Video Game Review - King of Seas

Rob reviews King of Season Xbox One...

Yo-ho! yo-ho! a Pirates life for me... who didn't grow up not wanting to be a Pirate? 

Ever since riding Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride as a child, I've been enthralled with the Pirate mysticism. Everyone at some time has fantasised about sailing the seas, going on adventures, and battling other Pirates. Where in reality Pirate life was far less glamorous.

There has been plenty of Pirate themed games throughout the years that have attempted to replicate a meaningful Pirate story. Titles such as Assassins Creed: Black Flag, Sea of Thieves, and the Monkey Island games being amongst the more memorable. 

Team 17 and 3D Clouds are attempting to bring something different to the Pirate genre with King of Seas - a top-down action-adventure game that places you in command of your ship. 

But does it sink or swim? Keep reading to find out...

King of Seas places you in the boots of Luky - the not so "lucky" son of the current King. The opening mission sees you take on a simple voyage in a sort of celebration for your first commission. However, whilst your away from the Capital, your father is murdered - and yes, you're also framed for the murder. As such your new boat is destroyed and your once loyal navy leaves you for dead. 

Naturally, it isn't long before some "good" Pirates come across the shipwreck and save you from Davy Jones. Not only do these do-gooders nurse Luky back to heath, but they also gift him a ship and even train him in becoming a Pirate. Why? Well for revenge of course! 

This then sets Lucky out into the procedurally generated world to loot and plunder the various islands, all while determining who set him up and murdered the King. 

The story of King of Seas isn't particularly a unique one. Throughout you take part in various missions such as attacking other ships, protecting merchants, delivering messages etc. A few of these missions are related to advancing the story, but a fair chunk of them are there for you to get out there and explore. A lot of the time I found myself just sailing about and charting my adventure. And that's where King of Seas shines. You're never penalised for not progressing the story. If anything you even encouraged to just set sail for ports yonder. 

The King of Seas map is fairly large and is littered with islands, settlements, forts, and plenty of inhabitants. It feels very alive with plenty of boats just going about their business, all under the watchful eyes of their respective factions. There's plenty of variation to the vessels that you'll encounter with Hunters, Smugglers, Traders, Tourists, and a whole range of military vessels. None of these ships is off-limits and if you're feeling lucky your able to attack any of them at will. 

The sea is also littered with plenty of loot for you to collect. The whole map feels like one big floating treasure chest. There's plenty of islands to explore and wrecks to discover, with looting taking place at the touch of a button. You're also able to sell your ill-gotten gains at various ports which in the turn will allow you to upgrade your ship - or even buy a new one. It took me roughly an hour to go from the beginner Pirate to Scrooge McDuck. There's so much to see and do running out of money is never an option.

A massive chunk of my time with King of Seas was spent just looting and upgrading my ship. Ships can be upgraded in various ways with each offering different abilities and cosmetic looks. With plenty to choose from it's fairly simple to keep up with the difficulty curve, and even become too powerful - not that I'm complaining. As we explore the seas, we're also able to equip our vessel with various special skills. These range from conventional skills such as flamethrowers, and exploding barrels, to the more exotic such as commanding the Kraken - and even peeing on the cannonballs! It's great fun and there's plenty of scopes to mix and match skills to create some killer combinations. 

Visuals of King of Seas are almost cartoony style. The main characters feel very much like caricatures, with rosy cheeks and accentuated features. However, the sea is where it's at and this is when King of Seas is at its best. There is the odd frame rate and texture pop-up but this is mainly when you transition from the shores to the deep sea. It's a very minor graphical transition, that shouldn't affect gameplay aside from being able to notice it. 

Otherwise, the game plays fairly well. Controls are also pretty tight and are mapped to the Xbox controller incredibly well. Ships also have various degrees of handling which in a sense mimic their IRL counterparts. A speedboat handles vastly different to a ferry, so it's only natural that the same can be said between a sloop and galleon. 

When it's all said and done, King of Seas is a pretty competent experience. Whilst it's not as sandbox as Sea of Thieves, it offers a somewhat controlled environment to play Pirate in. Even with its repetitiveness, King of Seas is an accessible game that begs you to set sail. 

Rating - 7/10 

A code was kindly provided for this review.

King of Seas is out now and can be purchased via the Microsoft store by clicking here.

Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow Geek Culture Reviews on Twitter and Facebook @GeekCultureRev