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Close this windowPirates of the Burning Sea at E3 2006
Posted May 10th, 2006 by Shayalyn
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Pirates of the Burning Sea:
Turning Pirate!
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| by Karen “Shayalyn” Hertzberg |
While I was researching Pirates of the Burning Sea, the upcoming MMO from indie developer, Flying Lab Software, I had convinced myself that playing a pirate in high seas naval PvP and PvE combat looked interesting enough, but just wasn’t for me. My funds for gaming are, sadly, finite. I had decided I wasn’t going to invest in the game when it launched
Well, ahoy, and hoist the mainsail, mateys—I’ve turned pirate! Kevin Maginn, a designer for Flying Lab, was easily able to convert me as he demoed the game and talked about its features.
Pirates of the Burning Sea sails along on what Maginn referred to as “a complex, Da Vinci Code-like storyline.” As you begin the game, you’ll create an avatar using a complex set of costuming tools (not unlike those in City of Heroes , which Maginn called “the Gold Standard for character creation”). From there you’ll begin taking on quests and immersing yourself in your 18 th century naval history, when pirates stalked the high seas and adventure (and danger!) lurked around every corner
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| Suiting up your pirate in character creation. |
As Maginn maneuvered his ship to show us the game’s stunning graphics and, eventually, demonstrate ship-to-ship combat, he explained that the gameplay in PotBS was not twitchy. “It’s focused and cerebral,” he said. “We like to think of it as a game of chess at sea.” Players will have to use strategy to win battles, and while an understanding of naval combat certainly helps, Flying Lab thinks the game will be accessible to a broad spectrum of players.
Of course, not everyone will be a pirate in PotBS. If you’d rather be a naval captain, fighting pirates and enemy navies, or make your way as an adventurer, cutting deals for cargo and sneaking through blockades in the middle of the night, you can do that, too. But at the present time, Flying Lab estimates that about 30% of their players in beta are pirates. There will be incentives for players to try other professions, Maginn says, “But this game is called Pirates of the Burning Sea …so it’s about pirates, and we want people to be able to have a good time playing pirates.”
Maginn took us out onto the high seas in search of some combat. We watched as his ship, which essentially becomes a player character on water, sailed out in search of adventure…or trouble. It wasn’t long before Maginn’s ship was engaged by an enemy vessel. When a ship enters into a battle, a battle marker appears on the game map, indicating to others that there’s a fight going on, and the ships enter their own instance. After 10 minutes in battle, a ship in trouble can call for help, and other friendly ships can enter the instance to provide aid. There are no disadvantages to asking for help, and the system is designed to encourage cooperative play.
“Is that an NPC, or another player?” I asked of the approaching enemy vessel.
“We’re showing the game running live, so we will see people in beta running around,” said Maginn, “but this is an NPC.” He smiled and shook his head. “Our testers have gotten very good. If I PvP, they’ll beat me, and that would just be embarrassing. I used to have more time to play the game, and I used to be really good, but I bragged about it on our forums…and now all our beta users want a crack at me.”
Genre: Fantasy
Status: Published
Release Date: January 22, 2008
Fee: P2P
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