Dread Nautical is not a new title by Zen Studios but it is the first time, this brilliant turn-based RPG with some roguelike elements is heading to PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC via Epic Games Store. It is one of the most unique titles we have played in the turn-based RPG genre and we certainly love it. This is our review of the PS4 version of Dread Nautical in which we try not to get seasick as we try to survive on a ship infested by supernatural monstrosities.
Dread Nautical is set on a cruise ship named Hope which is out on a normal holiday cruise just like any normal day. However, after sailing, the ship comes under the control of supernatural forces, and everyone on the ship is now gone or transformed into horrible monstrosities. These monstrosities now roam the different decks of the ship and the crew is all gone. This is where you step in as a random character thrown in the mix who must gather the survivors, kill the monstrosities, and try to survive until you can escape from the ship together. The game follows a narrative story although the levels are procedurally-generated, it incorporates the story really well in the mix that it does not feel like the stages are random every time you jump in them.
One of the strongest points in favor of Dread Nautical and also my favorite one is the visuals of Dread Nautical. The game looks extremely pretty even with its simple old-school visuals. The special effects are brilliant and it does not look like anything less than a AAA title. The visuals portray an extremely well-defined eerie atmosphere and everything ranging from the creatures to the weapons is brilliantly designed. The unique visuals are one of the reasons that keep you glued to the screen because once you start playing it, you want to see and explore more of the ship and check out more of the locations in all their visual glory. The developer refers to its visuals as ‘low-polygon assets with art deco design and modern rendering effects’ but I just call them pretty and brilliant to look at. Combined with the visuals, the audio design is pretty solid and if you are playing on a decent sound system, you will hear every distant thunder or the closest enemy thud pretty clearly.
Coming to the gameplay of Dread Nautical, it is a turn-based RPG that also combines the mechanics of roguelikes. However, the roguelike factor depends on your difficulty chosen for the game. If you are playing on Normal, these mechanics are extremely less and you play the game simply as loading from a previous checkpoint to try again. However, tone it up a notch and you start to lose supplies, and your squad members are lost on the ship for you to find them again. Tone it to the maximum and the game becomes an absolute hell with death punishing you extremely hard. You lose everything and you basically start fresh after dying. This is the game in its true Roguelike form.
At the start, you are given the choice of selecting a survivor from four pre-defined characters. Each of them is unique and they come with their own strengths and weaknesses so you can opt for the one that suits your own gameplay style. After the selection, you wake up on Hope, the dreaded ship that you chose for your vacation, and all hell has broken loose on it. Survivors are scattered with the crew of the ship dead or lost. Your main goal is to head out, scavenge what you can and survive while bringing in the survivors to your safe spot. You have 20 ship decks to explore and all of them are randomly-generated so you cannot expect what to find on each run.
In addition, as you progress in the game and get stronger, the enemies on these starting levels also get tougher and tougher so the game quickly adapts to your level and upgrades making the game a well-balanced experience even if you level up. You begin your day by heading out to a deck, once on the deck, you explore different rooms, clear out enemies, find survivors, help them, and invite them to your safehouse. Once you are done with your run, you head over to the bridge and you sound the Foghorn which somehow makes you unconscious and you wake up back inside your safe room.
The exploration of these decks is pretty much how you would expect like in any other top-down RPG title. You enter the rooms, search for supplies and resources, and kill any monstrosities that might be present in that room. You have to basically look for three main resources while you are exploring these decks. These are Runes, Scraps, and Food. Runes and Scraps are used for upgrading gear, characters, safe room, and other things that are upgradeable in the game. Food, on the other hand, is used to feed yourself and your fellow survivors. At the end of the day, everyone is hungry and you must distribute food among them so that they do not lose energy and eventually die. Since food is scarce, sometimes you are required to make some tough decisions about skipping some survivors out. During your explorations, you can only take 2 survivors along with you.
To add these survivors to your party, you simply have to find them and convince them to join your cause. You can do so by helping them out as you explore the decks. After their required task is done, they will join your cause instantly or will ask for some time. Some of these survivors are part of the narrative while some are just random and it is entirely up to you whether you want to add them to your party or not. However, the more survivors you bring home, the more mouths you have to feed so things only get tougher on one hand and easier on another hand. However, having these survivors give you a massive boost in the combat scenarios.
Combat in Dread Nautical is played out in the traditional turn-based format. Your party gets its turn to make its move and then it’s the monstrosities turn. During your turn, you get some Action Points which will determine how further you can move and how much can you attack the enemies. Use them wisely and you will sometimes eliminate the enemies without even giving them a chance to move their flippers. Or hands. You have different ranged and melee weapons at your disposal to kill the enemies. Since you are on a vacation inside a luxury cruiser, you do not have the best military weapons at hand so you have to improvise with what you can find.
Lucky for you, nearly all of the items on the ship can be used as a weapon such as golf balls, meat cleavers, decorative katana swords, or much more. Weapons only give you a certain use before they break however you can repair them or upgrade them to make them tougher. One of the things that really annoyed me at the start of the game was how limited the inventory is. You literally have just 3 slots and this means that most of the time, you are simply leaving items you find behind. There is no backpack or backup inventory where you could save these items or weapons for later use.
These items do not stack as well even if you try to pick up similar items. For example, if I have 1 Bandage and I find two more, I cannot stack them up to make them 3 bandages in the same slot. I have to ditch the 1 already in my inventory before I could pick up the other 2. This is however somewhat mitigated once you level up and unlock additional slots but the problem remains throughout the game. You always have to leave something behind because of limited inventory space. The good thing here is at least the story items do not take inventory space otherwise it would have been even tougher.
Your safe room is your main hub where you can craft useful items such as beds for survivors and crafting stations for upgrading and repairing your gear. Survivors will only join your cause if you have a spare bed otherwise you will first have to decline them and then find them again to add them to your party. As you invite survivors in, you can also interact with them and keep them happy. This will ensure that they like you and happy survivors will gladly follow you to their death. However, during combat, the survivors are not under your direct control. You just set their items at the start of the day and then the AI controls them during any sort of combat situation. Having survivors is great because the enemies in the game are ruthless and they do not stop at anything to kill you.
This brings me to the enemies of Dread Nautical. I will say here again that enemies are brilliantly designed in the game. They still look part human but some of the enemies are straight up the worst mangled form of humans. All the enemies are evolved from their human forms so even in their monster-forms, there is a little bit of human body left in the middle of the transformation. They come in all shapes and sizes as well. The normal ones are pretty to kill but then you progress in the game and start facing the real brunt where different ranged heavies and mini-bosses start joining in the fun. This is where the going gets really tough and you must use all your wits and skills to overcome the challenge to survive and get back to your survivors.
Final Verdict:
Dread Nautical is a brilliant turn-based RPG that combines roguelike mechanics as well. One of the most striking features of the game is its brilliant art style and visuals. It is evident right from the very first screen of the game. With its randomly-generated 20 decks to explore, it offers hours and hours upon fun and solid turn-based combat. One mistake and you will never make it back to the safe room. Switch the difficulty up a notch and it becomes a true roguelike with you losing everything after you die. We’ve played tons of turn-based RPGs in the previous days but Dread Nautical is certainly a unique one and we love it for what it is. Highly recommended if you are a fan of turn-based RPGs that offer fun but solid combat mechanics but a narrative filled with humor at the same time.
Final Score: 8.5/10
