Tempest types of ships. Korsary4's impressions of the game Tempest. Tempest: ships in the game

Many books and films tell us about full of adventure and the romance of pirate life. And in the world of mobile gaming, this topic enjoys well-deserved popularity - who would refuse to stand on the deck of a schooner with the Jolly Roger fluttering on the mast, breathe in the salty wind and feel the spirit of the free pirates? And the fresh action-RPG Tempest offers you exactly that - an open world to explore, distant islands and dangerous missions, trade expeditions and predatory raids, spectacular ship battles and clashes with sea monsters.

All this sounds tempting and is really present in the game, but you shouldn’t look for much romance here. Yes, you are free in your choice, you can sail anywhere and fight with anyone, complete missions or just go on a free voyage, relying on luck - but all this will require monotonous work from you rather than crazy action. Therefore, as time passes, the life of a pirate will no longer seem so romantic to you, and you won’t be able to become a bloody villain in Tempest - in general, this is a fairly smooth game in which even the battles are calculated and measured.

At the start, you find yourself in the thick of a sea battle, which ends tragically - your ship and crew are destroyed by a giant sea monster, the Kraken. Having miraculously survived, you begin your career as a captain from scratch, with a new, rather modest ship and a not very experienced crew. We should pay tribute to the educational level of this game - it is very detailed and will allow even gamers unfamiliar with the mechanics of naval battles to quickly get up to speed.

The on-screen controls are convenient and intuitive, so learning how to control the camera angle, select the direction of the ship and set the sails is not difficult. The same applies to battles - for a beginner they look intimidating, but, in fact, they occur according to a certain pattern, and are by no means as chaotic as they might seem. It is the battles that are the main, most spectacular and most thoughtful part of the game. In them, as in real naval battle, you will have to skillfully maneuver to direct your side towards the enemy ship and defeat it with a powerful salvo from all guns. By the way, Tempest provides several types of ammunition, each of which is more effective in certain moment. For example, buckshot is good for destroying the enemy team, and cannonballs are good for causing damage to the hull of a ship.

If you get close, you can board an enemy ship; this purpose will be served by the boarding team located on your deck, which will engage in battle with the enemy, firing at him with guns and muskets and throwing poisoned bombs onto the enemy deck. In case of victory, the enemy's ship can be dismantled to patch up your own, or delivered to the nearest port. In addition, you can replenish your team, which has been depleted after the battle, with sailors from the enemy ship.

From time to time, missions will lead you not only to collisions with other ships, but also to shelling of land fortresses or fights with sea monsters. This adds some variety to the standard gameplay scheme. But in general, the essence of the game (if you are on this moment did not engage in battle with someone) comes down to sailing from port to port, equipping the ship and purchasing supplies (from cannonballs to barrels of rum), hiring a crew and completing missions. They can concern both relatively peaceful trade and helping friends, and purely pirate raids aimed at obtaining loot.

Your ship, of course, is subject to upgrades, and the experience of the crew and captain will grow with each completed mission. Interestingly, you, as the captain, have to choose your skills from 12 possible ones, but keep in mind: the skills block each other. Therefore, by choosing, for example, the marksmanship skill, you lose the opportunity to get the “Dodger” skill, and a skill that increases the speed of the ship will no longer allow you to increase its maneuverability.

You can get the in-game currency, gold, by completing tasks and defeating enemies. With this money you will purchase weapons and ammunition in the port, as well as repair and upgrade the ship at the shipyard. After which a map and another task awaits you again. This pattern is repeated regularly, and given the absence of a pronounced storyline, it may seem a little monotonous.

As a result, we get more of a game dedicated to naval battles than an adventure in open world, which was originally hoped for. Therefore, it will be appreciated by fans of battles at sea with maneuvers, close encounters and shelling.

Of course, the visual component of Tempest deserves special mention. The graphics in it are definitely at their best, especially when it comes to the moments of being on the open sea. The voice acting is also not satisfactory - it adds realism to the game both during combat and while sailing or staying in the port.

In the genre of marine simulators there is now so little competition that any interesting game is capable of attracting attention and will be warmly received by fans of ship battles. However, for the projectLion'sShade is worth paying attention to not because there is nothing else, but because there are pirates, mysticism and you can shout at the screen “whistle everyone up, bilge rats.”

Everyone in the family wanted you to become a major merchant, but you inherited a ship, and the sea began to beckon mercilessly. Yielding to the call of adventure, you set sail and immediately fell into the tenacious tentacles of the kraken, which successfully sank your ship. You'll have to start all over again, making your way through the pirate hierarchy and maneuvering between several powerful factions.

As you can already understand, the world of Tempest is not entirely ordinary. This is such a mixture of chaos and lawlessness that reigned in the Caribbean archipelago of the 18th century, multiplied by pirate legends about ghost ships, sea monsters and terrible curses. Which, here, of course, are quite real.

Among the basic mechanicsTempest has virtually nothing new. You need to equip the ship, purchase medical supplies and cannonballs, recruit a couple of dozen new recruits from the port and go out to the open sea.

The sea in the game is truly “open” - you can sail through absolutely the entire location without going out onto global map. True, there are still conditional gluings. The world of Tempest consists of several regions, each of which lives by its own rules. The starting region is relatively rural, where mostly small ships sail, and small towns of different factions huddle on the surrounding islands. But once you cross into the eastern seas, you will encounter large kingdoms that divide their zones of influence among themselves. Three-decker ships sail there, and there is simply nothing for a schooner to do there.

But the fact that Lion’s Shade decided to take a classic basis for marine simulators does not mean that the game does not have interesting solutions. In addition to standard ship upgrades, it has a special slot for artifacts. Since the world of Tempest is magical, you can put on your vessel either a magical barrier that protects the ship, or a conditional “hyperdrive” that briefly accelerates you to the level of a modern cruiser. True, you will have to pay well for this.

WorldTempest is divided between factions who fight among themselves. Each owns certain cities that provide pleasant bonuses. For example, pirate cities can give out free rusty cores and patch up the ship's hull a little. In the Kingdom, you can leave money in a bank at interest. There are also Sisters of Mercy who treat your injured sailors for free.

The local currency - piastres - will have to be earned by robberies or by carrying out orders from factions. And if the first one is boring (and quarrels with almost everyone), then in the second option you will find nice quests that will last for a long time. Here you will find searches for fugitives and treasures, investigations related to phantom pirates, and even big politics. In general, the quests are quite simple, but they pleasantly diversify the game, giving it meaning. This is good because the battles are just as simplified, and destroying another merchant ship for the tenth time can get boring.

The only thing that is very annoying is that there are practically no signs in the game telling you where to sail. Yes, they tell you that this is some kind of “Black Lagoon”, but where it is and what to do when you find it is often not entirely clear. There are often situations where you are told that you need to “take a fort”, but the indication of whether it is correct only appears when you swim up to it.

INTempest allows you to create a map for several players, but this is exactly the option when multiplayer is more boring than single player.Tempest is slow, and at first you will hardly interfere with your neighbors.

Sea battles are standard. The ships have demonstrated the strength of their sails, crew and hull. By firing at ships from onboard guns, you can either sink them or force them to slowly drift into the sea. The only thing that distinguishes Tempest from many previous games is the variety of different projectiles and the aiming scale, which will show you how many cannonballs will hit the enemy. The longer you keep the ship at gunpoint, the better. In your arsenal, in addition to standard shrapnel, pins and cannonballs, you can store poison bombs, incendiary shells and even canisters of liquid smoke, which reduce the enemy’s accuracy to almost zero.

When you get tired of shelling the enemy, you can try to board him, during which some of your soldiers will fight in close combat, and the other will fire at enemies from afar. The ratio and size of both teams is up to you. The only thing that is not entirely clear is the principle by which damage caused is calculated. Sometimes you can lose with a significant advantage, since even the most experienced members of your team will begin to deal zero damage to the enemy, and even a team almost completely damaged by shrapnel will fight quite well. Moreover, during boarding, you can only choose which soldiers to shoot at or throw cans of poison at, if any. Such fights are the most unpredictable, but this is the only way to get a large untouched ship at your disposal.

NameTempest is no accident. In the game world, the storm does not stop for a minute, threatening you with high waves, thunderclouds and strong winds. It looks depressing.

In any case, combat in Tempest does not require much effort or micromanagement on your part. All you have to do is steer the ship and shoot without getting under enemy fire, sometimes using the power of the artifact. But the battles themselves can hardly be called simple. You can completely accidentally run into a ship that can sink you very quickly. As a result, you will lose gold and some equipment, after which at first you will have to fight with the help of those same rusty pirate cannonballs, being content with little.

You've probably noticed that we haven't mentioned the trading that's common in games like this yet. This is all because she doesn’t exist as such in Tempest. That is, naturally, you will sell the loot, but it is almost impossible to become a merchant in the game. Of course, there are cities in which the same goods are cheaper or more expensive. But the sales margin is still either zero or minimal. True, this is in any case not a game where trading would be interesting.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to admire the surrounding beauty. The graphics in the game are as utilitarian as possible. The sea is gray slurry, the forts are piles of gray or white stone. The only thing that is more or less nice are the ships, but you shouldn’t expect too much from them either. Well, the images of pirates are not bad. Otherwise, everything is very modest and without taste. But it will work even on a toaster.

A sea adventurer simulator is the cherished dream of many players. To plunder galleons, raid weakly defended cities, build ships of your own design, participate in naval battles,... eh!

But, for the time being, these were pipe dreams. The obstacles were in the open world, which is difficult to create by the developer, and for some reason large publishers do not see much interest in the marine genre. But now everything has changed, we are already familiar with a similar project -, now let’s take a look at the new product called "Storm".

Let's say right away that the game is in early access, but has already received extremely positive ratings from players, despite small world, in which there are still no continents, large islands and even larger sea spaces. But to become a real sea wolf in Tempest it's already possible. After all, we are given a real ship at our disposal, which can be adapted to our needs. The player can buy the necessary vessel and experiment to his heart's content. For example, he has at his disposal a large set of ship equipment: you can change the hull for speed or protection, you can equip the ship for war or peaceful trade.

The choice is entirely up to the player: if you want to have more space for goods, throw the cannonballs out of the hold. If you want to become a cruel filibuster, install a ram on the bow and guns on the sides. Jewelry is not forgotten: the players big choice all kinds of pennants, flags and interior decorations. It is also important to equip the ship with weapons - various firepower options are available for certain types of hull. Faster hulls can accommodate a few guns. Heavier ships are well protected by cannons, but are slow and have a number of other vulnerabilities: for example, they are more difficult to control in storms. Perhaps this is done for the sake of balance.

But any ship will be dead if there is no team of inveterate thugs on it. True, achieving this will not be easy - you will have to go from a beardless cabin boy to a thug tattooed from head to toe, who cannot imagine life without a bottle of rum. The best way achieve progression of personnel - complete all kinds of quests or fight sea monsters, including Krakens and Leviathans. It’s also not bad to carry out the tasks of the Coastal Brotherhood - deliver the necessary cargo, accompany pirate legions, rob rich ships...

Or you can plunge your head into the economic part of the game. So far, it doesn't fit well with the core gameplay and can seem complicated and cumbersome. Here you will have to get acquainted with the intricacies of trade - carry out transactions with distant colonies and embark on adventurous operations, where you can easily get a cannonball on board, instead of the coveted jackpot. The economic system is not yet complete: some branches lead to a dead end, something has not been added yet, something is too primitive. In the future, the economy will be improved, and maybe completely redesigned.

And, of course, you can only participate in all this alone - online battles and co-op playthrough expected in future updates Tempest. But even now it’s interesting, atmospheric game, in which you can pirate and fight at sea.

Imagine Assassin's Creed: Black Flag . Without the action component, assassins and Templars, and generally any action on land. Just your ship, a map and the open sea. Doesn't sound so bad. But in reality it's not so good...

General form

The main problem of the game is that it is quite empty, despite all its fullness. There is a lot here - naval battles, capture of ports, pirates, traders, mystical artifacts, legendary monsters like the Kraken and Leviathan.

But at the same time there is a lot missing. The main thing that is missing is motivation. We can fight, trade, improve the ship and crew. But why? There is practically no plot. Most of it takes place at the training stage. And there’s not much desire to play for the sake of the game itself.

Pew-pew on the turret

Perhaps the whole point is that the developers decided to motivate the player with high difficulty when entering. At the very beginning of the game, anyone can attack us. Anyone at all. Therefore, at first you carefully build a route, try to move carefully between ports... until you realize that nothing will happen to you. Nothing at all. When moving around the map, not a single ship will attack itself, ever.

It’s a different matter with quests, which are still present in a small part. The first quest is to meet a friend at the port. Ok, we arrive at the place, a couple of small pirates attack us and drown us in a couple of minutes. Game Over.

Ok, attempt No. 2: we arrive at the place, we are met by a huge frigate, which immediately attacks. It’s good that the same pirates who sank him last time are now attacking him, not us. The three of us somehow fight back, board the ship... and die in the process.

Attempt No. 3, correct: we forget to meet a friend and sail to upgrade - we attack small lonely ships, slowly upgrade the ship, trade, upgrade the team. We play like this until we get bored, remember that there are still some bits of plot and quests, and go off to complete them.

Another couple of seconds and we’ll get a dose of buckshot in the side

Those. technically this is what we have Skyrim or No Man's Sky, only about pirates and with a view from the back of the ship. And there, and there, and here, everything is tied to research and development, and the plot here is present somewhere in the background like a weightless tick.

No wonder I remembered Black Flag at first. The ship feels and behaves almost exactly like it did there. If you have played, then start maneuvering almost immediately. Except that the ship is not so strong, and is killed much easier and faster. The camera can be adjusted above the ship or brought as close as possible to the deck level, from where it is much easier to aim, but the situation around is absolutely not visible.

So, once I fought against a fairly strong opponent. Despite his advantage, my victory was close. However, I was carried away by the shelling and did not notice how the ship ran into the rocks. However, this happens here regularly and not only with the player. The enemy also sometimes seems to get carried away with the battle.

We're sailing off into the sunset. More precisely from sunset

So, another battle was not far from the port. I was attacked by a mighty frigate. The chances of winning were almost zero. Then I swam behind a huge neutral ship that was anchored here. He wanted the enemy to fire a volley at him and thereby force him to respond. But the enemy stubbornly refused to wake up the titan. In another attempt to scratch me out, he ran into the rocks and received maximum damage. Having finished it off immediately, I boarded him.

Boarding even looks ugly

Boarding is worth talking about separately. Because this is the most disgustingly made moment in the game. Having done certain damage, you will have the opportunity to board the enemy. To do this, you need to swim to the flashing point next to the enemy ship, which will continue to heavily deal damage to you. Then the teams with muskets at the ready will sluggishly exchange fire.

You can only concentrate fire on an individual enemy, or use special abilities - throw a poisonous bomb, send a couple of your messengers to the enemy deck (where they will quickly distract attention, concentrate fire on themselves, inflict some damage and hoof themselves), etc. But the special capabilities will quickly run out, but the soldiers will continue to exchange fire. Until one side kills everyone. About 10 minutes later. Well, then either spend the enemy ship on repairs, or recruit sailors from prisoners, or... everything is bad.

Maximum zoom

It's bad in the sense that the game is full of minor bugs and bugs. The developers were too hasty to remove it from early access. Take, for example, the Russifier. Yes, there is one, it’s quite suitable, but it’s impossible to study in Russian. At a certain stage, a bug prevents you from pressing a button. The third point during boarding does not really work. Here, in theory, we can take the ship for ourselves. But this item will either turn out to be inactive, or the ship will simply disappear. And only in a small number of cases will it actually be possible to pick it up. This also applies to other aspects of the game. The cannonballs are not always selected, the cannons do not always fire, and the cargo may stick tightly to the hold.

The graphic part does not cause any complaints. The ships are cute - and thank you for that. The effects of shots and smoke look great. True, the waves often pass through the ship, but this seems to be the case in all games with a marine theme. When you get closer, small problems appear, such as poor detail or crooked command animation, but this is a problem for most small indie studios. Motion capture is not cheap these days.

Technically, the game has multiplayer. Well, how present... Approximately at the same level as in No Man's Sky. Those. the developers promised that while traveling, you could bump into another player, but, in my opinion, no one has succeeded so far. But there is a co-op for 2-3 players. If you wish, you and your friends can build a small fleet. Or sink it to hell.