REVIEW – After Hard West II, another turn-based strategy game from Polish developer Ice Code Games, Rogue Waters a game that was barely even announced for a month before it got released, as it was announced at the end of August and was released on Steam on the last day of September. Our captain has become immortal and is now able to take on underwater creatures that can almost be called eldritch, so we’re not getting a typical adventure.

With four difficulty levels in Rogue Waters, it’s a title for beginners.

A debate and nothing else

The tutorial consists of two pirates arguing. Unfortunately, it’s also a cliché here that you have a lot of stuff at your disposal at first, and then suddenly, whoosh, you’ve lost everything… it was a bit annoying two decades ago (Need For Speed Underground, anyone?), and it’s even more so now. But then you still have to get your hero to put together a small squad, and eventually your team members will have a unique skill tree. Of course, we’ll also have an initially crappy ship that can be tuned. The choice of missions follows roughly the same structure as, say, Slay the Spire, and over time you’ll come to either a boss or a special event. It’s always worth reading up on which option leads where and what it rewards. In ship battles, of course, positioning could be especially important (this could have been emphasized constantly since Uncharted Waters…), but they are not that exciting because the game puts the two ships right next to each other. So it’s just a matter of using that ole plank. Or at least deciding whether to take out the other ship’s guns first, or target the more important elements (like where the crew is), and you have three turns to decide that, and you can have the same “blessing”. After that, we go to the end of the battle.

The game does a pretty good job of representing melee combat. This was perhaps necessary because we don’t have much room to maneuver (not only in space, but also in terms of the points available to us). It’s a bit unusual, but here we don’t have to learn how to hit our opponent, but rather concentrate on where the opponent we just hit ends up after our attack. If there’s a free space on the board behind him, that’s where he’ll end up. If there is none behind him (because he has retreated to the side of the boat), he will fall into the water on the momentum and his life is over. If you happen to have a teammate who has an ability that deals damage after physical contact, this can lead to other strategic ideas. Most passive abilities kick in after just such contact. The genre has a way of making everything fall into place if you plan it well, and Rogue Waters does just that. Of course, this also requires you to inflict as much damage as possible… not to be as agile as possible on the battlefield – that is simply not what is needed here. And that’s okay.

Life is good (or livable) in a team

You’ll want to pay attention to your teammates, because if you don’t, their HP will start to drop and they’ll get injured. At that point, it’s worth resting them and bringing in someone else while your current teammate recovers. This will happen no matter how careful we try to be. Also, let’s not forget that Rogue Waters has a roguelite flavor to it, and because of that, death will often be part of the gameplay. So we will be getting stronger and experimenting a little bit with each round. Remember, there will always be a different challenge because the game world changes procedurally with each run. You will discover new secrets, battle scenarios, and treasures with each round.

As already mentioned, the Kraken, for example, will also be used in combat, which is an interesting twist. So sea monsters (which this time don’t eat Uncle Scrooge’s ice cream…) can have a good time in combat. The world of the game is pleasing, and because of that the atmosphere in Rogue Waters was very good, and the audio was also on a reasonable level. The story wasn’t that strong (Cutter vs. Blackbeard), and the naval battles weren’t that strong either, so they became the weakest points of the game. At least the tutorial at the beginning shows you everything pretty well, and the isometric view can be said in a chorus, that it is as Diablo as it gets. The dubbing of the characters wasn’t too bad, but the music seemed very average.

Unique flavor, but perhaps quickly forgotten

Tripwire has released a fair game, but not a great one. Rogue Waters deserves a 7.5 because it is not that weak, but not that outstanding. It’s mostly good in every element, and if you like pirates, you’ll definitely spend ten hours with it, if not more. So it’s a purchase worth considering, and you don’t have to pay €60 Euros for it, but half of that (currently you can buy the game AND the soundtrack for €28).

-V-

Publisher: Tripwire Presents

Developer: Ice Code Games

Style: roguelike turn-based strategy

Published: date: September 30, 2024.