The Pirate Queenwhich we tell you about in this review, is a virtual reality game in which we play the role of Cheng Shih, the wife of the pirate Cheng Yi. After her husband’s death, Shih must regain command of his fleet.
This game supports both PCVR (via Steam) that Meta Quest (via the Meta Store). We played it with a Meta Quest 3 e we didn’t have any problemsalthough only Meta Quest 2 is indicated on the Singer Studio website (the development studio).
The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend review
The story proposed by the game is inspired by the true story of Shih Ching, the widow of Cheng Yi, commander of a pirate fleet that terrorized the China Sea in the early 19th century. With her husband’s death, she began a power struggle which ended Shih took command of the fleetwhich had between 1500 and 1800 ships with 80,000 sailors.
The Pirate Queen takes place during the crucial night when Shih (played by us) takes command. What we need to do is penetrate our rival’s ship and come to confront him to get our husband’s inheritance.
The game mechanics
From a mechanical point of view, the game takes place in first person and is a complex and very well structured puzzle game. Each level, in fact, is fundamentally an escape room independent. To pass a level, we will have to solve puzzles using objects inside the room to open the exit door.
The Pirate Queen consists of thirteen levels, at the end of which we will meet our antagonist. But we don’t intend to give you any spoilers about this.
Like all puzzle games, replayability is, objectively, a little low. However, there are gods collectibles hidden in each level which will tickle fans of the genre.
Special mention, at least in our opinion, for the quality of implementation. The controls are quite precise and the movement mode it is such that we avoid motion sickness in any way. We did some rather demanding sessions without experiencing the slightest nausea. However, we suggest that if you have Meta Quest 3, you play it using controllers and not gestures.
History at the center of everything
The Pirate Queen can be played in “escape room“, therefore focusing on the puzzles, or in story mode for those who are more attracted by an interactive experience.
We must say that the storytelling part impressed us very positively. It is well inserted into the flow of the game and is told in a wonderful way by voiceover by Lucy Liu. Furthermore, A Forgotten Legend promises to be lonely the first chapter of a much longer saga which, according to what we read on the developer’s website, will also extend to comics, films and TV series. The fact that the game was produced by Lucy Liu (actress) and Eloise Singer (film director) gives us hope that it will be the start of something new and interesting.
One point we debated a lot in the editorial team was the lack of regionalization in Italian. This makes following the story a little more complex, but many of us have argued that Liu’s interpretive ability makes it worth it to play in English. However, we do not rule out one future software update that includes subtitles in our language.
The review in summary
The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend è a puzzle game for VR which is inspired by historical facts, with an absolutely outstanding story and implementation.
If you are a fan of the genre and have a VR headset, It’s really worth considering purchasing on Steam or the Meta store. Even at full price, 17 euros, we would like to recommend it to youeven in the face of somewhat limited replayability.
