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Pirates of the Burning Sea

User Rating:

ESRB: Blood,Suggestive Themes,Use of Alcohol,Use of Tobacco,Violence
Publisher: Flying Lab Software
Genre(s): MMORPG
Home Page: http://www.piratesoftheburningsea....

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By: Jarno Kokko Jan 25, 2008

It is not sinking, Captain!

Only thing sinking here is the evil Brits - PotBS is very much a positive surprise.

Personally I'm just a bit surprised with Pirates of the Burning Sea. While the initial impression I laid out with the preview was less than favorable, Flying Lab Software has done a considerable amount of polishing to the game since then. The game is actually playable and mostly bug-free at launch and the servers actually work - a stark contrast to many recent massively multiplayer game launches. Sure, there are flaws - mostly related to the presentation of the character-based gameplay and general immersion - but overall the package is far better than most recent MMO offerings and the underlying design feels sound. The jury is still out on how well the economy and territorial PvP warfare between the factions will actually work in the long run, but I'm cautiously optimistic. The foundations are there, and while it's inevitable that further balancing work is needed, nothing appears fundamentally broken from the word "go".

PotBS is also to be commended for putting some real effort to the storylines. Even if many of the quests are just quick bits of action that only last for a few minutes, you can rely on a well-written piece of lore to go with it. Writing in MMORPGs has generally been an afterthought, "flavor text" to fill in a reason to go whack bunnies, but here the mission storylines actually develop along the way, and the "epic" storyline for each career is very interesting. There is also a bit of supernatural thrown in to the mix, and my Naval Officer was knee deep in stories about Templars, cryptic maps and the lost city of Atlantis by mid-20s.

The limited number of careers (character classes) and the current weakness of most of the available abilities will most likely hamper replayability and create min-maxed cookie-cutter builds that everyone uses. I could see myself rolling maybe one or two alternate characters over time, but chronic alt-a-holics may grumble a bit about the lack of choices. It remains to be seen how engaging the endgame at level 50 will be in the long run, but in any case there is enough here to justify the sticker price and the subscription fees for a few months. Not every MMO has to be all-consuming affair that takes over your life, and this one is definitely casual-friendly, offering things to do even when played in moderation; yet it does include features that could entice veteran players to compete long after the initial level grind to 50 is done. At a minimum, Pirates of a Burning Sea is a tasty light snack to be enjoyed in addition to other games, or as an appetizer while waiting for the Next Big MMO, but it's quite possible that it will develop to be the Yarr-tastic sea-based stepchild of EVE Online with the cutthroat PvP aspect keeping things going - only time will tell.

Summary of YouGamers Hardware Testing

The publisher of this game state the following specifications for their minimum and recommended requirements:

Component	Publisher's Minimum	Publisher's Recommended
Processor	Intel Pentium 4 1.5 GHz	Core Duo 2.0 Ghz or greater
Memory	512 MB	1024 MB
Graphics Card	128MB DirectX 9.0c card with Shader Model 2.0 support	256MB DirectX 9.0c card with Shader Model 2.0 support
Graphics Card Example	ATI Radeon 9600 series / NVIDIA GeForce 5700 series	ATI Radeon X850 / NVIDIA GeForce 6600
Free Disk Space	4 GB	4GB
Net Link	Broadband	Broadband

To learn more about how YouGamers performs its hardware testing, click here. Through our extensive gameplay and hardware testing across the full spectrum of PC configurations, YouGamers suggests that one should use the following guidelines for an appropriate minimum and recommended setup:

Component	YouGamers Minimum	YouGamers Recommended
Processor	AMD Athlon 64 3000+ / Intel Pentium 4 3200 MHz	AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ / Intel Core 2 Duo E4500
Memory	1024 MB	2048 MB
Graphics Card	ATI Radeon X800 256MB / NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT 256MB	ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256MB / NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB
Free Disk Space	6 GB	6 GB
Net Link	Broadband	Broadband

Scores

To learn more about our scoring methodology, please click here.

Gameplay	83	Gameplay is bit of a mixed bag - character combat can only be described as clunky, but overall it does many things right and the good things outweigh the flawed areas. There is definitely a game here.
Graphics	76	While ship-based combat is beautiful, the score gets hammered by the poor character animation and background graphics. Visual quality is also inconsistent, probably due to the very long development time.
Audio	81	Fine music, but the game could use a few more generic tracks to play. Effects quality is inconsistent in places, but overall the audio does the job without drawing much attention.
Technology	76	The age and average technological sophistication of the engine shows - it doesn't look like a modern MMO, but on the upside you can get by with a rather modest system.

OVERALL

Surprisingly good effort for a pirate-themed MMO. Instead of a reskinned Everquest-derivative, we get some actual gameplay innovations. If you can get by the early shock of the poor character-based parts, the game does grow on you. Not bad, not bad at all.

Patches and Updates

The game build reviewed is v1.0.47.0, and reflects the game on the launch day (22nd of January 2008). As MMORPGs constantly evolve and often take months to stabilize to the "endgame" where most players are at the maximum level, this review can only evaluate things based on the early portions of the game.

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