As you level up your skill increases, so that you may become more skilled as a merchant or a better swordsman. By waging battles or making new discoveries you and your crew gain EXP. You can hire mates who can fulfill certain functions within your crew, like becoming a bookkeeper (HIGHLY recommended!), a cartographer or, as your fleet of ships increases, acting captain on another vessel. Akin to a RPG, each character has certain stats (like agility, charisma, or luck). Of course, you are not limited to the predefined career of choice you can practically go rouge or defect and join another nation (the Spanish, Portuguese, English or Turkish), but the plot will be on halt as long as you don’t switch back to your original predetermined choice (unless of course the story demands it).Īnother big difference is the character development system. Every story plays out differently, which greatly improves the replay value. All in all there are six characters to choose from, all of whose fates intertwine story-wise (to a point where the other selectable characters may temporarily or even permanently join your crew, but each on its own with individual goals and outcomes) and whose careers are centered on either discovery and exploration, trade, or fighting (for a specific nation or by piracy). A third is Ali Vezas who, for example, is a poor Turkish orphan who wants to make it big as a merchant and become the master of his own fate. She is denied acting out her revenge from official side, so she goes rogue and becomes a pirate. Catalina Eranzo is a Spanish naval officer that goes rogue after her brother is killed.
Joao Franco, son of the hero of the first game, is commanded by his father (now a Portuguese duke) to find the “Secret of Atlantis” – a cryptic task that kicks off a long journey full of discoveries and plot twists.
To start off, you choose one out of six characters, that all come with their own storyline. And this isn’t just due to the fact that while Pirates! Gold limits your endeavors to the Caribbean, New Horizon’s action spreads out over the entire globe. This is where the similarities pretty much end, however, because there’s more to this game… much more. And when you decide to attack (or are attacked by) another ship, the outcome of battle is decided by a fencing duel between you and the enemy captain. You hire crew members by visiting the taverns in various harbors where you can also catch up on the latest gossip. Both games also share a trading system which is influenced by your actions – prices rise and drop depending on whether you go on a looting and plundering spree within a certain area, or flood the market constantly with goods of a certain kind. On first glance, this game seems similar to Pirates! Gold: both games are set within roughly the same time period (Age of Discovery and early colonization specifically, New Horizons takes place in the year 1552, while the earliest pirate era starts in 1560), center on naval exploration, making a career as a merchant, a hunter of pirates, or being a pirate yourself.
Cities are found at specific coordinates in-game which (more or less) actually correspond with their real-life positions on the world map.
That’s right: Set in the 17th century, you’re actually traveling around the actual Earth itself.
You see, Uncharted Waters is a series of historic strategy-RPGs set in a specific era of Earth’s history, the Age of Discovery, when daring adventurers and enterprising privateers where circling the globe for the very first time, for war and profit. If you’ve read on until this point, then you just might be the kind of person to draw enjoyment from a title like this. If you want to play New Horizons, you have to take your time, lots and lots of time. This wasn’t helped by the fact that this definitely isn’t of the “pick up and play” variety. With Uncharted Waters II: New Horizons I decided that I had to finish the game twice, to see whether the game would play differently the second time around. Before rating a title, I like to do a complete playthrough at least once to see whether a game is really worth it. I must admit, it took me a long time to finally review this game. Genre: RPG Developer: Koei Publisher: Koei Players: 1 Released: 1994