Pirates of the Burning Sea Preview

Pirates of the Burning Sea is something pretty unique in the MMORPG world; it’s not about goblins, elves, orcs or trolls, there are no dragons or mounts and combat isn’t done with magic. Instead of the usual clichés then, we’re in the world of piracy, and I’m not talking about illegal downloads.

Surviving the seas is all about money, skills and territory, all of which you’ll be wanting more of throughout.

One of the things that makes POTBS rather unusual is that right at the start of the game it’s possible to do some pretty satisfying stuff. Where often you may have bought MMORPGs, installed them and wanted to go do something awesome you’d heard about, it frequently isn’t possible due to the simple fact you always start at a low level.

POTBS has addressed this issue by making it fairly easy to grasp and perform some of it’s more appealing activities such as building ships without having to be a level 600 Grand Master.

Starting out is a fairly fun task then, in which you’ll pick one of four factions affiliate yourself with, these are split into British, French, Spanish and Pirate, the latter being an expectedly rogue lot not tied to a particular country. After picking a side you’re given a choice of career, each with its own specialized traits, your choices are between Freetrader, Naval Officer, or Privateer.

Character customization is a massively detailed affair and you can end up spending a long time adorning your avatar with a selection of silly hats, wigs, coats, pants and boots.

POTBS will probably be compared to Eve Online as economy and territory are so important, with more than 80 ports up for grabs. Gaining territory is an advantage to your whole faction as you’ll control the economy in these area, and whilst it is possible to trade in lands that aren’t your own, buying from another faction is very pricey.

Fighting over the territory isn’t the kind of chaos it could be seems as it isn’t possible to just waltz right in to enemy lands and kick butt. Indeed, only when entering a PvP area will you end up battling another player.

In order for a port to be captured it must be in a state of unrest, which requires the area to have 3000 Unrest points. Ports gain these Unrest points when a player or NPC is killed 100 nautical miles or less from their own land. Once a port is in a state of Unrest then pirates and privateers are able to battle in the area and bring up the level even further.

There’s a lot of money to be earned by crafting and trading, with boat building and selling being a pretty good earner. Of course to build ships it’s necessary to acquire materials, which will need to be bought, mined or collected.

This all creates a thriving economy, as it’s possible to take on one of many trades. Boats are obviously a pretty large part of the game, and much effort has been put into creating a detailed and precise combat system as well as making them look historically accurate.

There are a load of missions to be done around the map with a story to compliment your progression through the game. Seems as nobody can get involved in your missions then it makes for quite a pleasant single player experience.