A relatively tiny outfit, TopWare Interactive’s growth in recent years has allowed it to develop games internally, as well as work with outside developers like Finland-based Octane Games. Collaborating closely with staff in the U.S., Octane continues to crank away at TopWare’s big release for 2012, the pirate adventure Raven’s Cry

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While recent films like Pirates of the Caribbean make pirates into endearing characters, Raven’s Cry looks to paint a bleaker, more historically accurate picture. Pirates were not good people; they were disgusting, filthy, and savage criminals whose system of morality revolved around what benefited them. In truth: they definitely weren’t the sort of people you’d turn into action figures, plush dolls or want walking around your theme park to take pictures with children.Even protagonist Christopher Raven isn’t the type of guy you’d introduce to your family. After seeing his parents slain by pirates when he was a child, Raven eventually falls into the dingy, violent life of a pirate himself. He is a bit different than most pirates, though, since he isn’t out for treasure or fame, but to kill the man behind his parents’ deaths.Like many other adventure games, choice plays into the yarn of Raven’s Cry, but it won’t be as simple as picking between black and white. Sometimes it’s a choice whether Raven is going to stab or shoot someone he’s trying to extract information from, or whether a man who’sobviously not a good person should be set free or set on fire. The point is that no matter what choice you make, Raven never becomes heroic. He’s a pirate living an abhorrent life alongside despicable human beings – he does what he feels he must in his quest for revenge.The environments in Raven’s Cry also set an appropriately dangerous tone. Strolling through a small pirate town, Raven meandered down dirty streets where a prostitute burst out of a saloon only to be dragged back in by her hair. As disconcerting as that was for me as a viewer, Raven didn’t even acknowledge it. Years of seeing chummy pirates dancing and singing at Disneyland have ingrained a much different idea of them from the reality. No one should mistake Raven’s Cry as an attempt to make a pirate simulation, but the team is trying to make it a more authentic pirate experience that gamer’s typically receive.TopWare wants authenticity to help set Raven’s Cry apart, but also hopes its combat and sailing will help in this regard as well. Being a pirate bastard doesn't exactly ingratiate you to many people, and Raven will get into numerous melee fights with other members of his ilk. He can cut them down with his sword, as well as use some undisclosed form of magic based around voodoo, or he can fight dirty and shoot his opponents with pistols. Like you might expect from a title trying to be somewhat authentic, Raven uses flintlock firearms, which, due to their long reload times, are treated as disposable weapons.No pirate worth a damn would sail the seas without engaging in ship-to-ship combat, and Raven’s Cry tries to handle this in a more realistic way as well. As much as films and other forms of popular culture have made us think pirates just blasted away at one another with cannons, this is apparently a farce. Sure, sometimes they sunk their enemies with cannon fire, but more often it was used as a means to soften up a foe before boarding – a mechanic that will be important in Raven’s Cry’s sea warfare.Raven’s Cry is still early in its development, but is currently expected to ship sometime before the end of 2012. However, being as small a publisher as TopWare, representatives have indicated that it’s entirely possible Raven’s Cry could slip to 2013 if a less competitive release window opens up.