Uncharted Waters Online

[kkrabbit]

---- WARNING: Incoming Wall of Text ----

As an early Pirates of the Burning Sea fanboi and an avid fan of the Uncharted Waters series since back in the day on the Super Nintendo, I would like to offer a bit of a side-by side comparison of these two games. Perhaps this may prove insightful for anyone considering ther merits or flaws of each game. I should start off by mentioning that I've now played both PotBS and UWO in beta and also that my playstyle tends to focus on exploration and trade more than combat.

Lets start with the fluff; graphics and sound.

PotBS has by far the better graphics. The open sea is simply put, amazing and has the power to draw you in to feeling like you are actually sailing. The ships are also rendered beautifully with a level of detail that astounds me at every zoom level. The sound effects are also pleasing to the ear. There's nothing quite as satisfying as hearing the boom of all three decks firing full broadsides at once. The soundtrack is good enough that it stands on its own. To this day I carry around the soundtrack to this game and play it from time to time in my car at work (I drive for a living). Every time I hear it, it makes me want to come back to PotBS and sail the open seas again.

In UWO the graphics are somewhat cartoony, and definitely have the anime style to them. This is to be expected considering the game was origionally made for Asian markets (and in fact has been available in Asia for the last 5 years). Although the cities have a better layout than in PotBS, the level of detail on each buliding can be somewhat lacking. The open sea in UWO is a bit better than the cities, if for no other reason except that you do not have to look at the cartoony avatars. The ships are somewhat simple, but there is still a wide variety of shapes and sizes to look at. The sound effects are one of the more dissapointing features of the game. The music feels true to the age of sail, and changes with each region you travel to (i.e. adding in African drums as you travel down the coast of Africa), but is still lacking the high quality I was accustomed to in PoTBS.

On to the meat; combat, economy, UI, and social tools

First, the fighting.

In PoTBS combat is king. In particular, ship combat is one of the best systems I have experienced in any game I have played. Its smooth, intuitive, and satisfying. Avatar combat has always lagged behind ship combat, but is none-the-less a dynamic system with no more (or less) button-mashing than your standard MMO.

In UWO, combat gets the lowest score in my books. Ship combat consists of double-clicking your enemy to death while moving your ship, and land combat is even less involved. Both systems are incredibly simple bordering on mind-numbingly boring.

Now we move to the money making.

The economy of PotBS had great potential, which seemed to never be fully realized. As a Freetrader I found my class to have very little economic advanatge over other classes. Also, with the increased use of Society based construction lines, the experience of a solo economic player has much to be desired. In theory though, I think the fully player-based economy has a lot of merit, if there are enough people on a given server to make it work.

In UWO, the economy is perhaps the crowning achievement. The system allows for solo players to trade at will, without the need for other players input, but simultaneously allows for every player in the game to have an impact. For example, when I buy a ton of wheat in Seville, the price for wheat goes up. With an incredibly wide range of goods available, and the whole world to spread them out in, the potential for a Trader type player is almost limitless.

Next, the User Interface.

The UI in PotBS is designed simply enough for a newbie, while retaining the flexability needed for more experienced players. There are a good deal of options available for buttons, bars, and other UI elements. Although nothing can compare with the open-modability of WoW, PoTBS does a better job than most in allowing for customization.

The UI in UWO seems to be designed to eliminate clutter on your screen. Almost everything is contained in a system of menus and sub-menus with only the basic information displayed on the screen at one time. This is a double-edge sword. While clearing space on your screen, it also has the effect of making some information rather cumbersome to access, especially for new players.

Finally, the Social aspect. Afterall, you play and MMO to play with other people, right?

In PotBS, the social tools are adequate, but still feel a bit limited. The Society system does the basic jobs of any Guild/Clan system in allowing groups of players to keep in contact via private chat channel and Society-wide mailing, but not much more. The chat channels are designed well enough to allow for greater communication amongst players, but still lack in some of the more nifty features found in games like WoW (item linking anyone?). The grouping system is not difficult to use and there seem to be numerous incentives for doing so (not the least of which is PvP).

UWO's socal tools have much more to be desired. The Company system also serves the basic functions of a Guild/Clan system with a private chat channel, and even has the added bonus of shared storage and a Company Store to sell goods to other players from. However, it is limited to 50 characters per Company, which is rather low for many people. There is, as of beta, only one global chat channel, which makes it difficult to have meaningful conversations anywhere (think Trade chat in WoW). In addition, the Tell/Whisper system is quite cumbersome and not very intuitive to use. Grouping with other players is also rather annoying, as you need to be physicly next to each other to form a group (since it requires clicking on the other character). Adding friends to your friends list also requires clicking and thus proximity, which is perhaps the greatest flaw in the social systems.

In conclusion, each game has its own strengths and weaknesses, and Im sure I haven't covered them all. As a predominantly economic player I am more inclined to chose UWO over PotBS, but I can clearly see how more combat oriented players would chose the opposite. In any case, these are just two of many, many MMOs out there which I thought it might be prudent to compare for those who may be considering either or both in the future.