Two new pirate games coming from Topware Interactive were shown at PAX 2011 courtesy of Topware’s PR director Jake DiGennaro and North American Localization Manager Adam Kennedy. One game looks gorgeous and promises plenty of fun for fans of Two Worlds II. The other game is just damn well overdue.
Pirates of the Flying Fortress
The first Pirate-themed game coming from Topware Interactive and Polish developer Reality Pump is Pirates of the Flying Fortress, an expansion to their RPG (role-playing game) Two Worlds II.
Pirates of the Flying Fortress continues the story from Two Worlds II, adding roughly 12-16 hours of new quests along with plenty of new items, monsters, and other goodies. Some examples include crossbows, which get their own unique weapon category, a new race called the Olorums, and armor for your horse (of course). Four new multiplayer maps will also be included.
According to Kennedy, Pirates of the Flying Fortress will serve as a vehicle for delivering content that the developers had kicking around in their heads but never made it into Two Worlds II. Expect to see a Night Club for the Undead (complete with dancers) and plenty of side quests with assorted silliness in the same tongue-in-cheek vein as some of those found in Two Worlds II.
[Watch a video – Pirates of the Flying Fortress gameplay. NOTE: This is a youtube link. Because Examiner only allows for one embedded video per article, I linked this video to my youtube channel.]
In addition, the expansion takes some gameplay elements that weren’t featured prominently in Two Worlds II and thrusts them a little more to the forefront. One example is the Oculus (a weird floating eye/camera mechanic) that is vital to winning a boss battle against a very cool looking Basilisk. And just prior to another boss sequence you get to play a little ‘Harp Hero’ (a Guitar Hero-styled minigame) to awaken an ancient golem and then kick his big stony butt.
Pirates of the Flying Fortress is built in a custom engine called the Grace Engine, which was also created by Reality Pump. Graphically speaking Pirates of the Flying Fortress is stunning to behold, with very impressive water, weather, and lighting effects. It easily rivals if not surpasses what I’ve seen thus far of other RPGs such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
On the downside, fans of Two Worlds II may be disappointed to learn that Pirates of the Flying Fortress is also a sort of last hurrah for the franchise—at least for a while. After it ships Reality Pump plans to move on to a new IP (intellectual property).
Pirates of the Flying Fortress is scheduled to be released at the end of September at a price point of around $20-$25. Later this year (probably around the holidays) Topware Interactive plans to release a Two Worlds II and Pirates of the Flying Fortress in a bundle (which combined equals around 45-60 hours or more of gameplay).
Raven’s Cry
Although Pirates of the Flying Fortress may be something of a swan song for Two Worlds II, it’s not the only pirate goodness Topware Interactive has up their sleeve. Finnish developer Octane Games has begun work on their own pirate game called Raven’s Cry. Although barely a couple months in development, there are a handful of screenshots and only a teaser trailer to show at this point.
Raven’s Cry is an action adventure, open world game that puts you in the role of a dark, vengeful anti-hero named Christopher Raven—a hook-handed devil who puts the irate in Pirate, and is out for sweet, bloody revenge against a crew of pirates that killed his family.
And if that’s not enough to get you stoked for this game, Adam Kennedy summed up what Raven’s Cry is very succinctly—an idea I lamented was long overdue in a recent review of Pirates of Black Cove:
“Grand Theft Auto with Pirates”
Yeah. It’s about damn time.
There is no release date of course, but you can watch the live action teaser trailer and check out a few early screenshots in the meantime.
