A fun City Builder with a pirate theme. Good timing for it to release as I was playing Windrose and going, "Huh, could go for a pirate City Builder" before I came across this game's page a month before release. It has its strengths and flaws, both significant, and whether they determine if [b]Corsair Cove[/b] is a game worth getting depends on the individual.
The city building mechanics are simple but enjoyable to do, which is great for a City Builder (Duh). Unfortunately it can get pretty boring after a while even with all the other activities going on. Most of the time you will just hit the fastest setting on the timer and just wait for stuff to be built. While other City Builders are no different, Corsair Cove, for some reason, just makes it feel unique in the worst way. Don't know, maybe this is just a me thing.
Exploration is one of the two activities you can do besides city building. This is a fun and rewarding experience as it allows you to fully engage with the in-game world, and for a pirate-themed game that is a huge advantage. Having to assign a crew and a captain are nice touches and they do pay off. And captains having their own unique abilities is a very nice touch, makes each one feel unique enough. Some are good for combat, others simply exploration, and some in-between.
Just be warned you will have to learn to upgrade your ship or build a better one fairly quickly if you want to explore the whole map. Considering this is the only other core mechanic, besides city building itself, this leads to the problem I felt with city building.
The combat is a hit-or-miss. It is a card game where the stats of your ship and the captain assigned to it really shine. You pick a card, each one with a primary and secondary effect, depending if you are in "attack" mode or "defense" mode. For example, an "attack" card will say, "Deal X to Y damage to enemy ship. Prevent A to B damage to your own ship." There is also a dice rolling mechanic involved, where the higher rolls determines the effect ie if you are attacking with the same example I said before and roll higher then you deall the most damage. Vice versa applies if you roll low.
I like the idea the devs were going for but I can see the combat being a polarizing thing for the players. Some people will like the change in gameplay while others will find it odd or even just straight up don't like it. And reading the reviews and some discussions, a good chunk of players don't like it. IMO remove the dice rolling and it may be better.
The [b]campaign[/b] of the game involves four pirate captains uniting to rebuild a pirate empire against the Spanish authorities: Teach, Kanja, Scarlet, and Honora. These are the first captains you start with, the ones you can assign to a ship once your get your first one built. If you know your pirate lore, Teach is obviously Blackbeard himself though he doesn't have the matches/fuses in his beard.
Interesting concept for a story but it becomes a bit of a slog because of how slow the city building can be. Whether that is good or bad depends on the individual.
[b]Uncharted[/b] is the endless mode for Corsair Cove. You are given three maps and interestingly each one has its own story, like the campaign. At least I assume they do, I went to play on the "Devil's Map" first and found myself going through a little storyline to get a Chinese captain to join me. I don't know if there is more to it but a neat surprise. Other than that, Uncharted is a fun and enjoyable thing to do.
Visually the game looks beautifully stunning. The vibrant colors of the islands, to the art portrayed in combat and events, to the in-game assets all look really good. And huge kudos to the artists and devs for putting in the extra effort in fully animating the locations on the world map like the ports, you can even see the citizens of those towns do their day to day lives when you zoom in.
[b]Honestly I am torn between giving this game a 7 or 8 out of 10.[/b]
I want to give it a 7 simply because it is a fun game but it isn't innovative at all, and the aspects it tries to do different is a hit-or-miss ie the combat. On the other hand, 8 because it is only $40 and that isn't a horrible price for a game like this. Actually I would argue it is the perfect price.
ATM it is on sale for 25% off (Costing $30), and that certainly feels like the perfect sale for Corsair Cove until way later down the line when it goes on sale for more.
