Velvet Sundown – Preview
Nowadays, a lot of games have role play elements in them. Whether it’s an action game, MMO, RTS or something else. However, not a lot of games focus purely on role playing itself. That’s where Velvet Sundown comes in, the game is solely built around role playing. You take place in the skin of a person on a cruise and then role play with other characters, all controlled by players.
Velvet Sundown is an all out role play game that was recently launched into open beta. The game is all about role playing, but strangely there isn’t really a story. Instead of that, you have 11 premade characters you randomly get assigned at the start of the game. Each character has a life, story and past of it’s own. You can be a bartender simply doing his job or a journalist looking for juicy stories. Everything you do requires the help of other players on the ship. Some people have information you need, some don’t, it’s up to you to find out! Sometimes people will also tell you things that aren’t really related to anything you’re looking for, but it still starts a new objective. You can then decide which subject you want to find out more of. Of course it’s still in beta phase, so a lot more scenarios, objectives and characters are in the making so you can enjoy role playing even more!
Currently there are 2 playable scenarios, which you can only play 1 of if you’re a free member. The free scenario rotates every week, so eventually you’ll get to play both of them. Free scenarios are played with less players however, limiting the depth of the plots and dialogue you can do with different players. A premium account is currently a monthly recurring fee, giving you access to a hilarious robot voice which reads everything for you and all scenarios with more players. Of course, you also support the developers into making this game a real gem!
When first starting the game, you’ll of course want to do the tutorial to find out what you’re doing. Sadly, the tutorial is very minimalistic since it’s a multiplayer game. The tutorial basically teaches you how to run around, interact, talk and use objects. However, this doesn’t prepare you for the real deal at all. When starting a game, you’re suddenly swarmed with a dialogue of text describing the character you are playing. When you’ve read through that you suddenly see some objectives on the left hand side of the screen and have no idea what to do with them.
Once you’ve finally acquainted yourself with the controls (which can’t be changed, though you can use the mouse to move) the fun can begin. Each character has its own set of objectives, so it’s your job to convince other players to give their information to you. This might not seem hard, but the game is drastically determined by the players in your game. Since it’s a free to play game, it attracts a lot of … immature players, who ruin the game experience. Most of the time when playing free scenarios you’ll encounter that someone leaves the game after 2 minutes because the game isn’t their type (even though the description states it’s 100% role play).
Each game, every premade character is the same. You might think you could just replay the scenarios over and over until you perfect a strategy to complete all your objectives. Thankfully, this is not true at all. The game and direction are solely determined by the other players and the information they give you. One game you could end up uncovering someones shady past and another you’ll be slipping off your panties and selling them for slaves (some people on this game are crazy). On top of that, every time you join a scenario, you get assigned a random character, ensuring in no repetitive moments.
There isn’t really an end to the game, there is no win or lose situation. The game is simply about having a good time and role playing, though it’s fun to try and uncover as many story elements as possible. After the game ends (typically after 35 minutes), you get into a debriefing room where you can get out of character and laugh about all things that happened.
Conclusion
Velvet Sundown is a game that may require a lot of patience to get in to. The free rooms are usually filled with immature players or people who go AFK, so it’s easy to get your experience ruined by others. However, when you get a good set of players, you’ll have the most fun you’ve had in months. It’s a very relaxing and casual game and on top of that, it’s free! Check out the game on Steam and consider subscribing to give the developers more budget to make this game better!
Velvet Sundown - Preview,
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