A relatively new game released by IGG in late 2006, Voyage Century Online (VCO) brings a new meaning to “MMORPG”. Not that the game has threw out the usual leveling, character building and incessant grinding, but instead, it has added a pretty new and interesting twist to it.
The usual quests, skills, and a big vast land to explore still exist. However, the quests are much easier to complete, and the skills are much easier to level up. This drives away some irritation. This is probably a good thing, but some might find it boring as it doesn’t give much of a challenge to the players. It becomes a chore.
You get to become four different types of players. An adventurer, a merchant, a fighter or a craftsman. As an adventurer, you explore the world, looking for treasures and gaining reputation. As a merchant, you take up a boring (really) job and you go from city to city, buying cheap and selling high. As a fighter, you arm your battleship heavily and go on a killing spree, killing either pirates or innocent merchants. As a craftsman, your emphasis isn’t on sailing around but instead just staying in a city, mining and chopping, planting and sewing. Then with the raw materials gathered, you make items.
Now what’s so interesting about VCO? Ships. You get to sail almost everywhere you go, meeting pirates along the way, fighting them, bribing them, and a lot of other interesting things. The whole world except for the two poles of the Earth is in the game. Yes, you can sail around the whole world, from the Mediterranean to Africa, to Asia and to America (well Australia is also in but there is no city there at that time). Speaking of that, the game takes place in the year 1000 or so. Therefore you wouldn’t expect to see countries or cities like Singapore or America in the game.
Ships and sailing might be the interesting part of the game, but it can also kill the game. Sailing just takes way too long. Should it really take 5-10 minutes to sail from London to Athens? What if someone wanted to sail from Europe to China? Wouldn’t that take 30 minutes? Honestly, I believe the base speed of ships should be increased by about 2-3 knots. If trying to keep its realism, then shrink the world.
The game is rather interesting and fun at the beginning, because the difference between it and other MMORPGs out there is just glaring at you. However, after getting a level 3 or 4 ship, you realize there isn’t much in the game. At this level, there isn’t much for you to achieve except to do whatever you need to do to get a better ship, and that means to do the same thing over and over again.
Another problem is how new players just get thrown into the world of VCO without much help. There is a tutorial, but all the tutorial does is teach you how to sail your boat, fight, and all the funny buttons available for you to click. After that, you’re on your own. Further NPC help just tells you that you need to do this, you need to do that, without telling you how.
This game was originally created by the Chinese, and so the translation is a little odd. Many grammatical errors, and some call it “Chinglish”. Worse, the noble titles that you are able to earn as your reputation are pretty funny if you choose to be a citizen of Japan in that game. Funny to us, but its actually offensive to the Japanese from what I’ve heard. “Rojin” supposed to be “Ronin”. Someone actually pointed out that a Rojin is a 70-year-old man. Who in the world would want that as a noble title? And “Thing Head”? “Group Leader”? For a Japanese?
Also, I’ve read quite a lot of complaints in the forums. People have said that if the creators of the game continue to not listen to the gamers playing the game, the game is eventually going to die. Customer service in the game is obviously pretty bad.
Overall, it’s a good game if you are looking into something different, but don’t expect too much from it. A MMORPG is still a MMORPG. What do I like to call the MMORPGs out there? Its just one game, with a different “skin” applied on it. Its base structure is still the same.
Voyage Century Online Trailer (3:26)
Graphics: 7.7
Sound: 6.9
Gameplay: 7.5
Lasting Appeal: 6.4
Overall: 7.6
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