Info about Forgotten Seas:

Official game description:
Survive the Void and rule the seas! Lost in the Bermuda Void, a strange realm where the ocean is endless and islands fade in and out of existence, seemingly suspended in the time of Dread Pirates. Neither alive nor truly dead, they roam these waters in search of prey. Unless you want to be fodder left in the wake of their mighty ships, you'll have to craft a ship and take to the waves - then conquer the forgotten seas, whose treacherous waters are full of bounty, treasure, and grave danger!
Ships are magic in the Void and essential to survival. Even loaded with food, tools, and weapons, every ship can fit down into a bottle - from the tiniest schooner to the greatest dreadnaughts - and be unleashed at a moment's notice! Store away your ship for exploration or keep it as an unwelcome surprise for your enemies. Or even better, craft a custom fleet with a ship for every occasion. Lure in pirates expecting an easy fight, then surprise them with a full broadside from a man-o-war that appears out of nowhere!
No ship is complete without a port of call. Land on an island, use the robust crafting and building system to erect a dock worthy of your vessel, then head inland, seeking lost treasures, rare resources, and piecing together the mystery of the Bermuda Void. But be careful: The treacherous forgotten seas can claim the island, just as you reach your prize, leaving you in a heart-pounding race against time to reach the shore and deploy your ship to find safety.
Don’t think the prizes will jump in your lap! The Dread Pirates are ancient sailors worth their salt, and the treasures are well hidden. First, you’ll need to assemble an ancient map, torn apart by time and scattered to the four winds. Second, you’ll need to find the spot and brave the dangers of whatever island or sunken ruin it guides you to. Only then can you claim the treasure for yourself and carve out your destiny on the high seas.
An intuitive dual-wielding system means fast-paced battles on land and deck. However, the true challenge lies on the high seas, as sail ships clash. Watch your speed, heading, and enemy positions. A mistake might mean that your broadside will fall short and the enemy will turn your prized ship into a mess of splinters and torn sails - just as an oceanic anomaly bears down on your both, with storms, whirlpools, and strange beasts for whom a survivor is a rare delicacy...
Between unpredictable anomalies, vicious pirates, and the ever-looming specter of hunger and dehydration, lies the mystery of the void. Where did this anomaly come from? Why does it persist? When will you be able to escape? Can you escape? The answers wait within the storms, in sunken pyramids, amidst wreckage beneath the waves. Build, farm, craft, sail, conquer - then face the ultimate challenge, taking your ship into the unknown and maybe, just maybe, finding a way back to the real world...

Release date: 11 Oct, 2025

Categories: Survival, Crafting, Base Building, Ship Combat, Open-World Exploration, Resource Management, Single-player Story, Multiplayer


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Strong Potential and Developer Support (weight 0.97): The game is recognized for its significant potential, solid foundation, and continuous improvements, especially for an Early Access title. Players appreciate the dedicated two-person development team's responsiveness to feedback and active community engagement, which bodes well for future updates.
- Relaxing and Engaging Gameplay (weight 0.97): Players consistently praise the game for its chill, captivating, and relaxing atmosphere, often highlighting its suitability for unwinding from competitive games. The game's blend of building, adventure, and exploration, coupled with its charming aesthetics and music, creates an enjoyable and immersive experience.
- Unique Pirate Survival Experience (weight 0.5): The game fills a niche in the gaming community by offering a fun and engaging pirate-themed survival crafting experience. It draws comparisons to games like Valheim and Conan Exiles but distinguishes itself with unique mechanics, particularly its water-based building and sailing.
- Addictive Core Gameplay Loop (weight 0.44): The game features a solid and highly addictive gameplay loop, offering varied and in-depth activities that keep players engaged for dozens, if not hundreds, of hours. The progression feels decent, and the game is largely free of major bugs, contributing to a smooth experience.
- Accessible Crafting and Building (weight 0.37): The crafting and building systems are lauded for being easy, simple, and enjoyable, utilizing a perfected block-building system without tedious animations. The straightforward nature of crafting, combined with unique mechanics like market stalls, makes it refreshing and not overwhelmingly complex.
- Engaging Ship Mechanics and Combat (weight 0.29): The game offers enjoyable naval combat and ship mechanics, including the ability to build and customize various ships. The risk of losing a ship and the varying difficulty of rebuilding add a strategic layer, while the ships themselves are visually appealing and easy to maneuver.
- Abundant Content and Exploration (weight 0.25): Players appreciate the sheer amount of content available, including numerous quests, bounties, and diverse islands to explore. The game provides plenty to do, craft, and see, ensuring a rich and expansive experience even in its Early Access state.
- Appealing Graphics and Aesthetics (weight 0.23): Players generally find the game's graphics to be beautiful, charming, and well-done, with a good level of detail in decorations, ships, and islands. The visual style, though sometimes described as simple or average, effectively enhances the overall gaming experience.
- Accessible Learning Curve (weight 0.15): The game is relatively easy to learn, with a detailed in-game wiki and side quests that serve as effective tutorials. While the mechanics can be complex, the casual difficulty in normal mode allows players to gradually discover systems and progress at their own pace.
- Minimal Bugs and Stable Performance (weight 0.13): The game is noted for its lack of major or critical bugs and crashes, contributing to a smooth and stable gameplay experience. While a few funny bugs might be present, they do not detract significantly from the overall quality.

Common complaints:
- Unpolished and Immature Gameplay (weight 0.91): Players consistently report that the game feels unfinished, janky, and rough around the edges, requiring significant development in core mechanics, UI, animations, and overall quality of life. Many features are missing or feel incomplete, leading to a perception of low production value and an early access state that doesn't justify the price.
- Limited Content and Depth (weight 0.83): The game is perceived as lacking sufficient content, depth, and unique mechanics, leading to boredom and repetitiveness after only a few hours. The story is described as unengaging, and the overall experience doesn't offer enough to keep players invested.
- Unrealistic Sailing Mechanics (weight 0.56): A major point of contention is the unrealistic and unsatisfying sailing experience. Players describe ship movement as akin to driving a car, lacking physics, wind impact, wave interaction, and proper sail control. This detracts significantly from the 'pirate game' fantasy, making naval aspects feel shallow and unengaging.
- Basic and Clunky Combat (weight 0.4): Both land and ship combat are criticized for being overly simplistic, clunky, and lacking depth. Players report issues with hitboxes, slow movement, repetitive actions, and a general absence of engaging mechanics, making combat feel like a chore rather than an exciting challenge.
- Unrealistic Survival & Respawn (weight 0.11): The survival elements are deemed unrealistic and unchallenging due to ultra-fast resource respawns and a lack of meaningful penalties for dying. This removes any sense of urgency or strategic planning, undermining the survival aspect of the game.
- Problematic NPC Spawning (weight 0.1): Players report frustrating issues with NPC spawning, where pirates appear randomly and instantly behind or near them, often leading to immediate and unavoidable combat. This breaks immersion and creates unfair gameplay scenarios.
- Limited Ship Customization/Functionality (weight 0.08): The game offers a very limited number of craftable ships, and players cannot use their ships as mobile bases with workbenches or storage. The inability to summon/desummon ships at will further restricts player agency and convenience.
- Confusing Tutorial & Map (weight 0.08): The tutorial is criticized for being misleading and poorly structured, guiding players towards inefficient or illogical actions. The small map size, lack of markers, and low visibility make navigation and progression difficult without external help.
- Cannon Glitches and Limitations (weight 0.07): Players experience glitches where multi-cannon ships revert to single cannons, requiring a game restart. Additionally, cannons cannot turn independently, forcing the entire ship to maneuver, and cannonball trajectories are unrealistic.
- Outdated Character Animations (weight 0.07): Character animations, including walking, crouching, proning, and general actions, are described as crude, sudden, floaty, and feeling like placeholders. This contributes to the overall unpolished feel of the game.

Gameplay feedback:
- Core Survival & Pirate Gameplay (weight 0.42): The game is a survival and base-building experience set in a Caribbean pirate theme, similar to Valheim. Players start on a deserted island, craft bases and ships, and engage in naval combat and exploration, facing sharks, storms, and enemy pirates.
- Accessible Crafting & Building (weight 0.33): The game features extensive yet simple-to-use crafting and base-building mechanics, suitable for casual players. Resources are easily found, and players can craft numerous items, weapons, tools, and structures, including various types of ships.
- Varied Missions & Quests (weight 0.18): NPCs provide numerous missions, including repetitive harvesting, bounty hunts, creature hunts, and fort defense quests. The main progression line involves finding messages in bottles across different islands.
- Ship Management & Upgrades (weight 0.14): Players can build and purchase several types of ships, from rafts to warships, each with unique attributes. Ships are easily deployed from inventory, can be upgraded, and can have crews added to enhance their power.
- Dynamic World & Events (weight 0.12): The game includes random events such as storms, hidden islands, temporary quests, fort invasions, and boss ship encounters. Weather animations are well-done, with storms impacting structures and ships.
- Simplified Sailing & Combat (weight 0.09): Ships are controlled more like cars than realistic sailing vessels, prioritizing beginner-friendliness, though sailing skills can be gained to improve speed and turning. Combat is simplified, involving basic point-and-click actions for both naval and land encounters.
- Resource Spawning & Looting (weight 0.08): Resources and 'goodies' frequently spawn in biomes, and shipwrecks can be easily looted. Players can also loot pirates on land and at sea for additional items.
- Multiplayer & Trading (weight 0.08): A limited multiplayer mode supporting up to 4 players is available, with plans for more capabilities. Trading ports have been added, allowing players to earn Dubloons and Treasury bills.
- Progression & Leveling System (weight 0.07): Leveling up unlocks new craftable items and technologies, and grants perk points for character development. This system provides a clear sense of progression as players advance through the game.
- Quality of Life Features (weight 0.06): The game includes automatic saving with safe respawn and a peaceful mode. While there's no pause button, players can heal faster near campfires or stoves.
- Early Access Status (weight 0.05): The game is currently in early access (ALPHA), indicating that it is still under development with more features and capabilities planned for future updates.
- Game Length & Scope (weight 0.04): The game offers significant playtime, ranging from 40-60 hours for crafting/building, up to 100+ hours for completionists. However, some feedback suggests a smaller scope for casual play (10-20 hours).
- Genre Comparisons (weight 0.04): The game has been compared to 'Conan Exiles' for its mechanics and 'Subnautica' and 'Green Hell' for its story-driven survival elements.

Performance notes:
- Good overall performance (weight 0.24): Many players report that the game runs smoothly with minimal bugs and no significant lag, especially considering it's an early access title. This indicates a stable foundation for the game's technical performance.
- Performance issues with base building (weight 0.09): Some players experience a significant drop in frame rate once they start building a substantial number of production buildings. This suggests a potential optimization issue tied to late-game base complexity.
- Ultrawide monitor support (weight 0.03): The game is noted to display well on ultrawide monitors, which is a positive for players with such setups. This indicates good UI scaling and visual presentation for wider aspect ratios.
- Potential for better fluidity (weight 0.02): While generally good, some feedback suggests that the game's fluidity could still be improved. This indicates there's room for further optimization to enhance the overall smooth gameplay experience.

Recommendations:
- Mixed recommendations for purchase (weight 0.73): Player sentiment on purchasing the game is divided. Many recommend waiting for further development, sales, or full release, while others suggest buying it now to support developers or enjoy its current state with caveats. Some even requested refunds.
- Strong recommendation for specific genres (weight 0.55): The game is highly recommended for fans of survival, crafting, base-building, and pirate-themed games. Players who enjoy relaxing gameplay, sailing, and exploration are likely to find it enjoyable.
- Anticipation for future content (weight 0.15): Players are eagerly looking forward to more content, polish, and additions, including new islands, animals, food sources, recipes, and general improvements. Many express excitement about the game's future development.
- Improve sailing and ship mechanics (weight 0.15): Players desire improvements in sailing mechanics, including more realistic sail movement, the ability to navigate using wind, and better ship physics. There are also requests for increased ship speed, maneuverability, durability, and a repair function.
- Minor quality of life improvements (weight 0.11): Players suggest various quality of life improvements such as character customization, increased mineral resource distribution, faster stamina recovery, and a timer for disappearing islands.
- Support for two-person dev team (weight 0.09): There is significant appreciation and support for the small two-person development team. Players acknowledge the early access status and the effort put in by the developers.
- Game potential and early access status (weight 0.07): Many players acknowledge the game's potential despite its current early access state. They believe it has a solid foundation and could become great with further development, polish, and community input.
- Positive sentiment despite flaws (weight 0.04): Some players express overall positive sentiment, thanking developers for enjoyable moments and even purchasing copies for friends, despite acknowledging existing shortcomings.
- Disregard negative combat reviews (weight 0.02): One reviewer advises against believing negative reviews regarding the game's combat, suggesting that the fighting might not be as bad as some claim.
- Concerns about game quality at release (weight 0.02): A single review expresses a general concern about developers releasing low-quality games, implying this game might fall into that category if not improved.

Other player notes:
- Excitement for Future Development (weight 0.45): Players are highly optimistic about the game's future, expressing excitement for continued updates, content additions, and overall evolution. Many are holding off on extensive play to avoid spoilers before the 1.0 release, indicating strong anticipation.
- Small Development Team Noted (weight 0.13): Players frequently acknowledge and respect that the game is developed by a very small, often cited as a two-person, indie team. This context often influences their perception of the game's current state and potential.
- Comparison to Other Games (weight 0.12): The game is frequently compared to other titles, being seen as a spiritual successor to 'Stranded Deep' and having a 'Valheim but ocean-focused' vibe. Some even hoped it would be what 'Sea of Thieves' was meant to be.
- Mixed Initial Impressions (weight 0.11): While many are positive, some players found the game 'ordinary' or 'meh' initially. However, it's noted that negative reviews often come from players with minimal hours, suggesting the game's depth unfolds over time.
- Early Access Status (weight 0.11): The game's early access status is a recurring theme, with players understanding that it is still under active development and a work in progress. This sets expectations for its current state and future improvements.
- Minor UI/UX Issues (weight 0.08): Players have noted minor user interface and experience issues, such as unclear differences in item transfer shortcuts, non-dynamic keymap hints, and cursor info appearing too early.
- Desire for Controller Support (weight 0.05): Several players expressed a strong desire for controller support, indicating that its absence is a significant drawback for them and would improve their overall experience.
- Graphics and Visual Improvements (weight 0.04): Players hope for improved picture quality and larger waves, suggesting a desire for enhanced visual fidelity and environmental immersion.
- Niche Appeal to Pirate Fans (weight 0.04): The game strongly appeals to players who enjoy pirate-themed games and have felt a lack of quality titles in the sailing genre.
- Misconception as MMO (weight 0.03): One player described the game as an 'empty MMO,' which led to a developer auto-response, highlighting a potential misunderstanding of the game's genre or scope.
- External Content Sharing (weight 0.03): Some reviews include links to external YouTube content, such as walkthroughs and playlists, which, while not direct feedback, indicates community engagement and resource sharing.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.22): Players are satisfied with the game's overall quality, engaging gameplay loop, and relaxing atmosphere, particularly enjoying the crafting, building, and PVE elements. The continuous improvements, developer responsiveness, and lack of major bugs contribute significantly to this positive sentiment, offering good value for money.
- Disappointment (weight 0.13): Disappointment stems from the game's rudimentary state, numerous bugs, and perceived low production value. Players are particularly let down by unrealistic ship mechanics, lack of content variety, and basic combat, feeling the game is not worth its price in its current form.
- Frustration (weight 0.11): Frustration arises from various quality-of-life issues, unengaging mechanics, and poor optimization leading to low FPS and bugs. Specific pain points include repetitive early-game tasks, limited inventory, slow movement, and unclear progression, making the game feel tedious and difficult to enjoy.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.1): Players enjoy the game's solid base-building, crafting, and exploration mechanics, finding the overall experience fun and engaging. The pirate theme, co-op play, and the calming effect of the world contribute to a positive and entertaining gameplay experience.
- Hope (weight 0.09): Hope is driven by the anticipation of future development, updates, and improvements, with players believing the game has significant potential. Many look forward to fixes for current issues, optimization, and the addition of more content and features.
- Excitement (weight 0.08): Excitement is generated by the game's unique concept, overall quality, and continuous updates, leading to anticipation for its future evolution. Players are hooked by the progression, abundant content, and the potential for the game to become a 'hidden gem' or a major success.
- Appreciation (weight 0.07): Players appreciate the significant love and effort put into the game, especially by the small two-person development team. The developers' dedication, responsiveness to feedback, and active community engagement are highly valued, showcasing their achievement in delivering a polished experience.
- Optimism (weight 0.03): Optimism is present due to the game's promising future development and potential, despite minor areas needing improvement. Players believe the game will be fun and reach its full potential with continued progress and anticipated updates.
- Love (weight 0.02): Players express love for the game's overall experience, particularly highlighting the engaging crafting, base building, and exploration aspects. The game's ability to capture the essence of survival games and its building mechanics are key drivers of this strong positive emotion.
- Relaxation (weight 0.01): The game provides a relaxing experience due to its unhurried pace, allowing players to disconnect from daily stress. It is seen as a good option for unwinding without the pressure of overcoming extreme challenges.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion arises from shortcomings in the tutorial and inventory systems, as well as unclear progression and unlock mechanics. Players struggle with understanding how to find materials and trade, along with encountering phantom cannons and boat clipping issues.
- Interest (weight 0.01): Players find the game interesting due to its creativity, basic idea, and significant potential for future development. The core concept and possibilities for growth capture their attention.
- Gratitude (weight 0.01): Gratitude is expressed for the game's small file size and for the overall wonderful game experience provided by the studio. This indicates appreciation for practical aspects and the enjoyment derived from the game.
- Addiction (weight 0.01): Players experience addiction due to the engaging gameplay loop, particularly highlighting the foraging and brewing mechanics. The game's design makes it highly compelling and difficult to stop playing.
- Impressiveness (weight 0.01): Impressiveness is felt regarding the game's quality, fun factor, and lack of bugs, especially considering it was made by a small indie team of only two people. This highlights the exceptional achievement of the developers.
- Desire (weight 0.01): Players express a desire for specific improvements to game mechanics, including melee combat and character creation. There is also a wish for more visibility regarding unlockable recipes to enhance the gameplay experience.
- Boredom (weight 0.01): Boredom is caused by the early game progression and the overall gameplay experience, suggesting a lack of sustained engagement or variety in initial stages.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Players are surprised by the game's quality, especially given it was developed by a small team, and by how much it exceeded their initial expectations. This indicates a positive unexpected outcome regarding the game's performance.
- Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement is derived from the game's unrealistic sailing mechanics and a bizarre, 'acid-trip like' story. These elements, while potentially flaws, are perceived as humorous or entertaining by some players.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is caused by the game's perceived low quality and poor mechanics, leading some players to describe it as 'garbage'. This indicates strong negative feelings about the game's fundamental aspects.}