The formula of the game
20% mutual assistance
30% strange conventions
40% of the expanses of the eastern coast
10% hunting berries and beavers
“Wait, where are you? Well, you and Sonya! – My cabin neighbor stood in the doorway, fading his hat. – Even yesterday's storm did not wake you. They say we have already sailed to New England ".
Indeed, the pitching stopped, and the clatter and funny exclamations came from above. Finally, this exhausting voyage from the English plimut to the coast of the New World has ended. I hastily dressed and ran to the rest.
Goodbye, ship damp, – Hello, America! Oh and we will heal now!
[[Video1]]
From ship to ball
About the colonization of America of games in nature is almost less than about Bob's sponge. But what a comfortable topic! Wild continent, endless open spaces and natural wealth, not touched by the steel hand of the global economy, are perfect scenery for the “survival simulator” in the spirit Minecraft.
Here Salem – Just about that. A couple of years ago her developers made HAVEN & Hearth -MMO sandwich with construction, gathering, trade and crafts. Salem is an ideological heiress H&L, only three -dimensional and in the surroundings of almost already colonial North America.
From the very beginning, they make it clear to us: “rails” are not and is not expected – both plot (because “sandbox”) and railway (before their invention for another two hundred years). There are still no quests, divisions into multi-level locations and any global goal. We “simply” participate in the formation of a new civilization from scratch: the orava of nothing can be obtained by resources and build settlements, over time turning into a real mature society. At the time of writing this preview, the life of settlements did not go away from primitive communities, but a month or two in the middle of American prairies, numerous cities and Vesya will probably spread out.
► on the left – Haven & Hearth, on the right – her heiress Salem. Their main external difference is the transition from drawn two -dimensional to a slightly clumsy 3D.
The newcomer will not be done with everyday life immediately – from the start, the pilgrim entrusted to us does not know how to do anything at all. Gradually, he will turn into a farmer, a hunter and builder, a thunderstorm of beavers and deer, who is practicing a daily norm in the field and cuts entire maple groves onto the boards, which has been hardened at once. But then. In the meantime – swing.
And I saw Bob that it was good
► “And Lenin himself went to May Day, and he himself went to May Day!"
It would be logical if the experience in Salem was given for the extermination of American game or crafts, but all logical decisions developers in the name of hardcore decided to reject. The character is to be pumped with the help of special training subjects – various pebbles, shells and twigs lying on Earth throughout America. It sounds strange? Believe me – it looks even strange.
I found a magic shell on the beach, pulled it to his inventory, received experience points, which can then be spent on skills. The difficulty is that the experience from the "learned" object is dripping in small portions and very slowly. In addition, the search for a particular thing for the development of the right ability is a big headache, especially for beginners.
Like Neu, our hero loads the programs for swimming, handling weapons, carpentry and bobra hunting. The skills system is very reminiscent of a scientific tree from Civilization: you can learn abilities in any order, and each of them opens access to several other, more advanced. Still “civilopedia” here – in all this abundance is not long and get confused.
► The appearance of the North American beavers suggests their relationship with birds. Otherwise, how to explain the wings-wings growing from the back?
A novice pilgrim will not be able to avoid a learning routine-except that good-natured veterans, puzzles, will share a dozen or two unnecessary objects. One thing is good: at high levels, the process of pumping fades into the background. In a rich village, it is easy to make it yourself as many training items from improvised materials or simply exchange them from other players.
The sandbox of the Vikings
There are cases in the game industry when some genre becomes national. Take at least Korean (Chinese, Thai – to emphasize the right one) online role -playing, Japanese visual novels, and even Russian quests! So in Sweden, in recent years, a certain trend has been planned: from there, one by one, the “simulators of the world masters” climb.
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[[Bullet]] in Haven & Hearth is very believably depicted rural life. Only grandmothers on the benches are not enough.
Of course, Swedish programmers do not eat to the production of their national product with such a zeal as the aforementioned Japanese and Koreans. But each new “sandbox” from Scandinavians carries many unusual ideas, warmly meets critics and firmly fixes the loyal fan base.
The creator of Minecraft Marcus Persson put his hand to the foundation of this tradition. No, not at all inhabiting "cubes". Long before them, he participated in the development of another multiplayer "sandbox" – Wurm Online. The game is notable for the almost complete absence of any pre-prepared events and characters-all the contents of the huge world are created by the players from the resources obtained at the site. Wurm looks more like a game, but as a collective three -dimensional editor. Nothing reminds?
[[Bullet]] Wurm sometimes gives out bewitching landscapes. Not very technological, but man -made. And yet bewitching.
This also includes the last, recently announced game of the Swedish master with an elegant, directly musical name 0x10c. Here, the action will not take place among wildlife, but in wild space, but the idea is the same: “We create a world for you, and you do whatever your soul”.
[[Bullet]] not so much is known about gameplay 0x10c – screenshots show only the possibilities of a new engine.
"Swedish sandboxes" have a surprisingly in common. All of them are famous for huge open worlds, which in the vast majority of cases are created by algorithms of landscape generation and players' hands. The environment is completely interactive – each last bush and pebbles can be used for their own needs. And all these "sandboxes" are completely written on Java, which explains the nondescript graphics, but allows you to run them on computers with any operating system.
Dying – die
► Comrade just made a three -hour walking trip to our camp. Now, having put a hut here, he can teleport to us at any time.
The world of Salem is huge – you can stomp for hours in one direction and never reach the edge. The appearance of American expanses is a real “hello from the nineties”: primitive angular models, somehow wrapped in textures, look somewhat pushing. But Salem is played out at the expense of the atmosphere and an unusual art: in the country of eternal autumn, along with caricature pilgrims, dystrophic deer, pot -bellied beavers and giant grasshoppers live.
The central place in New England is the coastal town of Boston. Here settlers meet each other, trading, discuss the latest game news and teach the minds of newcomers who have barely left the ship. In general, peace and idyll reigns in the town. But beyond its borders, players are entirely left to their own.
► It is precisely because of such aggressive well done, hiding behind the name of the Third Reich (Fifth Republic, Channel One), an adequate people prefer to live away from strangers.
While in the field or in the forest, you are afraid of every armed passerby. The piquancy is given by the fact that death here is truly fatal-the dead character is removed from the server forever, and all social ties are removed with it. So that friends are able to protect against such incidents is an almost prerequisite for survival.
No, do not think that bloody mess is going on in the fields and forests around the clock! Players mainly spend time peacefully, and they are not involved in robbery in the hope of taking prey from a neighbor, but rather from boredom. Everyone is corny afraid to join an honest battle – the price of a mistake is too high.
► The farm is growing – it means that the first racketeers and robbers will wait soon. At such a moment to walk without a musket at hand – criminal oversight.
As if forever this, Seatribe introduced an interesting element into the game, a great encouraging atmosphere: traces of a crime. Under cover of night, the criminal made his way to your village, robbed and interrupted friends? You will have to punish it, and only you. Fortunately, criminals leave evidence – in fact, the usual item "Traces of John", indicating the villain. In hot pursuit, you can calculate the killer and arrange for him the real “witch hunt”, the whole village. After all, the name of the game was not chosen by chance: it was in the city of Salem, Massachusetts, at the end of the 17th century, the most loud and massive process of witchcraft accusations occurred.
► In the town of Boston I want to return and break. Our street in three houses is the only safe refuge for newly -minted pilgrims.
Cooperation simplifies the game radically – and not only in matters of self -defense. The division of labor will quickly provide players with the necessary resources and https://all-wins-casino.co.uk/ allow them to erect a tent camp in a record time, turn it into a farm, and then, perhaps, into a full-fledged city-colony. Yes, and lovers to drive defenseless players are also much more handful to rob with a gang.
Complete freedom of action and limitless spaces open great opportunities for role -playing. They built their village, called themselves as a king, brought up a “wife”, went to conquer unknown lands … If only others would support in this modest undertaking. Although the role system does not help at all: a character with unique features will not work out. Of course, not all players get used to the role, but if you suddenly decide to build something thematic, there will always be like-minded people.
True, for such a socially oriented game in Salem there are too few social elements. No clans, alliances, hierarchy or universal rating that fuel competitive spirit. Perhaps this is waiting for Pilgrims in the near future-or the developers simply do not want to bind the players with any obligations to each other, as is customary in other online roofs.
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Salem's main problem is absolutely non -intuitiveness. Thoroughly you have to understand everything: from the role system to control. There is a certificate in the game, but only in the form of a difficult tolerate canvas of the text. You can refer to the fact that this is an early beta and contextual tips and a smart interface, where everything needed is at hand … in Haven & Hearth it never appeared. We hope that Seatristibe, at least under the supervision of the publisher, will be bothered to make the first acquaintance with the game less painful.
Success factors
Risk factors
- A giant world in which everyone will find a place
- A bunch of classes – from fishing to construction
- Unusual colonial setting
- The final death that makes us appreciate life
- Unreasonably complex game device
- Long and tedious pumping of the character
- Useless even for the style of "retro" graphics
We will wait?
So far, Salem, like her ancestor, is a game for “his own”, for a narrow circle of the most “understanding” and loyal. All the most interesting is hidden behind a thick wall of many hours and even a day of monotonous pumping. Some of the conceptual ideas in the game just does not work, and it is not easy to figure out the mechanics, but Salem tightly captures those lucky ones who still succeeded.