Pirates are like vampires—they need to make excellent videogame protagonists, however there are solely a handful of genuinely good video games about them. It is difficult as a result of we wish such particular issues from them. The best pirate sport in my head is a raid-and-trade sport of battle on the excessive seas, but in addition considered one of portside financial simulation; broadside-maneuvering but in addition 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 counsel the presence of rapscallions and rascals, although in fact 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 assume you possibly can 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 wish to store at. Whether or not you die or win the ultimate battle of the raid, normally towards a well-defended fortress, you may be again at base the place you possibly can improve your ship and crew—in addition to no matter pleasant sea monsters you have unlocked to date—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, lots of them are ship battles. These play out in two phases. The primary sees you buying and selling cannon hearth for 3 rounds, making an attempt to take out no matter artillery is aimed 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 necessary for breaking sightlines, positioning issues as a result of nearly each assault is a pushback, and making enemies stumble upon objects—or one another—causes additional injury. Defeating somebody with a shove over the railing and into the drink is actual satisfaction.
Pulling off that sort of factor could be a cinch when 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 it’s important to make cautious use of ropes, which allow you to fly as much as eight additional squares free of charge, and the commander capability that lets your captain bully a crewmate into working 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 acquire management of and that may be summoned to carry out a strong 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 pals gained over the course of the story.
Totally different styles of pirate even have their very own ability timber. Whereas the refillable mass of your crew are primary mates, you can even recruit randomized people from courses 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 was 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 path—there’s a lot to love about Rogue Waters. The puzzle of swapping cannonballs is a succinct prelude to every combat, 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 canines off one another until all of them fall down.
There is a beneficiant undo choice too, which helps you to take again a flip when you misclicked and by chance ready a protection as a substitute of unleashing an assault, or did not understand 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 liable for the superb Onerous West 2), however although it isn’t as deep as another roguelites, it is loads of enjoyable to splash round within the shallows typically too.
Rogue Waters is offered on Steam and Epic.
