The Last Leviathan Preview

<p class&equals;"western">Take in that deep breath&period; Smell that&quest; That salt in your lungs means you&&num;8217&semi;re free&period; Free to do what you wish&comma; as the powers of government lie behind you&period; Their long fingers dangle&comma; at best brushing against you&comma; but you slip free with ease&period; <em>The Last Leviathan<&sol;em> wants you to feel the freedom of the sea&comma; at least as long as you understand the laws of physics &lpar;no freedom from that&rpar;&period; So&comma; being the sort who likes to see how far I can push things when given freedom &lpar;so say my editors&rpar;&comma; I leaped in to preview the title&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><em>The Last Leviathan<&sol;em> is a physics-based boat game by Super Punks Games&comma; currently in Early Access&period; You build a boat using various components&comma; set sail to see if it will even float and then sink other ships just because you can&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Straight off&comma; I was faced with a conundrum&period; Outside my ability to slap my keyboard around in a loose interpretive dance that could be understood to be game journalism&comma; I am as creative as a sack of bricks&period; So&comma; faced with an open field of potential boat building possibilities &lpar;in a boat creator akin to <em>Banjo Kazooie&colon; Nuts &amp&semi; Bolts<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; I simply didn&&num;8217&semi;t know where to start&period; Also&comma; the game doesn&&num;8217&semi;t come with presets to learn what makes an okay ship&comma; which isn&&num;8217&semi;t handy&period; So&comma; well&comma; I was stuck as captain of a non-existent ship&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110299" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110299" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110299 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03121347&sol;LastBoatGame4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"LastBoatGame4" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110299" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Last Leviathan<&sol;em>&comma; Super Punk Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Fortunately&comma; Steam Workshop is up and running&comma; with users throwing their wacky strange creations onto it&period; So I picked a couple of ships that might function and leaped into what I thought would be the meat of the game&colon; the gameplay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">There are currently four modes&period; There is the Creative Mode&comma; if you want to see if your boat can actually stay afloat&comma; and Versus Mode&comma; if you want to pit your two hounds of war against each other in naval-dogfighting&period; In addition&comma; there is Battle Seas&comma; which lets you take on pirate after pirate until you blow up&comma; and Event&comma; where sometimes the developer puts up a challenge for you to complete &lpar;i&period;e&period; destroy a ship using a particular ship category or lower&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">While on the surface it seems like there&&num;8217&semi;s a lot of gameplay to bite your teeth into&comma; the reality is currently more barren&period; The maps are more battle-arenas than a land to explore&period; In addition&comma; the maps are roughly very similar in layout&comma; allowing for open-combat on calm-ish waters with a pleasant breeze&period; As well as this&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll only ever face one ship at a time&comma; except with the option to bomb structures that may fire upon you&period; It just feels a bit empty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110300" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110300" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110300 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03121329&sol;LastBoatGame2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Last Leviathan&comma; Super Punk Games " width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"909" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110300" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Last Leviathan<&sol;em>&comma; Super Punk Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Although&comma; emptiness can be fixed&comma;” you may say&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;What&&num;8217&semi;s the main gameplay like&quest;” It is good&comma; for what it is&period; Everything behaves as it should&semi; you can zoom into a canon-view to do precise firing or just blind-fire like a madman while going full speed across the waves&period; There is a definite satisfaction of mounting a wave&comma; flying through the air and landing&comma; ram first&comma; into the top of a pirate ship&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">All this damage from sky-diving and chest-sized canon balls will eventually start to knock away each crate holding your glorified raft together&period; This can lead to some nefarious targeting&comma; trying to blow up their canons so they can&&num;8217&semi;t shoot back&period; Despite this&comma; amidst all of your blocks being blown away&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re never quite sure how close you are to your ship giving up and sinking to the bottom of the sea&period; It just&comma; well&comma; happens suddenly like the final sigh of breath before the monotone singular beep&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Up to this point I&&num;8217&semi;ve been rambling about canons&comma; but they&&num;8217&semi;re fortunately not your only tool in the gameplay department&period; You do get the option of using canons&comma; as well as mortars &lpar;that fire high and then crash down&rpar;&comma; flamethrowers or just mounting a large ram to put a hole into your enemy with&period; Sadly&comma; this is pretty much down to personal preference as there&&num;8217&semi;s mostly no tactics in this endeavour&period; If you pick one ship or another it wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t matter&comma; just as long as you play it well &lpar;with&comma; admittedly&comma; rams having a higher difficulty to them&rpar; you&&num;8217&semi;ll get the same results&period; This also&comma; unfortunately&comma; applies to sails versus propellers&comma; although sails can be a bit more touch-and-go versus the constant satisfaction you&&num;8217&semi;ll receive from a propeller&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110301" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110301" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110301 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03121312&sol;LastBoatGame3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Last Leviathan&comma; Super Punk Games " width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110301" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Last Leviathan<&sol;em>&comma; Super Punk Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">As much as I complain about the preview build&comma; overall I had a generally good time&period; The main weakness it holds is &&num;8211&semi; all together now &&num;8211&semi; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;needs more content”&period; There is a solid base here&period; With the reveal of monsters &lpar;non-ship enemies&rpar;&comma; Voyage Mode &lpar;allowing survivalism and exploration&rpar; and &lpar;possibly&rpar; online multiplayer&comma; there is a lot of promise here&period; If the idea of building a ship and sinking others with your nefarious creation rubs your fancy pleasingly&comma; then this is definitely worth throwing money at&period; Just preferably not canon balls made of money into <em>The Last Leviathan<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s ship&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;