Sea King 4 Review: Merchants, Pirates and Colonists

"Fifteen men with a dead man's chest, oh, oh, try a bottle of rum", the British novelist Robert Louis Stevenson through this pirate rhyme, led to the magnificent adventure story of Treasure Island, describing a classic sea story about pirates, treasure maps and the sea for children.

Many years later, this pirate ballad was chosen as the opening music of the game "Sea King 4", in a tune that seems to be scented with sweat, sea and smoke, players will travel through time and space, back to the 17th century Gulf of Mexico - the Caribbean area, playing merchants, pirates and colonists.

"King of the Sea 4" is an authentic simulation business game, although the works under this category have gone to the sea, but "King of the Sea" series still by means of the "navigation" theme study, attracted those interested in the nautical story of the players, and successfully launched the fourth work "King of the Sea 4".

Although it is a simulation business game, in Sea King 4, you can not focus on an island, a zoo, or even a city "from zero to zero" simulation as in other games. Because the identity of the player is not the "creator" in the "Dragon Quest: Creation little Player", but the real existence of the "colonizer" in history. Therefore, the purpose of the player is not to "build a thriving uninhabited island", but to promote resources such as sugar, cocoa and tobacco in a large number of colonial cities, profit from the difference between "low and high", and pay tribute to the country's rulers on time.

Because of the special status of "Colonizer", there are no cities waiting for the player to create. The real cities on these maps have already appeared along the Caribbean coast. However, before taking over the city and seriously playing the role of "colonizer", players must first play another role - "merchant".

Play as a "merchant" to buy ships to form a fleet and establish maritime trade routes. This is the first thing the player does in the game. However, the business play of "Maritime King 4" can be as simple as "low into high". The process of the game is repeated between "control the fleet - arrive in the city - buy low - sell high". Players arrive in a city, sell goods at a high price, take inventory and newly purchased resources, and move to the next city.

This loop makes up the entire business play in the game. Although in the early days of play, through the behavior of buying at a low price and selling at a high price, players can feel the happiness of the "second trader". But because there are a lot of repetitive operations during this period, it is inevitable that the player will fall into a boring hell.

Fortunately, "Sea King 4" provides players with a convenient "trade route" and "automatic buying and selling" system. Through the "Trade Routes", players can assign fleets to cycle along fixed routes, while through the "Auto buy and sell" system, players can set the rules for buying and selling different resources in each city.

If only for profit, the system comes with convenient "standard" options, which will help players avoid the trouble of repeating Settings and avoid a lot of junk time during play. Players only need to build a few fleets, set up several routes through different cities and open them. Over time, money accumulates.

But this is only what a "merchant" has to do, and the player's role is not limited to a "merchant", but also a "colonizer". Different identities mean that players have to do more than just "business".

When the fleet size continues to expand and the resource production of the colonial city is not enough to fill the cargo hold and satisfy the appetite of the players. Players can apply for the right to build cities, build different resource collection and processing buildings in major cities, improve resource production and increase profit efficiency. This part of the construction of the gameplay, with a pure simulation of business flavor. For example, the gain or loss caused by the proximity of different buildings, the restrictions of different resources on different plots, the improvement of production efficiency through reasonable planning of plots, rather than the "filling up" of a class of buildings, and so on.

When transitioning from "merchant" to "colonizer", the player can apply to the governor of his country for the right to run the city. After obtaining the management right, the player will truly complete the identity transition, but the full picture of the Sea King 4 will be shown at this time.

As you become a colony administrator and continue to acquire more city management rights, players unlock more construction rights. For example, non-production buildings that can expand the size of the city will be fully open to players. This part of the game is also a pure simulation of business. But the fly in the ointment is that the depth of the urban planning system in "Maritime King 4" is relatively general, at best, it is only the "rap" of the nautical theme.

Of course, these are not the whole story. Because there are colonists from other countries on the sea, players can also play the role of "pirates" in addition to "merchants" and "colonists".

The "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie series, let the character of Captain Jack Sparrow deeply. But art is still art, and the real pirates in 17th century history are not the only heroes in literary works. More of them are evil people who use all means for profit, which is why they set up black sails.

King of the Sea 4 gives players the right to be villains, and even offers immunity to protect their own industries. At the beginning of the game, the player has to choose between the roles of adventurer, merchant, privateer and pirate lady, giving the player a similar experience to choosing a career in an RPG. Each character has a different set of gameplay priorities, such as choosing a merchant means a lower cost of doing business, but a relatively higher cost of naval combat.

A female pirate in four roles, players are encouraged to set up black sails and plunder the colonial fleets of other countries. The "pirate" playing link, which is based on naval battles, is the most transformative gameplay of "King of the Sea 4" compared with the previous series "King of the Sea 3", from real-time combat to turn-based.

Although it has changed a lot compared to the previous game, the turn-based combat of "Sea King 4" is only an extension of the naval characteristics of the "go grid" gameplay of the war chess game. Similar ships can switch directions, can consume one-time skills, and fog, fire and other terrain effects, do not change the nature of the "grid".

Although the creators tried to broaden the depth of the combat gameplay and carried out a design similar to the embarkation battle, hard values such as the quality of the ship and the number of sailors still played a decisive role in the battle. This also means that in the case of too large a gap in fighting force between the two sides, the round is made into a hard limit for the player to "fight monsters across the level". When the two sides are evenly matched or even crushed by us, the promotion that micro-exercise can bring is very weak.

Compared with the previous games in the series, "Sea King 4" has a better picture performance, a large number of formative elements, and a new combat mode. Although the combat system has changed from real-time combat to turn-based, it does improve the depth of strategy to a certain extent, but considering the existence of "ratio size" situation, it can only be evaluated as normal.

As a nautical simulation business game, "Sea King 4" is worth trying for players interested in "pirate culture, colonial economy, simulation business" and other labels. In a time when nautical games are scarce, it is the only one that offers the experience of a merchant, a pirate, and a colonist all at once.