Uncharted Waters: New Horizons Review - IGN (original) (raw)

The review of this product is based on a re-released version of the game. Because of this change of medium and the passage of time, it is possible that there are slight factual differences between the original retail product and the version reviewed. The following review should be used as a reference for how well the game stood up over time rather than an evaluation of how it would have scored based on its original release date.

I never knew piracy was so complex. The movies make it look simple and fun -- joyous groups of rum-drinking men laughing, fighting and singing songs of their conquests. The captain says to set sail, and they do, easy as that. High adventure on the open seas without a care in the world.

What you never see, though, is the numbers guy down in the hold frantically working his quill-and-parchment spreadsheet -- taking stock of how much food is left, how many men are on board and what their jobs are, how many other ships are aligned with this one, how many days it'll take to get to the next port, what the weather's like, what it's been like, what it's going to be like, the number of barrels of that joy-inducing rum still full of the morale-boosting liquor and how many are empty . . . and on, and on. Being a pirate turns out to be complicated, confusing stuff. And if my word's not enough to convince you, check out Uncharted Waters: New Horizons.

This is an SNES RPG from Koei first published for Nintendo's 16-bit system back in 1994 -- and, on the surface, it looks like it'd be similar to many of the other excellent role-playing games of that same age. Final Fantasy with a pirate theme, maybe, to the eyes of players who'd gotten their start with Squaresoft's work in the same genre. But while it does start out similarly enough, it's quickly revealed that New Horizons is not anywhere near as straightforward and newcomer-friendly as something like Final Fantasy VI.

If you were a fan of Sid Meier's Pirates!, you should be downloading this one already.

There are six different characters to choose from, for starters, and each has his or her own different plotline to follow. There's Joao Franco, the young son of a famous Portuguese explorer who's out to discover the secret of Atlantis. There's Catalina Erantzo, a woman whose brother and fiance have both been lost at sea after apparently being killed in a naval battle with a rival nation. There's Ernst von Bohr, whose mission is nothing more than to make a map of the world. And those three are just half the options.

The character you choose immediately effects how you'll have to play through the game, as while each of the six ultimately sets sail to find adventure on the sea they'll all have different goals to achieve once there, and different equipment starting out. Catalina, for instance, kicks things off with a combat focus -- her quest for revenge sees her outfitted with a ship built for fighting, and she'll need to attack and defeat everyone in her path to progress through her storyline. Ernst, on the other hand, can complete his entire quest without once battling with anyone else. He's like the peaceful, neutral Star Trek explorer in the middle of an otherwise raging war on the waves.

So who you pick effects the story, yes, but also what aspects of the deeper gameplay will be revealed to you -- and there's a lot of that to digest. Combat's an easy enough place to start, but it too gets sub-divided into smaller parts -- it has two different components. The first element is ship-to-ship warfare, where you'll maneuver your flagship and any other vessels you've added to your armada against the amassed forces of an enemy fleet, using a grid-based system that's not unlike something out of Advance Wars. You'll have to select your movements around the opposing ships, establish a position where your cannons can get a good fix on them, set your sail direction and fire -- hoping that you've chosen correctly, and that you'll be able to do enough damage to sink their ships before they can sink yours.

Then there's direct dueling against an enemy fleet's captain -- if you can move your flagship near enough to the enemy's, you can have your main character challenge the opposing commodore to a swordfight. This kicks off another, wholly different gameplay design where you select your attacks in a turn-based representation of fencing -- will you thrust, or parry? Will your slash, or dodge? Victory means immediate surrender from the entire enemy fleet. Defeat means a quick trip to the Game Over screen.

Beyond fighting with cannons and swords, New Horizons also has exploration elements -- sailing around the world searching for new lands and new treasures. It has strategic resource management, as you have to keep track of all the goods and supplies aboard your ships and ensure you've got enough food, water and manpower to make long nautical journeys. It has gambling mini-games, where you can challenge salty sea dogs in run-down taverns to games of blackjack, seeking to make extra money to fuel your love of pillaging.

And so on, and so forth. Seriously, Uncharted Waters: New Horizons is one of those 16-bit role-playing designs that has so many different layers of depth that you could play for hours and even days on end and still not see it all -- and especially so, since there are six totally unique storylines to play through. So even if you've played one character to completion, there are five more where he or she came from.

That kind of depth can be both a good and a bad thing. Good, because if you really get into New Horizons then you could conceivably have a blast playing this same game for a very long time -- getting a ton of value for your investment of just eight bucks. But bad, too, because there's always a considerable intimidation factor with a design like this. You might be turned away by the fact that New Horizons doesn't hold your hand and give you step-by-step explanations of how every little thing works right from the start. Other RPGs from the SNES were much easier to start playing -- you don't want to get frustrated when this one isn't as immediately accessible.

Verdict

Personally, I could go either way. But if you've played any RPGs in the past at all, you should be familiar with your own tastes in the genre -- do you prefer simple and straightforward fare like Paper Mario, with a linear story and not much micro-managing required? Or do you like the endless layers of statistics and secrets hidden within something like Ogre Battle? Uncharted Waters: New Horizons is certainly more suited to the latter group, so if you're not afraid of lots of numbers, characters, and a free-range open world without a lot of handholding, then dive on in and spend 800 Wii Points here. But if that all sounds like too much trouble for you to deal with, chart your course to a different destination.