Rise of Venice: Preview Friv Game

Venice is famous not only for its romantic images, a huge network of navigable canals and an eerie smell of rot on the capital's streets due to dampness. Before the Venetian Republic with all the islands became part of Italy, it was the most important maritime state in the Mediterranean, flourishing thanks to the noble merchants and their extensive knowledge of profitable trade routes. By the middle of the 15th century, the Venetian markets were glorified throughout Europe, money flowed like a river, ships stood in traffic jams for unloading, and there was no end to those arriving for outlandish things. These times will be dedicated to the new project Rise of Venice from the studio Friv5Online, which is known for its successful reincarnations of the classic German economic strategies Patrician 4 andPort Royale 3.

The disc with the famous merchant simulator Patrician 3 is probably still on the shelf of most fans of various tycoons. And you don't have to talk about Port Royale 2 at all - about this distant relative of Sid Meier's Pirates! almost everyone knows. Friv5Online Studios, together with publishing house Kalypso Media, have made a successful bet on the revival of both games from the early 2000s, replacing isometric graphics with fully 3D and working out the gameplay in such a way that it would be interesting not only for the notorious hardcore gamers to master the sea trade.

Now come from Friv5Online decided to take a courageous step towards a thorough revision of the concept of both game series at once. Mixing the quest component and naval battles of Port Royale 3 with the advanced trade and harsh political system of Patrician 4, the Germans created a universal economic strategy Rise of Venice that should appeal to absolutely all RTS fans. It will offer a wide range of development paths for adherents of cannon volleys, wanderings and risky adventures, as well as for political careerists who bribe the electorate and walk over the heads of their competitors.

In the Rise of Venicethe player finds himself in one of the Mediterranean cities of the Renaissance. Whether it is a small province or the great walls of Rome, Constantinople, Genoa, Tripoli or Athens, we have to start our journey as a small trader. Building your own trading empire, gaining power over the Mediterranean or earning the glorious pirate's laurels - the process of achieving your goal will become more difficult, unpredictable and interesting thanks to very important innovations.

Friv5Online Studios has finally brought together a strategic global map and cities. In the first case, we controlled ships, created trade routes, studied the geography of supply and demand. In the second, they built craft workshops, hired people on ships, conducted trade and other business. In the Rise of Veniceon the global map, we now zoom in on any city and study it in detail without any switching. At maximum magnification, each building can be visited. When you delete a camera, the corresponding micromanagement menu is called. Now it is one seamless world with unique provinces and capitals with unique features.

In total, the game features 25 settlements in vast territories of the Mediterranean. Here, the strongholds on the Istrian coast, and the trade passes of Dalmatia, are not forgotten and the coast of exotic Africa and the main mediator of the majestic East - Syria, with which the Venetian state traded from the subordinate territories of the island of Crete. The waters of the Black Sea are also represented in the game. The only pity is that there is no east coast with the Genoese outpost Mapa on the site of the ancient city of Gorgippia, now known as the Russian resort town of Anapa. But the given territories will be quite enough to spend a lot of time on mastering their markets.

At the moment, Rise of Venice is at the stage of development, when the graphic component has not yet been given due attention. As a rule, cosmetic finishing in such projects is left for later. When the main elements of the upcoming game are already being tested, the designers' efforts are directed to improving the existing graphics, more detailed detailing of the global map and adding new objects. Therefore, judging by the early screenshots it is too early to judge the graphic component of Rise of Venice , but now we can say that Friv5Online Studios has taken a new level of quality.

However, before the series Patrician and Port RoyaleAlthough they did not stand out for the special luxury of visual accompaniment, it was difficult to deny the overall pleasant style and attention of the developers to details. Thus, the territorial differences between the north and south will become even more contrasting. In winter, it will snow in the northern regions, and terrible storms will frequent in the south. From time to time, Rise of Venice will dazzle players with sudden cataclysms in the form of plague, drought, earthquakes, wildfires and volcanic eruptions. All this will have not only visual consequences, but also practical ones - the destruction of workshops or city walls can lead to an economic recession and an outflow of settlers.

Despite the fact that we are free to choose our own development chain, we will have to constantly deal with trading operations. Before taking the first step, it is necessary to study the supply and demand in all nearby cities. For example, large capitals always need spices and spices, they consume wine and meat at a fast pace. But small settlements care more about raw materials for their own production and basic consumer products. In addition, throughout the game, competitive merchant companies will open their offices everywhere and build a new production network, which will certainly affect the overall balance of prices in the world market.

So, if you specialized in the transportation of wine, then the appearance of a large winemaker in the region will level your profits and force unprofitable assets under the hammer. As before, in the Rise of Venice the auction system is used to sell or buy, for example, old ships. But you can go the other way - to borrow money from a usurer for a certain period at a small percentage, to convert into a manufacturer of some rare goods and to monopolize the market, substituting competitors in the cities, turning to pirates at sea for help and "re-voting" the decisions of the authorities in your benefit through bribes.

But at the same time, it is important to take into account your territorial location. You can never achieve a good harvest in the desert lands of Tripoli. It will also be unprofitable to produce ropes away from hemp farms or to arrange supply of tools when there is almost no iron in warehouses. Each city has bonuses to some types of production and penalties to others. It is important to study this information in detail before settling in a particular place. Once you get a feel for the main directions of the goods, you will immediately find yourself a warm place in the sun and start raking in gold in your chests.

No end in sight in the Patrician and Port Royale has never been a logical conclusion. We were entertained in every possible way by various quests, orders of lords, attacks of princes and pirates, temporary cataclysms, diseases in cities. But as soon as our trading company came to high profits, a new stage of the game began - the political one. All the accumulated millions could be spent on bribes, marrying the daughter of a wealthy merchant, building important facilities, thanks to which we had a chance to advance as high as possible up the career ladder, rise to high positions and even start building a new city.

Rise of venicein this regard, it goes even further - we will be able to create our own dynasty. But, alas, not only the players are subject to the family business - AI will also make its own plans to take over the world with the help of relatives. One fine moment, a profitable party for your beautiful virtual daughter will run over to a competitive family, ruining all plans and driving your family into debt. Thus, the path to prosperity has become even more difficult, but interesting.

Relatives in the Rise of Venicecan occupy a variety of positions in society. Each of them is a unique person with unique characteristics. Someone may turn out to be a wonderful captain, and you will definitely use such abilities to set up a dangerous but very profitable route. At the same time, some distant uncle, taking the place of an elder with real power, in the event of problems with the law, can influence the court decision in your favor. So now we, as if in a historical film, have to persuade our heirs for profitable marriages.

It is not enough to take the chair of a high-ranking official - it is also necessary to stay in this wobbly chair. As soon as you gain real power, there will be dissatisfied with your position. In particular, competing families will strive in every possible way to outplay the elections in their favor. The pre-election race will be another interesting element of the Rise of Venice gameplay , and its result can radically change the whole game situation. And if a single dynasty begins to get places in all major cities, then it will have a desire to create an entire empire. Then all the competing merchants will turn into shopkeepers living out their days. In this light, the promised 4-player multiplayer is of particular value.

The more famous your name is, the more often you will be approached with personal requests and assignments. To become in the harbor to defend the city from pirate attacks or, conversely, to help the rulers in a raid on a pirate lair may be more profitable than regularly meeting the demand in individual cities. Someone may ask you to help arrange a holiday, transport goods or a passenger, hire a relative on the ship, and so on. Quests have now become much more, and their fulfillment or non-fulfillment will entail tangible consequences.

The player, embittered all over the world, is completely free to go to the pirates. Raising a black banner on the mast of his ships, the pirate captain attacks and plunders the ships of the fat merchants. Rise of Venice received several types of ships (they are not named yet and are in the stage of introduction into the game) with the possibility of equipping them with different types of weapons - ballistae, catapults and cannons. Wooden sailboats will be damaged from hits, burn from fires and sink from holes. In this case, a couple of volleys, under certain circumstances, will cause the surrender of the whole ship - then it will become our property along with the goods and the crew.

Boarding is the most profitable business for those pirates who want to get rich quickly. But do not rely on fate - sooner or later, the strongest fleets will begin to hunt for the head of such a captain. And if the lords become aware of the pirate base, then unexpected guests armed with cannons will appear immediately and in large numbers.

Probably the most noticeable difference between Rise of Venice and the classic Patrician and Port Royale serieswill become a rank system. So, at the very beginning of our sales campaign, we will be able to purchase only certain types of goods. To gain access to the rest, you need to gain some notoriety and networking. After that, we will move to the next rank and get some new features. Such a system can cause controversy among the adherents of the traditional harddoor style of play, when we started the game on an equal basis with everyone. But Rise of Venice is forgiving of beginners and those who haven't touched the classics for a long time.

Also, such a system allows you to keep the player within a single vector of development and then at some stage give him complete freedom. Let's hope that in Friv5Online will not take more drastic measures, otherwise the game will turn into a linear merchant simulator. In any case, the authors approached the economic balance very seriously - they promise that if one of your ships is attacked by pirates and loses all the goods, then by following the black flag on the global map, you will be able to find and redeem the entire stolen consignment on black market. Rise of Venice

economic systemclosed. All goods are circulated within the framework of their own production and consumption. Salt mined in quarries is sent to salting fish, which becomes a good addition to banquets and dinners in large cities. The production chains are not very long here, but they are provided for each type of goods. The more there are on the market, the lower the average price. However, with the onset of winter, grain, honey, beer and wine are in short supply. Cataclysms can destroy the workshops of key industries. In this situation, the cities in distress will be ready to give a very favorable price, if only to urgently make up for the lack of provisions and stop the outflow of the population.

Many players are already grateful to Friv5Online Studios for the revival of PC-exclusives with classic gameplay and nice updated graphics in the face of Patrician 4 and Port Royale 3 . The announcement of Rise of Venice came as a complete surprise. It's safe to say that now is a good time to relaunch famous old projects and create perfectly polished remakes with exciting new ideas. We wish the developers success on this difficult path and we will believe in the embodiment of the most daring "wishes" of the players in Rise of Venice.