Nantucket is a unique and fun whaling simulation with turned based combat and strategy. Are you a salty enough sea dog to take on the challenge?
Ahoy! And welcome to the world of whaling strategy. Nantucket is an interesting take on a very old tale. You're thrown into living Ismael's story, set a few years after the events of Moby Dick.
In its current state, Nantucket proves to be an entertaining game, but not without its fair share of suggestions. Let's talk about the key features a bit in a listing style:
Exploration
Exploration is what I feel is the main aspect of the game. You spend a good chunk of time sailing around from one mission to the next (which you pick up at various ports along the way). There's room for discovery and random encounters, which always spices up the routine.
RPG Aspects
Milling around in the oceans and seas, you'll come face to face with some random encounters that don't necessarily have to do with combat. As the game implements various perks and downfalls within your crew, you find yourself having to make decisions that affect these stats. For example: Crew member John has become hungry and wants to eat extra rations from the ship's food supply. Do you A) Let John have his extra, thus increasing morale (and perhaps gaining a negative, gluttonous trait)? or B) Make everyone stick to their usual, decreasing morale.
Your Crew
The crew itself took a minute to get a handle on how the mechanics work. As it is now, I don't think you're supposed to hold onto the same set of men for too long; I believe a steady turnover (to put it nicely) is meant to take place. This is a good and bad thing to me--although it would be really nice to level one person up and risk losing them after investment, like you would a Pokémon, there's something fun in seeing different things the various crew member characters have to offer. They all come with baseline stats that have an effect: some are combat inclined, some science (for research), some are gluttonous, lazy, others may inspire morale. The list goes on. It gives you just enough to care about their lives, but not feel too distraught in losing them at sea.
Combat
Combat is distinctively turn-based and rolled for. It's a fun idea, but with only the assets they have in place right now, it can become tedious rather quickly. You take your spoils after every encounter reflecting that of a Final Fantasy-type fight. It's an interesting way to go about it, and something that can be widely enjoyed. However, I believe it should be polished a bit more to retrieve its full potential.
The Sound
I'm making a special mention for the sound because of how it tended to interfere with any immersion that was taking place. There are various bits of sound acting involved, including a barber shop type quartet that sings old timey sailing songs as you venture around in the waters. These are great--what got to me was the individual voice acting. Most of the time, it sounded like someone got the sound levels wrong in editing--something like a yell bordered on distorted, sounding a tad unprofessional. It's a shame, because I didn't find anything wrong with the lines and how they were delivered themselves. I think a tightening of that would do wonders. Even if people don't automatically notice it, I believe it's somewhere in their minds on how they take the game as a whole in.
It's certainly not all covered here. An entertaining game in all, Nantucket is definitely one I'll be following updates for. It was fun for not just me, but I found myself sitting around with my partner and our seven year old making decisions for the better of our whaling operation. It has a little ways to go before I would consider calling it a done deal, but if the developers listen to their forums and fans, this could end up being a fantastic addition to any collection. My advice is to keep a close eye on it--Nantucket has the ability to sail right into your heart.
