I’ve been playing Voyage Century since December 23, 2006. Voyage Century is a Free 2 Play MMORPG set in the 15th century. I’m not a historian but I’m impressed with the game’s look and feel.

Title: Voyage Century Online
Site: www.voyagecenturyonline.com
Publisher: IGG
Developer: Snail Game
Access: Free 2 Play

About Voyage Century

“Voyage Century is a free to play nautical MMORPG published by IGG, the distributors of Myth War Online. Advertisements for the game suggest that it is the “First 3D Nautical Online Game”, but dates of the development of Burning Sea and the presence of Uncharted Waters Online seem to dispute this marketing ploy. It is set in 16th century Earth and features accurate historical representations of several coastal cities. Players are given a choice between four career paths at the beginning of the game: explorer, merchant, craftsman, or warrior. This choice is vital to a character, since it greatly influences the playing style of the character for the rest of the game. Combat occurs both on land and on the sea, where players risk the threat of pirates when venturing further from the more populated areas.”

“It is speculated that optional cash shop items will be available for players to purchase with real money after more development.”

Gameplay

Voyage Century features various gameplay and styles. You can be a swashbuckling ship captain, a passive merchant, an adventurous explorer, a material collector or a handycraftsman. Within these types, you can still have tons of variations in both gameplay and character development.

You can choose to specialize in a few skills or you can get them all but if you get them all you won’t be as proficient as those that specialized in a few skills. Skill range from combat skills to collecting/producing and crafting skills.

Different ship types also change the way you play. Battleships are good for pound for pound combat and it’s the games all around ship, raiding ships are great at boarding, grappling, ramming and exploring and merchant ships are not good for combat but they are great in delivering and carrying goods.

I like fast ships so I choose a raiding ship and my character’s job is an explorer but you are not limited to exploring and adventuring. You can also join the other Alliances (Merchant and Warrior Alliance) and do quests for them although some merchant quests will be tough especially those involved carrying many goods.

Combat in Voyage Century is accomplished in two ways. Land and sea battle! Success in sea battles relies heavily on your ship’s weapon skill level. The higher it is the better canons you’ll have. In land battle, success depends on your character’s weapon and barehand skill level. There are no stats to increase in Voyage Century. Just level up your skills to get better weapons, armors (dress), ships and equipments.

Another cool thing about this game is that you can also be a Pirate or a Privateer. Becoming a pirate is easy, becoming a privateer you’ll need to accomplish some requirements. I haven’t seen any player pirates nor privateers yet in the game but maybe later as the game matures even further.

There are many things to do in Voyage Century that’ll keep you busy for months. PVPs, Consortia Wars and others more. You choose your own path in developing a unique character suited to your gaming style. As for me, I like to learn them all and I still don’t know how long I will last leveling my skills but it’s just me.

Another thing I like about Voyage Century is that switching between programs is very fast because of that I can do other things like work while character vends, mines, fishes, plants and logs in-game.

Graphics

Overall, Voyage Century’s graphics are good but I was blown away by the water effect. It looks so real!

Sound FX and BGM

Sound is the Achilles heal of Voyage Century. The BGM will make you fall asleep.

Performance/Lag

Like many Free 2 Play MMORPG, lag is inevitable but you can easily remedy it by moving to a less populated city or port and because of the sheer amount of players playing everyday, the publisher will be opening a new server soon.

Conclusion

Well, I’m enjoying my time with the game and I’ve made a few friends (international) and I’ve joined a very nice guild with really mature players playing, Guild ~Poseidon~. I see myself playing this game for a while or until the time comes to review a new MMORPG.

Anyway, the game is pretty easy to learn. The website and the forum are filled with information about the game and there are many players willing to help out in-game.

Another thing I noticed, based on my nephew and kids reaction to the game, is that it will be hard for some elementary and high school players to fully enjoy the game. As an adult, I am enjoying the relaxing and slow pace of the game.

Rating: 7/10