Vendetta: Curse of Raven's Cry - open world pirate action-RPG from Two Worlds developer

[Abu Antar]

Is this game worth it? Poles tend to shill this game but they are biased in some ways, so how does this game feel? Is it a truly good pirate game?

 

[Nikanuur]

Is this game worth it? Poles tend to shill this game but they are biased in some ways, so how does this game feel? Is it a truly good pirate game?

I am PolishRussianSlovak Czech too, and I found this game to consist of every possible level of pros and cons in general.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I could use some gameplay pointers.

Should I kill everyone or sneak past them? I have problem with readability of what happens in the game. When should I do what? There's so many different attacks and bars charging that I need to keep track on.

Are the default controls the best?

Just managing the controls and trying to figure out what happens is my biggest gripe at the moment. I'm not used to playing action games.

 

[Lord_Potato]

I could use some gameplay pointers.

Should I kill everyone or sneak past them?

Depends on your playstyle. I'm guessing you're still in the prologue (right after they burn your ship), so sneaking past is preferable - Christopher is quite squishy and can die fast.

I have problem with readability of what happens in the game. When should I do what? There's so many different attacks and bars charging that I need to keep track on.

Once you invest into melee skill tree Christopher's controls will become more responsive, you'll also have more options and attacks - kick, hook attack, distracting enemy with your raven, pistols. In the beginning, you should focus on swings, blocking and timing properly your counters. It requires some time to learn, but you'll get it finally.

Are the default controls the best?

I think I used the default ones.

Just managing the controls and trying to figure out what happens is my biggest gripe at the moment. I'm not used to playing action games.

Vendetta is not a game easy to master. It requires you to learn its systems first - of sea battles, fencing, economy. Probably it was one of the reasons (along all the bugs) that the press hated it

 

[Konjad]

 

[Konjad]

Finished my replay of the game. Lots of fun, this time however I joined a faction and was disappointed. I joined France and the French questline consisted only of 3 quests. Idk how it is for other factions, but I suspect similar. I had hoped it would be at least a dozen quests or so, considering there is aplenty of "normal" side quests and it is a pirate game in gameplay, not just an RPG. Oh well. Still, enjoyed my replay a lot, though this time I did manage to break some minor side quests doing things out of the quest sequence, but had no major issues. Also, gained a lot of money at the beginning of the game just exploring all the available islands collecting stuff and hunting animals, as well as doing all side quests I could, so I could already afford war galleon in chapter 1 :m

 

[Optimist]

Konjad convinced me to give it a try during a recent meetup. Let's do it!

I'm posting to emphasize that I'm a man of my word, and have just bought the game - but also to remind Red Hexapus that he promised to do the same.

 

[samuraigaiden]

I've heard this game is the true heir to Planescape Torment.

 

[Optimist]

So, uh

as of now, the Steam version of the game refuses to automatically activate itself, so you need to pull out its CD-key and manually input it into a legacy activation suite

The intro was somewhat confusing, felt like it lacked Linkin Park in the background

It's pretty much Two Worlds, but with pirates, I think? The jank on display is very different from the widely-loved, methodical, and woody jank of Gothic. This jank is highly unstable, very floaty, and makes you feel like the game is going to drunkenly collapse any second now.

I enjoy how most of the combat can be resolved by applying gun to the face. The RPG elements seem very basic, though.

The dialogues and story so far do indeed seem like a direct continuation of Planescape: Torment. The epic story of a golden rum-doling captain is one for the ages.

All in all I think I like it? I've only just begun, so I'm expecting the game to open up a bit.

 

[Konjad]

Well, it opens up once you get your first ship (so in about 2h? maybe sooner?), before that it's essentially a tutorial-cutscene mix.

 

[Optimist]

Well, it opens up once you get your first ship (so in about 2h? maybe sooner?), before that it's essentially a tutorial-cutscene mix.

Yup, ended yesterday's session buying a naked lady for the ship, will continue today.

 

[Optimist]

Should I keep any of the treasure I find (rings, earrings, Treasures of the Aztecs), or is it all good to be sold?

 

[Konjad]

Should I keep any of the treasure I find (rings, earrings, Treasures of the Aztecs), or is it all good to be sold?

As far as I remember you can sell it all, but there was something used in a quest or two, however, it always had an unique name. Any generic treasure you can sell.

 

[Optimist]

Well, I've done it. What the fuck was that ending song.

I can see how there's a cult following of the game. There are a lot of things that kind of work, the piratin' mood is strong - and hey, grog certainly improves your gameplay experience - and there is some janky charm involved. Krzysztof Kruk being one of the greatest asshats you'll ever play in a video game, combined with uncanny valley presentation strangely gripped me, as though I was watching one of these amateur black comedy criminal movies, where you're following a bunch of incompetent hooligans and wait for the violence to unexpectedly escalate. I recall having similar impressions a long, long time ago, back when I played Two Worlds 2 (what the fuck was that side story with an army of crystal golems).

The gameplay, especially the ship combat, had some potential. Walking segments became trivial when I found an amulet and a hat each reducing incoming damage by 20%. These combined with the "Cut of the Jib" skill reducing it further by 10%/level (despite the description mentioning 5%) made any swordfight clicking enemies to death, with occasional jogs to regenerate my health. The critical issue for the sailing segments was upgrading all the way up to a Man o' War ASAP, and then buying the upgrades piece by piece, the difficulty of this part of the game slowly goes down as you play it.

The game is still somewhat buggy. My favorite issue was when after upgrading my galleon's cannons, I suddenly became unable to fire cannons from the whattadaycallit, right side (apologies for not using the professional terminology, the only thing I know about sailing is that you don't reef the bowsprit). Two side quests broke, enemy AI was glitching every now and then, and characters as well as quest markers didn't disappear when they should've.

Was there any conclusion to the Abbot questline in Bridgetown? Was it ever explained why did Neville go after the main character's father? I loved how there were a whole six people responsible for the story.

Also, does each faction have a specific upgrade? The UK opened up a flat hull damage reduction, but I've seen that the keyboard bindings allow you to select grenades as your ammo type, so I'm assuming that some other faction allows you to utilize those.

I'd say that as far as piratin' games go, it was somewhere between Risens 2 and 3.

Paging Damned Registrations to play it in the intermission of his XPirateZ playthrough. Also, Red Hexapus to see how he's doing.

What the fuck was that ending song.

 

[Red Hexapus]

Also, Red Hexapus to see how he's doing.

I've put it in my backlog, planning to pick it up sometime during the summer.

 

[Konjad]

Maxie did you manage to start it?

 

[Maxie]

Maxie did you manage to start it?

was slightly challenging but yes i did. it's suprisingly stable on linux

 

[Alphons]

The cheese kept me going through all difficulties. That rendition of The Amazing Grace was the perfect ending song.

Raven started as a pretty boring character, but I think near the end writers became aware what they've created and decided to embrace the cheese. Kensington questline dialogues live rent free in my head.

The game is littered with bad design decisions and bugs. Near the end the ship mechanics started to crumble probably due to me skipping both galleons and buying man o' war straight after frigate and then going to buy them right before the final fight for the achievements (they didn't trigger along with Marcus decision achievements). I couldn't use shipwrights to repair, sell cargo, shoot forward guns or lower sails.

Micromanaging ship got incredibly annoying after getting man o' war. During combat you can loot ships using sliders, but to restock on land or sell/buy cargo you have to click on the trade button for every single thing. I got bored of having to click 500 times to sell cargo from 1 fight and then another 100 clicks to restock rations and cannonballs, so I just cheated.

Reputation just didn't work. I had a couple encounters with loan shark ships going after me for loan I've already repaid- sinking them gave me rep with every single faction (including the loan sharks themselves). Destroying pirate ships gave me pirate rep for some reason.
Sinking Brit/Spanish/French ships gave and took rep correctly but in such pitiful amounts, that side quests completely negated them (Sinking 1 Spanish/ French Man O' War gave me 12 British reputation. 1 Lancaster quest gave -200 British rep. 1 British contact gave me 300 rep).

I was able to complete both British and Spanish quest chains, unlocking both their ship upgrades. Unlike the French and Spanish questlines, the British add a quest to your log after you speak with questgiver, but before you accept the quest, so you can get a Brit quest in your log first, then go start the French or Spanish quests and finally return to Brits to formally accept.

Halfway through the Spanish questline for one conversation the questgiver changes VA and Raven's mic quality drops so badly that I wouldn't be able to understand some words without subs.

NPCs randomly don't spawn physically (they can be seen on map), softlocking quests. Happened on first island with Donovan's blackmailers, in Bridgetown with the monk you coerce to steal from church, second group of pirates in Port Royal from British contract and a second debtor for Mr Accountant. Spanish questgiver also told me to talk with an NPC for side contracts (probably similar to British ones), but that one didn't even appear on map.

Some NPCs also doubled (nun) and tripled (Lancaster) allowing me to trigger dialogue and updates from already finished quests.

Quests end abruptly, no idea whether it's cut content, intended endings or bugs. All these hints about abbot and cannibalism, nun, whorehouse quest chain ends with Raven getting a goat in lingerie, Lancaster tells you to find him, but never spawns there and doesn't despawn in his previous locations, British taking the Spanish colony in their last quest, but the colony stays Spanish and everyone is hostile now because the quest gave me -800 rep.

The least broken thing were probably the treasure hunts, aside from that one island with narwhal horn that houses 1000 tapirs just waiting in the jungle to rape your ass the moment you land on the island.

I still had fun for the majority of my 25 hours with it plus got it for sale for something like 5 PLN.

If you enjoy cheese, aren't afraid to cheat to get around annoying stuff and are willing to spend $1 or equivalent of it in your local currency, then try it out.

 

[Nikanuur]

If you enjoy cheese, aren't afraid to cheat to get around annoying stuff and are willing to spend $1 or equivalent of it in your local currency, then try it out.

Forsooth, as a humble European dweller, I say unto thee that thy verdict is within the holy acquiescence of our blessed lord and master, the well-composed and habitudinal, middling European jank.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

If you enjoy cheese, aren't afraid to cheat to get around annoying stuff and are willing to spend $1 or equivalent of it in your local currency, then try it out.

Forsooth, as a humble European dweller, I say unto thee that thy verdict is within the holy acquiescence of our blessed lord and master, the well-composed and habitudinal, middling European jank.

Jankenspiel über alles