Gaming Trend Review
Swashbucklers: Blue vs. Grey
- Official Site
- Platform: PC
- Publisher: Atari
- Developer: 1C Company
- Release Date: 11/07/07
- Genre: Action/Adventure
Pros
- Interesting American Civil War setting
- Action-oriented focus
Cons
- Lackluster production values
- Questionable user-interface design
- Highly derivative gameplay
by Alan Au
When you hear the word “swashbucklers,” rousing pirate-themed adventures immediately spring to mind. Developer 1C Company stays true to this theme with its latest title, Swashbucklers. However, this tale of swords and cannons is a bit different from the usual Age of Sail fare that we’ve come to expect from pirate-themed games like Pirates!, which probably served as the gameplay model for this offering. This story takes place during the American Civil War, almost 200 years after the traditional Age of Sail. Curiously, the setting actually works very well for a pirate game, since wooden sailing ships are still in widespread use, but with the addition of steam-power to provide an extra boost. The Civil War setting also provides a good backdrop for quasi-legal pirate activities as privateers find opportunities to profit from restricted trade, smuggling, and blockade running. Sadly, the game fails to take advantage of its cool setting and ends up coming across as a highly derivative Pirates! clone.
The concept and setting of the game are interesting, but the graphics aren’t particularly stunning. That isn’t to say that the graphics are particularly bad, just that they really feel underwhelming compared to some of the other games available right now. Perhaps the problem lies with rather muted art direction, as Swashbucklers lacks the same distinctive flair of Sid Meier’s Pirates!, a game which undoubtedly influenced this game’s design and appearance. The textures seem kid of bland, and the selection of colors makes everything look washed out. This wouldn’t be so bad, except that the game also features a lot of dead space, and the combination of empty space and bland scenery makes the game environment seem very subdued. At a technical level, the game supports a good range of video resolutions, but there’s very little the user can do to control the advanced video settings like anti-aliasing for texture quality. It’s unclear whether this was due to technical constraints or if this was an explicit design decision. The end result is a game that runs okay, but which doesn’t look very impressive.
The sound and music in the game have their highs and lows. From an audio perspective, the most interesting part of the game is the music. The little banjo ditties seem very appropriate for the time period, and they definitely contribute to the Civil War setting of the game. The sound effects are okay and don’t detract from the game. However, the part that really seems underwhelming is the simulated speech during conversations. Following in the footsteps of Pirates!, Swashbucklers uses a made-up sort of pseudo speech whenever characters interact with each other. While the made-up speech worked great in Pirates!, it really falls flat here due to the completely indistinct and expressionless mumblings. Where Pirates! was filled with a highly-stylized pseudo-language, Swashbucklers is more like and extension of that teacher from Charlie Brown cartoons. This is particularly annoying since the story is told through cutscenes. Wah wah wah wah wah.
Screenshots
Ah yes, controls. These can make or break a game, and while they don’t exactly “break” Swashbucklers, they are somewhat of a pain to deal with. For ship movement, you can choose between absolute and relative directional control. That is, pressing left can either turn you left, or it can move you towards the left side of the screen. Thankfully, you can set this to match whatever system you prefer. Unfortunately, the land-based portions force you to use absolute-direction controls. This is fine if you’re used to that sort of control system, but it takes some getting used-to if you like relative controls. The combat controls aren’t too bad, but they’re also a bit quirky. The mouse is used to attack, but the keyboard is used to move and defend. As it turns out, there are also multiple different combat modes to learn including ship combat, land/deck-based combat, dueling and brawling. In some sense you can consider them mini-games, except that they occur one-after the other in the case of a high-seas boarding action.
Once you’ve boarded a ship, you can take its cargo and sell the ship. However, the controls can be a bit tricky here too. One of my early experiences involved transferring to a captured ship, except that my cargo didn’t get moved automatically, so I lost my quest-cargo and my steam engine. I guess I was supposed to re-transfer the good after I switched ships, and extra step that I wasn’t expecting. Except for having a few too many unneeded buttons, the menu system is fairly straightforward. There are no tool-tips, but information can usually be found by right-clicking on an object and selecting the “info” option. This isn’t exactly the best user-interface design, but it’s functional. Now that I think about it, that sentiment pretty much sums up the entire Swashbuckler experience.
As far as gameplay goes, Swashbucklers borrows heavily from Sid Meier’s Pirates!, and the influence is very obvious. The ship-based portions are substantially similar, with an isometric map-like view of the Caribbean where you guide your ship. Wind is pretty much ignored, the idea being that steam-power compensates enough to allow for movement in any direction. However, it also makes ship-to-ship combat more of a straight-up slugfest. The mouse is used to fine-tune the aim of your cannons. While this requires a little bit of skill, it also makes your ship’s heading somewhat less important. As a result, ship-based combat is less of a tactical affair and more of an endurance contest.
Once you’ve damaged an enemy ship enough, you can board it. This takes you to the close-action combat portion of the game. This mode is more like an action fighting game reminiscent of Prince of Persia, but with the addition of guns. Guns are easy to use, requiring that you hold down the right mouse-button to switch into gun-mode, and then using the mouse to select targets and shoot. Guns use ammo, and you’re rooted in place, but letting go of the mouse button returns you to melee mode. You’re much stronger than any individual enemy, but things can get tricky if you let them gang up on you too much. Fortunately, you have a selection of special moves at your disposal. The game includes a role-playing component, where your character gains experience points and the chance to gain new perks and abilities. Some perks are passive, like one that reduces your ship-cannon reload time. Other perks are activated in combat and let you do things like roll out of the way, perfect for when you’re surrounded.
The last part of a boarding-action is kind of like a lightweight fighting game, with the ability to attack and block either high or low in an effort to whittle away the opposing captain’s health meter. It’s less tactical than the system in Pirates!, and it definitely seems to cater to more action-oriented players. The brawling system is similar, with fists instead of swords.
When you’re not sailing or fighting, you can wander around town. This would ordinarily be pretty interesting, except that there are really only a handful of places to go, and you’ll spend a lot of time just wandering around trying to get from location to location. When, once you get there, you have to watch an unskippable transition video showing you walk in or out of the doorway. You know how it goes—they’re fun to watch the first few times, but ultimately they become annoying since they happen all of the time.
When in town, you can check the mini-map to find quest markers. However, actually getting to them is a bit tedious. It would have been nice if you could just click on the mini-map to jump somewhere and pick up the quest instead of having to trundle all the way over there on foot. Oh well, I guess that’s what you get from a budget title.
The quests themselves aren’t particularly exciting. Maybe they get more interesting near the later stages of game, but for the most part they involve traveling from port to port like some sort of glorified FedEx courier. I suppose you can play the game as a merchant, as prices vary from port to port. However, the storyline definitely reflects the action-oriented nature of the game.
The one thing that Swashbucklers really has going for it is that it’s a budget title, which isn’t exactly a shining endorsement. If you’re looking for some piratey action-based gameplay, then this might do the trick, and the American Civil War setting is good for a change of scenery. Still, you should know what to expect, which is a lightweight Pirates! clone.
Swashbucklers is a cute little pirate game set in an interesting time period. However, it’s also a budget title, and it shows. The game draws heavily on Sid Meier’s Pirates!, with some minor differences in setting and more action-oriented gameplay. Still, it lacks the polish of Pirates! and gets bogged down by some questionable interface decisions reminiscent of older, less-refined games.
