Tempest is a pirate-action game by Herocraft and after a successful debut on Steam, the game has made its way to PS4 as well. The PS4 version does not bring anything new to the table however it does come with the Treasure Island DLC which allows you to land on some islands and battle skeletons to find riches. This is our review of the PS4 version of Tempest in which we sail across the vast oceans and explore the islands the game has to offer us.
Tempest is essentially a ship sailing action RPG where you manage your own ship, upgrade it, explore the world, battle with other ships and try to defeat mythical ocean beasts at the same time. It all sounds extremely confusing and complex but Tempest manages to pull everything in a very simple fashion. Even if you are new to RPGs, you can quickly get up-to-speed with all game mechanics despite the confusing and glitchy tutorials found in the game. All mechanics in the game are pretty basic and do not offer too much depth that you would get confused and lost in them.
The world of Tempest is pretty big. You get to explore three vast continents that are filled with islands and you can freely move between them and complete different quests and missions. The game has a main story in the mix but it does not make any sense so my best method of playing the game was to explore the season my own and build a ship and crew to be the very best pirate in the seas. This is possible in the world of Tempest because the game does not limit you to anything. Right after the beginning of the game, you are free to explore the first continent completely and start completing quests to earn more gold and reputation among the various factions found in the game.
You can also show your allegiance to a faction and join their cause. When you join a faction, your ship will display their flags and you will be able to show your support to other players in the world. Ships displaying similar flags will show allegiance to you and support you in various activities such as fighting other factions harming you. This did not work for me half the time as the ships displaying the same faction as myself kept attacking me behind my back when I was expecting them to fight alongside me but maybe my allegiance was not that high enough with that particular faction.
This is where the side quests come into play. Every city in the game supports a faction and when you visit these cities, you can take multiple side quests from them. These side quests range from battles to deliveries so they are not that difficult in the game. Completing side quests with a specific faction will increase your reputation with that particular faction. You can continue building healthy relations with as many factions in the game as you would like. Completing side quests will also net you gold which is essential for everything in the game.
Apart from side quests, you can also trade for items between cities to earn some gold. Your ship has a limited cargo hold where multiple items such as cannonballs, weapons, artifacts, booze, and other items are stored. You can trade any item that you find on your trips to any city you want. There are no restrictions. You can also trade on the go with ships if you come across Trade Routes. Destroying enemy ships also net you with gold. After, earning the gold, there are plenty of places where you spend this gold.
You need to pay your crew members as well as purchase supplies such as medkits, booze, and cannonballs for your ship. If your ship gets damaged, it will be repaired by spending some gold as well. In addition, your ultimate goal is to purchase and build an even better ship so you will need a lot of gold for that. Luckily, the game is not short of giving you ways of earning gold. It certainly requires a fair bit of grinding but the grinding is pretty rewarding as you steer your brand spanking new ship on the horizon.
One of the favorite mechanics of Tempest is the map. As you continue to explore the continents, the map gets revealed adding more and more locations and detail on it for you. You can travel through the world in two ways. One is that you can sail yourself which takes time but gives you more opportunities to explore your ship, battle other ships and try out landing on different cities and islands that come in your way. The other method is to simply open the map and click on the city you want to travel to and the ship will quickly move there while traveling on the map. Throughout this, the game will continue to notify of different events happening along the way and if you want to jump in them, you can do so by pressing a single button. Apart from the ships, you can also find the legendary monsters of the sea and battle them in the game to prove your worthiness.
Crew morale also plays a vital role in Tempest. Over a period of time, your crew morale will continue to decline and as the captain of the ship, it is your duty to ensure that the crew’s morale is always high. As you fight in different battles and travel around the world, your crew morale will continue to decline. To ensure their morale stays high, you must have plenty of wine barrels and rum aboard your ship. Keep giving them vine and rum at regular intervals and their morale will remain high. You will need to keep their morale high if you want to run your ship optimally and that is only possible when the morale of your crew remains high.
The gameplay of Tempest includes sailing your ship around and managing your crew and goods. Sailing is pretty much simple as you just control the sails and set them according to the wind flow. The game shows you the wind flow on the sea so you can easily move the ship around according to the wind flow. Every time an enemy ship comes near you enter combat mode where your cannons shooting area is shown and other combat-related UI changes appear on the screen which helps you battle other ships. Once they are down, you return back to normal exploration mode.
Coming to glitches and problems, Tempest is full of them. Nearly every mechanic in Tempest currently has glitches and bugs. The most annoying bug for me was the tutorial mission of managing the cargo where I have to sell items and the missions glitches out as there are no items to sell and the command never shows up to sell the items. This made me stuck staring at the screen with nothing else to do but to force exit the game back to the PS4 menu and boot the game again. This glitch was not fixed in the game until the publishing of this review.
Combat is yet another mechanic where I faced plenty of glitches. While battling enemy ships on various occasions, sometimes my ship would be firing directly at the enemy ship but nothing would hit at all and the enemy ship would continue to bombard me normally wounding my crew members and damaging my ships. I, on the other hand, would continue firing but nothing would hit the enemy ships and I would end up in the sea with my ship destroyed.
All these glitches and bugs really hinder the gameplay which should not be there in the first place. Also, these glitches are not something that cannot be fixed. One small patch and all these annoying bugs and glitches would be gone from the game. I really liked spending time in Tempest, sailing around exploring the open seas and controlling the ship in the first-person mode is really captivating and really immerses you in the game but the random glitches and bugs ruined the gameplay for me in some places.
Final Verdict:
Tempest does not offer a lot of depth into ship sailing nor the visuals are something that you could stare in awe all day. However, it is still a pretty decent game that offers hours upon hours of gameplay. The dated visuals or arcade mechanics might not be something that the game can boast on but the content is there and if you can take out the glitches and somewhat annoying bugs here and there, you can probably enjoy Tempest for what it is. Random encounters ensure that your long and boring trips between islands are not boring despite the fact that the ship combat is pretty weak. The DLC also allows you to ditch the ship and land on islands to fight some skeletons. Not our cup of tea but if you like games that offer open-worlds to explore with little complexity, you can probably give Tempest a shot.
Final Score: 6.5/10
