common. Sea Dogs will be an open-ended style game just like Daggerfall. Akella first started work on the game in 1996 (taking Pirates! For a role model), and they initially meant to call it "Corsairs". Microids beat them to it by publishing another game with that name.

Because of its similarity to Dagerfall, most RPG players are eagerly expecting this game. It will, on the other hand, not follow some RPG traditions like character creation. Our hero is a young man called Nicolas -- a merchant captain with high ambitions (you all know the: "I'm Guybrush Threepwood and I want to become a mighty pirate!" line). Vengeance will play an important role in his quest, for Nicolas used to be quite an everyday youth, who got a small ship after his uncle's death, until the Spaniards attacked him, sunk his ship and sent him to a plantation to work as a slave. After about a year, and a successfully performed rebellion, he manages to break free and sail to a nearby English settlement of Highrock. Now he decided to gather his old crew and sail to a newly discovered ocean archipelago somewhere in the Caribbean's where the three world naval powers struggle for dominance. The Spaniards are on the peak of their power, but the others shouldn't be underestimated either. Oh, yeah, the pirates are here too...

Since the story is open-ended, Nicolas will be able to do whatever he pleases... He'll probably have to join any of the sides first in order to get some experience. If he gets bored of carrying their flag he will easily change sides. Well, not that easily, that is. This side switching will affect his reputation, and he'll have to pay for pirate amnesty. Not to speak of the way your new allies will treat you if they remember you robbed their town earlier. Of course, you can always remain a free-lancer - become a pirate and sack them all! As long as it is profitable, what do you care?

What's it going to look like?

I just said that this is a game for RPG fans. Sea Dogs will really have emphasized RPG elements, but we could possibly better define it as a 3D role-playing game with adventure and action elements and some strategy. Most of the action (at least 50%) will take place on sea, but land will also be very important because it provides the social life he can choose to accept or not. As time passes, he will realize what suits him most. If he recons he is skillful enough he can become a pirate, if he decides that the best money can be made trading, he'll become a merchant. In each case, he won't be able to progress much without naval battles and fencing.

All the battles are real-time. If you come to fight another ship, or even fleet on open sea, you'll have to use all your wit and skills in order to defeat your foe. Intelligent and quick decision making will be crucial, as you have limited time to take in regard all enemy capabilities, ship classes, weapon types tactical positions and weather conditions. Smaller ships are very agile, yet weak in frame and firepower. So, if your ship is quick enough, you can catch up with your enemy's vessel and grapple it. This isn't too easy, so you'll usually have to slow it down with your cannonballs first, or even sink it. You'll be far better off if you do manage to capture the vessel, because that'll give you the possibility to plunder it or even send a sturdy first mate that can man the captured vessel over and join it to your fleet. When you're on board, you can control the vessel either from the first-person-view or the third-person-view. If you use the first person view, you'll have to walk the decks and fire the aim your guns manually, and if you choose the third-person-view, you'll be above the situation RTS-style, while the guns automatically load and fire proportionally to your skills and statistics.

If you do board another vessel, you'll have to fight its captain. Captain's strength will be proportional to the number of his crew and the power of his ship. However, these material predispositions do not guarantee victory, they are but bonuses which can be dealt by using skill and agility. Conquering islands and forts that guard them is basically similar to boarding enemy ships: you have to get sufficiently close to the fort, and then rush in sword in hand. Swordfights are displayed from a third person view, and both you and your foe will have hit-points (proportional to size of crew) fencing skill points displayed. Fencing skill is a very important characteristic because it determines how much energy you use during your attacks and how quickly you'll recover. There are four types of attack as well as blocking moves available to the player. There are even some dirty tricks you can use to disable your enemy. There used to be some talk about introducing spells to this segment of game, but the developers gave that up.