I like pirate games. Nay, I love pirate games. Sadly there is a severe lack of good pirate games in the world… and I hadn’t played a decent one since a certain guy named Sid practically invented the genre way back when (yeah the re-release improved graphics version doesn’t count, since it was the same dang game).I was thrilled when Voyage Century Online went live, and for once in my dismal gaming existence I wasn’t let down. This game is awesome! Ok, that said, it does have a few flaws. If you are looking for a fast paced cannon-blasting, storm the ramparts kind of pirate game… VCO is NOT for you. The big complaint I have heard is that the game moves too slow for many people. Sailing from Athens to Alexandria can take 15 minutes, more if you run into any pirates. Combat tends to be quick, but due to the system usually not very action packed. It’s fun, just not very fast, as you may spend 2-3 minutes just trying to position your ship to open fire… or in some cases 10 minutes chasing down a fleeing merchant. The other flaw is translations. The game is from China and they didn’t spend much time translating certain parts of the game.
What VCO does right far exceeds those flaws in my opinion, and honestly I like the laid back style of combat and movement, it gives me time to do work in the other window while my ship lazily sails around. What it does right is always having things going on while you hunt, level, sail, or whatever. Nearly everything you do in the game has a skill and you gain experience for doing it. Cut down a tree for lumber, gain exp, destroy a pirate ship, gain exp, trade cargo for a profit, gain exp. You even gain exp for just sailing around on the ocean. Exp is divided between your personal skills and the skill level of your ship, and each skill has certain influences on the game.
Further as you sail around there are always new things to discover. These appear as flashes as you sail past them. When you see them you can stop and land an exploration team (which has several risks of having sailors killed off). If you’re a little lucky or persistent you will find an artifact. Artifacts are cool discoveries to make, not used in game in any way but to gain exp, money, and fame.
Perhaps the coolest part about VCO is it is set in the REAL world. Yes, that’s right. When it says sail from Athens to Genoa I don’t have to sit and wonder where or how far away it is, even if I haven’t discovered it. The discoveries you make are REAL things, relatively close to their real position. You can find Olympus near Athens, you can find pyramids in Egypt, you can find rare species of fish in the middle of the Mediterranean.
Most people focus on a specific activity and build their ship towards that. Adventurers (people finding artifacts) take light and fast ships to explore the world. Combat focused characters take warships armed with tons of cannons. Traders, like myself, spend their time and money on a cargo ship to amass great riches. In all professions you’ll find yourself fighting against (or alongside) pirates. You’ll also end up getting involved in a guild and we hope to see a great number of guild features soon, especially the ability to set up our own ports and pirate bases.
VCO also features certain land based activities, mostly crafting in nature (Planting, Timbering, Mining), but also land based combat. Training your character in hand to hand or gun to head combat is essential in case your ship is boarded by pirates or players. The land based combat system sucks, but I can forgive that in a game that is all about the sea.
The entire world exists to explore and I have only scratched the surface with my trading ship. I have only made it from Beruit to Seville, but I know other players who have made the voyage all the way to Edo and “The New World.” Someday I dream of bringing shiploads of silk and kites to all those mundane Europeans.
For those that care, VCO is free to play forever. We assume they will have some type of item purchasing in the future, allowing players with fat wallets to get phat ships, but so long as they can keep it somewhat balanced or not overly expensive I am very pleased with my latest discovery.
Play Voyage Century Online, you owe it to everything your inner pirate ever wanted. Yarr!
I am the PR Manager for a successful game company and enjoy writing reviews for non-competing products. I am married to a lovely wife and we have a lovely daughter named Rowan, who is currently two. I am also a professional juggler and swordfighter, which comes in handy in a variety of situations.
Well was nice reading this review. Ive played VCO for nearly 2 years now, from around the time this review was first made.
Well for the most part it seems the main points about VCO were hit. However, just funny to read the last paragraph of it. VCO initially did not seem to be so item mall based. You really could play for free and have fun. Unfortunately this changed. Internet Gaming Gate (IGG) and their lust for money definitely took over. Dont get me wrong, this game is definitely fun and has some great features and ideas in it, but it is definitely not free. I make sure to tell people to avoid VCO. Its honestly not worth starting, getting into, only to find out that if you want to compete or get places in game, you'll need Item Mall. This game seems to be dying because of it sad to say, but i just hope IGG learned their lesson and not destroy another great game