The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend delivers an intriguing VR story adventure that lacks in execution. Read on for our full review:
The immersive nature of VR gives it a unique advantage over flat-screen games, and over the past decade we've seen developers deliver immersive stories. In between revisiting familiar worlds as in Half-life: Alyxnew adventures like Lonely echoor more experimental experiences, I've always enjoyed a story-oriented adventure. Looking at one of history's most infamous pirates, The Pirate Queen made me curious.
Taking creative liberties with the accepted history, which is what The Pirate Queen focuses on Cheng Shih (alias Zheng Yi Sao), a 19th century leader who commanded the Red Flag Fleet with 70,000 pirates in the South China Sea. Set in 1807, during an eventful evening, it follows an entertaining premise surrounding women's empowerment. After recently becoming a widow, an internal power struggle arises within the pirate alliance.
Without spoiling this 13-chapter story, I enjoyed the journey, but expected the high stakes to lead to a more dramatic conclusion; the ending doesn't feel entirely earned. Yet this two-hour story never overstays its welcome. Most chapters contain three hidden collectibles, likely designed to increase replayability, although I didn't feel obligated to find them all.
Refreshingly, The Pirate Queen does not involve combat and focuses on exploration. Cheng Shih's journey involves traveling between different ships, navigating traps such as flailing cargo, and avoiding bubbles used to catch intruders. Combined with environments full of interactive objects, decent physicality shows a VR-first approach, although limiting this to simple movements like turning a key makes it hard to get excited about. Several moments get a little trickier, like sneaking past guards while rowing a canoe, but it's never too much of a challenge.
I'd say this straightforward approach makes The Pirate Queen a good starting adventure for all VR newcomers. However, it only has minimal comfort options. I've detailed these below, but vignettes are not included, so anyone prone to motion sickness should use teleportation moves. I also wish you could adjust the slow rotation speed of the smooth camera.
The Pirate Queen offers two types of movement: stick-based artificial locomotion and teleportation. Snap rotation and smooth camera rotation are both available, but you cannot change the rotation speed or snap angle. Seated play is also supported with adjustable height settings. While you can't switch your dominant hand, this isn't a problem as button input is mirrored across both controllers. Haptic feedback can also be turned off.
While I can't speak for the Steam version, The Pirate Queen makes a decent visual presentation on Quest 3. Cheng Shih is represented via floating hands, and while this is relatively subtle overall, I appreciated the dirty fingernails. Piracy is not clean living in any sense of the word, and that feeling is reinforced by Lucy Liu's entertaining performance as the main character.
Several issues make this project feel unpolished, although a post-launch patch has improved this since my initial review. The depth has been corrected with some ambient settings, although I still encountered technical issues such as not being able to add incense to an offering or the screen going black when I placed herbs near me to “smell” them in chapter 4. There are still some errors where item placement will cut through environments or other items and that continues to hinder immersion.
The Pirate Queen Review – Final Thoughts
An entertaining debut title from Singer Studios, The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend offers an intriguing premise that kept my interest with a convincing performance from Lucy Liu. Unfortunately, that's frustrated by minimal comfort settings and whining, while the ending could have been stronger. But if you're looking for a short VR story adventure, The Pirate Queen is a good choice.
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Note: This review was originally published on March 7, 2024, when The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend first launched on Quest and SteamVR. We revisited the game in April to review updates and made minor changes to this review.