Tempest – Review
Nobody knew freedom quite like the pirates of old, and now the opportunity to experience it yourself has fallen into your lap. It’s officially time to pitch the sails, assemble your crew, and man the cannons. So whether you decide to take what you want by force, or trade astutely to create huge sums of gold, the high seas are calling you.
Story
Having had your fathers ship destroyed by a giant sea-monster, you have managed to buy yourself a small vessel with the remaining money, and you set out to sea to rebuild your fortune and create your own legend.
The story-line in Tempest truly focuses on having an open world, where you are encouraged to make your own story. There are a ton of different quests to follow, all of which have really fun and unique little story-lines. There are different factions for you to interact with and that each have their own quests that will bring you greater respect from the faction, as well as hatred from their enemies.
It is up to you to decide on what sort of legend you want to build for yourself. Become a pirate and terrorize the seas by raiding merchant ships and collecting booty, or become something more of a merchant yourself by buying goods cheap and selling them off where they are expensive.
Graphics
This title has decent graphics, nothing to shout home about, but still nice for such an open world little indie title. The ships are well modeled and generally look pretty impressive, and the sea lit by storms and sunsets can look absolutely stunning. The fighting animations when in 3rd person mode can be a little clunky, but that’s really the only complaint to be made.
Sound
The soundtrack is good and very “piratey” to really get you into the swashbuckling mood. The sound effects are likewise good and get the job done. There isn’t much in the way of voice acting, but you don’t really miss it anyway.
Gameplay
Tempest is something of an RPG, ship management hybrid. You must earn money and complete quests (in whichever way you like) in order to grow and proceed. The tutorial comes a long way into introducing you to the intricacies of the game, but you will likely still find yourself struggling with a lot as even more is left unexplained.
Part of the problem is that you can really tell that the UI was created with mobile in mind. (This title is also available on iOS and android). So you have no real save function, if the game bugs out or a giant sea monster annihilates you at the worst possible moment, which tends to happen quite a lot, then you’re stuck with either losing tons of money and progress, or else starting a brand new game.
You also suffer from not having tool tips, so you have to guess what a lot of buttons do, and a strange/contrived UI, where you are expected to swipe from side to side to get to screens, like you’re playing on a tablet. This makes the interface feel a little bit dumbed down in general.
You are given huge freedom to explore the seas and meet all the different factions. Tempest clearly took some of its inspiration from Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, and in parts the gameplay is really excellent. You can sail manually across the map, or else set a course in map view, and watch random events pop up as you travel. Are you currently flying a Jolly Roger? Then take part in a huge battle where your pirate friends are trying to capture a fleet of merchant ships. You can also play online alongside your friends, or else just experience the whole game as single player, which is a pretty awesome choice to have.
Tempest tries to focus on the most exciting parts of marine life, which is the huge naval battles. The only problem is that whilst the combat is fun, it is also stupidly difficult, especially during the early game. You have a tiny little strip with which to target enemies, whilst they often have huge cones that will destroy you from just about anywhere nearby. You also have several different types of ammo, but exactly what they do, and when to use them is never fully explained. The only dependable way to win sea battles is to let the AI automatically resolve them for you, which takes away what should be one of the main selling points of the game.
There is also a boarding mechanic, which is a really great idea, so that you can disable ships and then capture them for maximum loot and booty. The game aims to put you right in the thick of the action as you take over the captain in 3rd person view and unsheathe your cutlass to fight right alongside your swashbuckling crew.
Whilst the idea of this is brilliant, the actual outcome is unfortunately far from it. The 3rd person combat is incredibly clunky, with it seemingly taking several seconds just to swing your sword. And if you start taking hits, which is like to happen when a bunch of burly sailors come running at you, you get stunned and have to wait even longer before you’re finally able to attack yourself. Even if you do manage to get swinging, the hits only seem to register if you’re standing so close that you’re practically inside the enemy. So you might just be better off sinking everything unless you only fight much smaller ships, where your crew can just completely over-run the enemy.
Tempest does have some excellent RPG aspects. You can level up skills that grant you bonuses like greater speed or maneuverability, or better medical skills with which to save injured crewmen. You can also spend experience to level up your crew themselves, right the way from green hands to master sailors, which all effects how well your ship sails and battles.
You can (and should) also buy and upgrade ships with everything from powerful new cannons to special weapons like Mortars or even mythical powers like summoning sea monsters, or call down meteor strikes against your enemies.
Conclusion
Despite it’s issues, Tempest is a lot of fun if you can make it past the early game. There is a huge world for you to explore, and the missions are generally excellent. The extremely reasonable price-tag also helps you to overlook any of its problems and appreciate Tempest for what it is, which is a fun little pirate game, made to scratch that “Sid Meier’s Pirates”, and “Assassin’s Creed Black Flag”, itch. So if you’re having the urge to take to the seas, for this price you might as well pick up a copy.
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