For 3DClouds, a developer that has established itself with racing games like Race With Ryan and Xenon Racer, a pirate-themed action-RPG is a real departure. But that's exactly what the studio is currently working on.
Set in a procedurally generated ocean world, King of Seas is currently slated to launch in early 2021, and in the lead up to its release, I was recently offered access to a preview build of the game. Although the demo of gameplay was limited to 45 minutes, my first impressions are certainly positive.
The story of King of Seas begins with a mysterious death. As heir to one of the game's kingdoms, you find yourself inexplicably blamed for an assassination and quickly come under a barrage of cannon fire from the Royal Navy. As your ship sinks in Davey Jones' locker – and the Royal Navy leaves you for dead – you are rescued by the Eagle's Den pirates, led by Captain D. Morgen, who take you on as a new recruit.
This all takes place in a mission-based structure, where you aid your newfound allies as Captain Morgen investigates the truth behind the assassination.
There are five difficulty options to choose from in King of Seas, which change all stats such as health, bounty bonuses at the end of missions, and damage dealt. Higher difficulties further increase the challenge with modifiers such as increasing the frequency of hostile spawns, destroying and clearing your inventory when your ship sinks, and adding permadeath.
From transporting materials between trading outposts to destroying enemy ships, the main missions and side missions offer decent variety and do a good job of introducing you to the mechanics of the game, at least this early on. Because the world of King of Seas is procedurally generated, you'll never explore the same layout twice in these missions; the sea is constantly changing, reshaping key places with it.
Although the short demo kept me from seeing too much of the game, exploration, in general, was enjoyable. You can find cargo drifting at sea which gives you gold, which is used to repair your ship, and you can loot shipwrecks for new items, giving you materials such as wood to build new parts of ship.
Each ship has three indicator bars, one for its hull, sails and crew. These bars represent your ship's health, speed, and cannon cooldown respectively.
As expected, if your hull meter runs out, your ship will sink; that'll be the end of the game. And since ships can't be repaired until you exit combat - once they've been anchored in Eagle's Den - each battle becomes a strategic mix of maneuvers and attacks.
Moving your ship through open water, of course, means raising the sails and you can hoist three at a time for maximum speed. Wind speed plays a part in the movement, and while going against the current doesn't bother you much, sailing fast with it makes turns much trickier (so handle it with care unless you want to crash on the neighboring island!)
The ships are armed with two sets of cannons on their port and starboard sides, and each attack has a cooldown; you cannot spam attacks on enemy ships. Instead, earning engagements takes precision and a bit of patience. The combat is a bit sluggish in places, but it's satisfying to eventually take out your enemy through methodical play.
After the initial missions of the game, you can start unlocking skills, which are assignable at will, and trading ships through the carpenter in Eagle's Den.
Skills, for example, include giving your first officer the ability to perform a flamethrower attack, which launches from the front of the ship, dealing heavy damage to enemies.
Swapping ships isn't just aesthetic, as all ships have different stats for top speed, cargo space, and how many cannonballs they can launch at opposing ships. If you've found a ship you like, however, existing ships can also be upgraded with gold, increasing aspects like cannon firepower and crew capacity.
That's not all you can find at Eagle's Den. One option, called "Crack", was not available in this preview. So we can't detail what this entails yet, but there is a bank to store your cargo, as well as a marketplace to sell and buy items. If crew members fall in battle, a tavern is also available to recruit new pirates to the cause.
All in all, I enjoyed my time with King of Seas, but struggled to be fully drawn into its world, likely due to the short length of the session, so I'll have to hold my final verdict. until I see more.
Although the combat was slower than I expected, King of Seas still proves to be quite entertaining, if not downright exciting. Either way, I'm certainly curious to see how this story unfolds.
So far, 3DClouds has brought us a well-designed game with great potential, and I can't wait to see more next year.
