Eresin takes us on a tour of Black Cove via this review/diary
So after a long intro sequence of dialogue I am in control of my ship and am instructed to dock at a nearby island. Directing the ship is easy enough, point and click.
When I get to my home island I meet a group who call themselves The Pirate Clan and for some reason I am attempting to join the Pirate Clan. In order to join I must complete some missions for them. The two missions on offer are to sink a ship or kidnap the governor. Kidnapping sounded more fun so I decided to try that first. I gathered up a group of scallywags to join my crew and off we went.
Oh…dear….lord…it too 10 minutes to sail around to where I needed to be. My ship was so slow, not to mention the fact that two other ships attacked me that could sail and turn faster than I could. I didn’t really think that was a fair fight for the beginning of the game. I suppose it didn’t help that when I tried to view the quest text my ship stopped dead in the water. I was hoping to read the quest while my ship was sailing towards its destination but apparently you cannot do these two things at once. Anyway I eventually made it to the island I needed to be at.
When I arrived I was greeted with more tutorial text/talking. While I am reading this I realise that I am being attacked while the tutorial message is covering half of my screen! By the time I discovered what was going on I died. Surely if you are going to display some tutorial text which takes time to read you could make sure no one attacks me at the same time!
So back to the home island I go. Screw this I’ll try the other mission instead! I figured since my ship was stupidly slow I’d try to upgrade it so I found the shipyard and then found that the only 2 ships on sale were the same speed as mine! Hardly an upgrade…not that it mattered because I had no gold anyway. *grumbles*
Oh and by the way not only is the sea travel slow, but the land movement is no better. I found on several occasion that characters would just stop responding altogether to mouse clicks.
Off with my crappy ship I go in the other direction to find a ship to sink. S-L-O-W. Good grief as pretty as the sailing might be it’s slow and boring. While nowhere near the ship I need to sink, once again 2 fast ships appear and take me down in no time. I can’t outrun them, and I can’t outgun them either.
So the only two missions I can find and I can’t complete them. Maybe I am doing something wrong but the game sure didn’t help me. I received no real guidance when stuck. The tutorial messages either turn up at the wrong time or are just obvious pieces of information.
For me this game was awful and frustrating to play. I just didn’t get it, maybe I was missing something vital, but even if that was the case the game should have helped or pointed it out to me.
I feel terrible but I have to give this a 2 out of 10. 1 for the music (the only real part i enjoyed) and 1 for the prettiness of the water. That’s it, that’s all the good I could find, I’m going to go walk the plank now…