Pirates are like vampires—they need to make good videoGame protagonists, however there are solely a handful of genuinely good video Games about them. It is tough as a result of we wish such particular issues from them. The preferrred pirate sport in my head is a raid-and-trade sport of battle on the excessive seas, but additionally one in all portside financial simulation; broadside-maneuvering but additionally dueling on storm-tossed decks.
Rogue Waters is not that imaginary sport. It is one thing altogether totally different.
The phrase “rogue” is not simply within the title to recommend the presence of rapscallions and rascals, although after all they’re current and accounted for. Rogue Waters is a run-based roguelite, and every raid you and your crew undertake follows a map straight out of Slay the Spire. You are selecting a department not simply since you suppose you’ll be able to take the elite Glass Dealer ship it is presenting you with, however as a result of it places you on the trail that results in an armory you need to store at. Whether or not you die or win the ultimate battle of the raid, often towards a well-defended fortress, you may be again at base the place you’ll be able to improve your ship and crew—in addition to no matter pleasant sea monsters you’ve got unlocked to this point—earlier than setting off on one other raid.
Whereas the nodes on these paths embody choose-your-own-adventure tales the place you take care of trap-filled treasure islands or injured sea beasts, numerous them are ship battles. These play out in two phases. The primary sees you buying and selling cannon hearth for 3 rounds, attempting to take out no matter artillery is geared toward your crew or upgrades whereas destroying, say, the rum barrels that may give your opponent’s crew a degree of regeneration each flip.
As soon as that is over you swing throughout to their deck to take them on turn-based-tactics-style. Whereas there isn’t any flanking and canopy is simply essential for breaking sightlines, positioning issues as a result of virtually each assault is a pushback, and making enemies stumble upon objects—or one another—causes further harm. Defeating somebody with a shove over the railing and into the drink is actual satisfaction.
Pulling off that type of factor can be a cinch should you may dash from one finish of the deck to the opposite however most pirates can solely transfer two squares—or one if they begin the flip engaged in fight. To get round you must make cautious use of ropes, which allow you to fly as much as eight further squares free of charge, and the coMMAnder potential that lets your captain bully a crewmate into operating two extra squares, the lazy git. It is a deck-top dance the place many of the strikes are the previous stab-and-shove, and it feels nice to get into the rhythm of it.
One complication is the ocean monsters, a menagerie of legendary beasts you achieve management of and that may be summoned to carry out a robust particular transfer at the price of one thing known as abyssal ether. You start with the Kraken, whose tentacle can flatten 5 swabbies in the event that they’re silly sufficient to face in a row, with extra animal buddies gained over the course of the story.
Completely different kinds of pirate even have their very own ability timber. Whereas the refillable mass of your crew are primary mates, you too can recruit randomized people from lessons just like the spearmaiden, who can stab two enemies without delay, or the musketeer, who has a uncommon ranged weapon that needs to be aimed for a flip earlier than firing a high-damage shot.
Whereas it isn’t fairly the pirate sport of my desires—there isn’t any buying and selling, with chests of plunder being changed into suMMAry factors to be spent on upgrades between raids, a procedurally generated crew who do not feel like actual companions, and at no level do you even have to consider wind course—there’s lots to love about Rogue Waters. The puzzle of swapping cannoNBAlls is a succinct prelude to every battle, and there are sufficient shifting items in fight to allow you to really feel such as you’ve actually made a distinction if you line up a flip’s price of actions to take out a bunch of high-value opponents—possibly by throwing their very own bombs again at them or simply bouncing the scurvy canine off one another until all of them fall down.
There is a beneficiant undo possibility too, which helps you to take again a flip should you misclicked and unintentionally ready a protection as an alternative of unleashing an assault, or did not notice you would be ending a flip standing in some tar relatively than on open deck.
The scope appears intentionally restricted to suit a smaller studio’s price range (it is the work of Ice Code Video games, beforehand chargeable for the wonderful Onerous West 2), however although it isn’t as deep as another roguelites, it is loads of enjoyable to splash round within the shallows generally too.
Rogue Waters is accessible on Steam and Epic.
