Yo ho! A pirate’s roguelike for me! All the buckles be swashed and the poop deck be swabbed. It ain’t a real roguelike without some real rogues, and Rogue Waters has got a whole galley of ‘em! But don’t go thinkin’ it be just another landlubber roguelike with a medically unnecessary eyepatch and a fake parrot on the shoulder. Ice Code Games’ latest voyage be a dyed-in-the-wool pirate, and their colors run more than skin deep.
Rogue Waters is a tale primarily of revenge. Legends, curses, and ghosts are all part of the game when you go disturbing treasure in deep, dark places. As a member of Captain Blackbone’s crew, Cutter is loyal, almost like the cap’n’s own son, even. But there’s always a treasure too shiny for loyalty, and as you enter the story, their friendship’s reached its limit. Conflict arises around a precious stone, an eye goes missing, and before he knows it, Cutter awakens years later to find the crew again and learn that not only did Blackbone end Cutter’s life, but that the rest of them wound up down in Davy Jones’ locker with him. See, Rogue Waters is a ghost story with an apparition relentlessly pursuing the one who wronged him. The thing is, you’re the ghost in this here tale.
So, it makes sense that if you’re in the middle of a run and you die, that’s why you reawaken back at your secluded lair. Though Rogue Waters classifies itself as a roguelike, it’s definitely on the lighter side. You don’t have to run through the entire game without dying. It’s structured much more like a typical RPG in that the story unfolds over a long series of runs as if each is a book chapter. If you meet a watery grave during a run, you don’t return to the starting point, just to the beginning of the chapter. Much like a roguelike, you go through a long series of events, mostly battles, sometimes picking a direction from several options. You can invest in better equipment back at your lair, but most things only last for the current run.
The story is also on the lighter side, but deceptively, a bit going on below the surface, mostly the partner Cutter is sharing his head with. You’re relentlessly pursuing the man who wronged you with the goal of making him regret he ever did. He’s been building an empire for himself since he offed you, so you get to take glee in tearing it down. Make no mistake, Cutter’s no hero, but Blackbone is a scourge of the seas whom nobody will miss.
Your journeys take you through many typical pirate haunts: brothels, fortresses, seedy pubs, and the like. Upon awakening, Cutter finds he’s made several new friends, one of whom happens to be the kraken. For the developer that made Hard West II, which embraces the Lovecraftian weird west aesthetic, trends in the same direction but for wild, sometimes ethereal stories at sea. The narrative takes a pro-environmental turn if you find that motivating, as you’re rallying a few of the godlike monsters of the sea to overthrow a tyrant who’s been exploiting the ocean for resources. But the story’s essentially all about sticking it to that man in a cathartic way. However, it approaches things in an inverse fashion, both putting you in a different position from what’s typical and allowing you to command the powerful, all-consuming forces of nature rather than being the demure hero.
There are plenty of things to slay with those forces as you plunder many ships on your path to vengeance. Rogue Waters features tactical turn-based combat that’s simple on its surface, though it contains depths. The developers tried to make fighting feel similar to thrilling cinematic pirate battles. Mainly, you want to take advantage of your surroundings. Pushing enemies back into bulkheads or barrels, other enemies, or even shoving them right off the ship down to a watery grave gives you a little extra power. You can swing on ropes to move more quickly across the deck, you can set enemies on fire. You also can get by with a little help from your monster friends. There’s a fear meter, raised by performing more dramatic kills, and the enemy surrenders if you fill it. Who wouldn’t give up after watching their mates get flattened by a giant tentacle? Every battle is its own puzzle, and as Rogue Waters starts to throw more advanced enemy types at you, the puzzles only become more fun to solve.
These skirmishes are actually the second part of battle. The puzzle begins with the first portion, which involves your ships at broadsides firing away at each other. Ship combat is also a tactical puzzle, and the outcome can have a heavy influence on what comes after, whether that be the immediate battle or the rest of your run. You can use cannons you’ve acquired to blast away at the enemy crew, but the other ship is also firing away at yours, so you have to decide your priorities. I sometimes could whittle the crew to almost nobody, even taking out bosses so I wouldn’t have to fight them by hand later. Then again, sometimes crew members I was counting on got knocked out so they weren’t available for the fight afterward. It feels like a pirate’s life, and it’s impressive how much of that theatrical experience Rogue Waters provides through its combat.
I’m also impressed by how Rogue Waters handles difficulty. There are a range of difficulty levels, and the higher they get, the better rewards they offer. That said, I found it to be a robust experience at the Story and Normal settings. But losing a run doesn’t feel like you’ve lost much because of the way runs are structured. So, if you’re feeling more adventurous, maybe you want to try the next level up. You also get the chance to experience more of the game on higher difficulty levels, which introduce tougher enemy types and more exciting items to claim. It’s great that you can cultivate the experience you want without feeling like you’re missing out on the real game by not playing on the harder levels, but that the challenge is also there if you’re feeling brave.
Visually, Rogue Waters is rich in details despite having a simpler, almost bland overall appearance. The portraits are colorful, though they’re mostly standard pirate designs. Battles are full of minuscule details. There’s individual art for many items, and when you have a Medusa’s head (which stuns enemies), it’s fun to see your character actually pull the head out of wherever they were storing it. As you’d expect with a nautical theme, there are a lot of colorful island motifs and beautiful water effects.
As for sound, it’s fine. Only a few pieces of music sound like what you’d expect from a game about pirates. Voice acting is not bad, but it’s nothing special. In battles, however, the boisterous exclamations that burst out of the characters give battles more life, even though it’s just typical activation quips. But the liberal use of profanity injects a little more fire into a heated skirmish.
Yaaargh! Subtlety ain’t be whatcher expectin’ out of a tale about pirates, but even though the surface might look cheap, the value is in finding the gems hidden within. If ye be seekin’ the experience of bein’ a real pirate, Rogue Waters is a time of swillin’ rum and chargin’ at them scurvy dogs. Drink up me hearties, yo ho!
