Pirates of The Polygon Sea

Review

Yo Ho Ho! Ahoy, Me Hearties! Pirates of the Polygon Seas is a game where you’ll build a thriving port, and produce and trade resources between ports scattered around the Mythic Isles. Beware of pirates, sharks, giant squids and the enormous mythical beasts of the deep, the Leviathan and Kraken, as you sail the seas in search of fortune and glory. Find shipwrecks, hidden booty, visit mermaids as you vie to become governor of the Mythic Isles.

Upon choosing to start you’ll be given the option to choose one of seven different characters to Captain your ship. Each character has their own background along with two bonuses; I chose Blackwood, who is a former naval admiral, well known for his inspiring presence and tactical mastery. He aims to bring civilization to the savage lands and forge a new empire in the Mythic Isles. His bonuses consist of +20% Hull on all ships and +20% Treasure from pirate kills. Whereas Dreadbeard The Cursed, who roams the Mythic Isles ravaging, pillaging and plundering his way through all eternity after stealing a chest of cursed gold, has bonuses of +20% Damage against merchants and +20% Treasure from merchant kills. So, choose the character who you think will suit your gameplay. Once you’ve chosen your character you can rename your flagship and choose the game’s difficulty, from very easy to impossible.

It’s now time to head off on the open seas in search of adventure and fortune. The goal of the game is to become governor of the Mythic Isles before anyone else. You’ll start off on one of the islands; this will be your base of operations and where you’ll built your humble village into a bustling town of trade and commerce (hopefully). You start with a small fort and five thousand gold to get you started on your island. There’ll be some resources for you on your island, like trees and rocks which you can used to build with, however they cost five hundred gold to cut down or break up into stone. You can’t build all over the island, only within a certain area, which is shown when you go to build.

The island you have as your home base will depend on which character you have chosen. Some islands will have resources which you can take advantage of, while others either won’t have any, or they’ll have different resources that they are able to produce. Like Emelynn’s Island there are a few places where you can build gunpowder or cloth factories, where as with Blackwood I only had one of each of those, but I could build a lead foundry. Each building will require certain resources to build, such as stone, wood, workers, gold etc. The number of buildings you can build depends on the level of your fort; increasing the fort’s level will increase the maximum number of buildings you’re allowed.

There are fourteen buildings which you maybe able to build, seven town and seven resource buildings. The town buildings consist of Fort, Houses, Market, Shipwright, Tavern, Storehouse and Defensive Tower. The resource buildings are Fishing Hut, Lumber Mill, Cloth Maker, Iron Mine, Gunpowder Factory, Rum Distillery and Stone Quarry. You can only have one Fort and Market per town. Each resource building you build with give you an amount of gold per minute depending on the level of that building. You will also be able to store all resources produced if you have enough storage for them, which you can then sell if you wish to put a few more pennies in your pocket.

Building a Shipwright and upgrading it will allow you to have bigger and faster vessels with more artillery or cargo room. There are three types of vessels for you to choose from, Scout ships, Warships and Merchant Ships. Each have five different ships to choose from depending on the level of your shipwright, so choose the one which will suit your current gameplay style.

You may need to buy resources from other islands to upgrade your town, keeping an eye on your map as it will show you if anyone has a surplus or shortage of resources. If they have a surplus you could be able to get them for a very cheap price, which you can then either use to upgrade your town, or sell to an island in need for a very tidy profit.

You start off as a Captain, a relative unknown, but as you progress through the game, you’ll be able to rank up. There are five titles (ranks) in total: Captain, Commander, Commodore, Admiral and Governor. To acquire the next title, you’ll need to reach a goal of a certain amount of Renown and Gold. When you reach the required amount, you can then buy the next title. So, to acquire the Commander title you’ll have to acquire two thousand five hundred renown and four thousand gold. With each new title needing more and more renown and gold until you can finally buy the governor title, at which point you’ll have won the game. You collect renown as you perform missions, build, rescue stranded sailors at sea etcetera.

As you increase your stature, you’ll be able to unlock building levels, so becoming a Commander will allow you to upgrade your buildings to level two. This will increase storage or the number of workers etc depending on the building you’re upgrading. As you rise through the ranks, you’ll also be able to increase the size of your fleet, giving you more protection from pirates etc, as well as allowing you to carry more goods from port to port.

There are many dangers on the seas, the obvious ones being pirates, but there’s also several types of sharks which can hunt you down, such as the wolf sharks which hunt in packs, all the way to the massive king shark. Storms and lightening from out of nowhere can strike your ship, causing damage while it’s on fire. Giant squids can fire inky jets at you, causing your ship to slow to a halt, at which point the squid will then grapple your ship with its tentacles as it tries to crush it.

There’s also a couple of behemoths to watch out for as you progress through the game, the Leviathan and Kraken. These huge creatures will take you down to Davey Jones’ locker quicker than you can say Jack Sparrow if they get hold of you. Although with a bit of nerve, some fancy sailing and some good aiming, you can overcome these beasts of the sea. Not all dangers are at sea, your town isn’t safe and can be attacked by pillaging pirates. You can build some defence towers to help protect your town, but should the pirates be successful in raiding your town they can take some of your gold.

Upon arriving at an island port you’ll have to dock; once docked you’ll have access to the market place and tavern, and be able to repair your ship. In the market there’s possibly eight different resources you can buy and sell: Wood, Stone, Iron, Cloth, Food, Rum, Gunpowder and Rubies. The prices for each resource will vary depending on how many a port has available.

Obviously after a long voyage you’ll be thirsty and want to head over to the tavern to wet ya whistle. At each tavern you’ll find a Missions, Most Wanted and Hire Escorts board. Here you’ll find side missions for you to undertake; these will vary in difficulty and gold received for completing a mission. To accept a mission just click accept, it will then give you an indication of roughly where you’ll need to go to, you’ll only have a certain length of time to complete that mission.

You can play as you see fit.  You may become fed up with being a merchant and decide to become a pirate or a bounty hunter, tracking down the scum of the seas and sending them to the deep. As a pirate, you’ll be unwelcome in most ports, but there is a safe port for pirates to trade - Blackfort. However, you can also change your colours by clicking the Pirate Mode button found on the bottom middle of your screen. This will change your sails and allow you to enter any port, then once out on the open seas again, you can change back to a pirate and carry on terrorising and plundering others. The pirate mode can also be used if you’re not a pirate but want to enter Blackfort without being attacked as you come close to the island. Should you fancy attacking some merchant ships full of resources, entering pirate mode will allow this while not affecting your renown.

The game can be played in single player or you can play against others in multiplayer; it does autosave, but you can also save manually as well. In the settings there’s Audio (Music and Sound volume controls), Gameplay (Reset Tutorials), Graphics (Fullscreen, Resolution and Graphics Quality) and Input (Ship and In-Game Menu Buttons). You can re-map each of the in-game keys to your preference should you wish to.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!