"Brothers of the Four Seas: Hometown" IGN Preview: Story priority, the only upgraded weapon is the knife

2025-07-16 23:49:43|Myriagame |source：minecraft skins

After playing "Brothers of the Seas: Hometown" for three hours, IGN released an exclusive 16-minute preview video (segmented from the PC version), and many shots show close-fitting sword battles.

In addition, IGN First also released an exclusive preview of "Four Seas Brothers: Hometown". IGN confirmed that the gameplay of "Four Seas Brothers: Hometown" has returned to the origin of the series, which is very similar to "Four Seas Brothers 1 and 2", and is a story-first, non-open world action adventure game.The main weapon that players can upgrade is not a gun, but a knife.This game fully supports stealth gameplay, and what is even more gratifying is that the starting lineup is only $50.

IGN Exclusive Preview:

About three hours before I sat down to try out "The Brothers of the Seas: Hometown", Hangar 13's president Nick Baynes repeatedly mentioned that their team really hopes that players can fully experience the prequel story of "The Brothers of the Seas: Hometown".With this goal, "Brothers of the Seas: Hometown" not only rewinds the past in the timeline—set in Sicily in the early 1900s—and also returns to tradition in game design.

Although "The Four Seas 3" is a very good work, it uses a completely open world design.The development team later seemed to feel the same as the players, thinking that this design was not suitable for the "Four Seas Brothers" series.After all, the works of the previous two generations were linear games with plot as the core. Although the background was a delicate and magnificent open world, these worlds were more to set off the beautiful stage of the main task, rather than letting you be tied by trivial tasks and side activities inside.In fact, Baynes also mentioned that the positive feedback from "Brothers of the Seas: Ultimate Edition" in 2020 provided inspiration and direction for the development of this work "Brothers of the Seas: Hometown".

I am very happy to tell you that after experiencing Chapters 3, 4 and 5 of "Hometown", the development team has indeed successfully brought "Brothers of the Seas" back to its gameplay.This game, like "The Four Seas 1" and "The Four Seas 2", is an action-adventure game with a plot priority rather than an open world..Interestingly, your main upgradeable weapons are not guns—although they do exist—but your knife.The game fully supports stealth gameplay.What is more worth mentioning is that the game starts at only $50, or in my own terms: this is a "reverse Randy Pitchford pricing."

That familiar feeling

When I first picked up the handle – the story was set in the early 1900s.Young Enzo Favara has just escaped her hard-working career in the sulfur mine as a child. Now she has started working in the vineyard under the name of Sicily mob boss Don Torrisi, and has lived her own free life.Torrice is the Sicilian mafia boss who protects local people and property. Of course, his "protection" comes at a cost - monthly protection fees are essential.

I like the portrayal of Enzo's growth process in "Brothers of the Seas: Hometown": from a young man who is inexperienced in the world, gradually transforms into a formal member of the Toris family, becoming a "family person", and even decides to take any action at your own discretion, as long as it is for the "family interests."This transformation is particularly evident in Chapter 3: Enzo followed the Torissi family's "business" action for the first time, and went out to "collection" with the boss's right-hand man Luca and another full member Cesare.

Luca and Cesare are like angels and demons on your shoulders. Luca emphasizes being patient and using violence as a last resort; while Cesare is more like a typical example of "fire first, then ask questions".For example, our first collector was Marco, the olive farmer. He always paid the money on time, but this time it was late.Luca handed me an unloaded gun just to scare Marco to force him to pay, while Cesare said, "A extra pair of hands can always help them remember that they owe money."

By the way: I've seen more fruits in these three hours in "Brothers of the Seas: Hometown" than I've seen in any other game.Perhaps this year's TGA (Game Award) should have a "Fruit Display Award of the Year".

In the end, this time the accounts were collected without shooting, nor did they take action.I found the password for the safe nearby and took out the "protection fee" of Torrice from the safe in Marco.I really appreciate Hangar 13's portrayal of Enzo's joining the gangster process, and it doesn't make you a murderous madman from the moment you come up.

However, the second accounting target has slightly escalated.We rode through the Sicily countryside and came to Mr. Bangalino's farm.Workers here are on strike, leading by a man named Manuele.Luca said to them: "There is no strike here, Manuel. You and your friends have to go back to work. If this continues, it will be bad for the business."

By the way, I really like watching the countryside scenery while riding."Brothers of the Seas: Hometown" gave up the self-developed engine with the first three functions and switched to Unreal Engine 5.To be fair, the previous engine itself was also excellent, especially "The Four Seas 2", which was very stunning at that time.Unreal 5 continues the series' tradition in scene art: perfect blue sky, soft clouds, rolling green hills and farmland, creating the Sicilian atmosphere of "Hometown".I can't wait to see where the plot will take me to.Let's talk about Manuel.He drew his knife and formally brought me into the most important weapon system in "Brothers of the Seas: Hometown" - the dagger.You can unlock and obtain different daggers in the game. Each one has unique attributes. Not only does it look different, but you can also choose the weapon that suits you best according to your combat style.There are many actions in dagger battles: straight stab, horizontal slash, block, and dodge (just like the Batman: Arkham series, heavy attacks cannot be blocked, they can only dodge).

The last account in Chapter 3 really "is wrong".We went to find a farmer named Fichera to collect the bill, but he shouted that his water pump was stolen by the bandits, and the protection fee he had worked hard to pay failed to protect his property.

This time, even Luca, who has always advocated restraint, told Enzo: You can get real bullets, and you don’t have to mercy when facing these lawless robbers.The next task was to track these bandits all the way, pass through two bandit camps, and finally start a fierce battle with more than a dozen bandits on the hillside.The familiar third-person bunker shooting gameplay is available again. Not only will the old players of "The Four Seas" feel friendly, but anyone who has played third-person action games for nearly ten years can get started quickly.Hometown does not intend to overturn this type of gameplay template, but it is done solidly and fun enough.

However, the cutscenes after the battle were a bit "high" for me.Cesare cut off a bandit's finger, took his gold ring away as "extra reward", and threw the cut-off finger into the well.

Taboo Love

After completing the "Break Training" in Chapter 3, the next plot is a huge task, which revolves around Torisy's daughter Isabella.Enzo and Isabella are in love, but there is also a competitor in the story - Gennaro, the son of Baron Fontanella, who may be a bigger "Sicily gangster fish" than Torissi.

Ginaro wanted to show off his new car and pursue Isabella, so he arranged a picnic date in the nearby ruins.The mission starts with Enzo's "nanny" accompanying him and eventually turns into a kidnapping, a chase of your horse and car chase, a series of corpses, a betrayal partner who was assassinated, a satisfied Torrice boss, and an Isabella who fell in love with Enzo even more.

The plot begins very calmly, with Ginaro driving Cesare to the ruins in a car, and Isabella insists on riding a horse and walking side by side with Enzo.Yes, in "Brothers of the Seas: Hometown", you can choose and ride your own horse, each with a different personality and trait.According to the part I tried, horse selection will not have much impact on the actual gameplay, but as part of the narrative, it does make the whole experience more energetic.

On the way, we also stopped to take a landscape photo. The game is equipped with a camera function to capture beautiful scenery.Unfortunately, during the three hours I tried, I only had this opportunity to use the camera, but I hope to use it more frequently in the official version.

After that, you will meet with Cesare and Isabella in the ruins for a low-risk racing race—perhaps a small tribute to the infamous racing mission in Brothers 1.

But just as Cesare and Enzo were fiddling with Ginaro's new car and asking him to date Isabella, a group of bandits suddenly broke in and hijacked both of them with their guns.(I won't spoil the true identities of these bandits here.) In fact, their goal is mainly Ginaro, who will take Isabella away with him, which will make the situation... Well, you can imagine, this undoubtedly complicates the kidnapper's plan.

In this section, I used a shotgun and the impact was very refreshing.At this time, don't think about stunning the dagger or sneak attack - this is a gun battle, Enzo went on the whole process with the urge to pull the trigger.

After the chase battle mentioned earlier, I caught up with their carriage, killed many kidnappers, and successfully rescued Isabella. As a "reward", Enzo received a kiss from Isabella (shhh, don't tell Boss Toris!).However, Cesare sent Isabella back safely, and Enzo had to rescue Ginaro - otherwise, no matter who was left behind, Enzo could not escape the anger of his two fathers.

This passage really lets me release the "Sam Fisher" (the protagonist of "Split Cell").The environment is well designed, and the open area allows you to choose the sneak route freely and stay hidden.As long as there are stealth options in the game, I will most likely choose to take the sneak route, and "Four Seas Brothers: Hometown" is no exception.The development team told me that they do not expect most players to pass through the entire area without being discovered at all - after all, this area is large and there are many enemies.But I took this as a personal challenge.Although I persisted for a long time, I was finally discovered and I could only draw my gun and go hard.In the stealth gameplay of "Hometown", the rules of "Cell Division" are basically followed: squatting can reduce noise, you can throw coins or bottles to distract the enemy, or you can choose to quickly use a dagger to solve the opponent, or use QTE to knock the enemy out (if the key is not fast enough, the enemy will break free).There are also many empty boxes on the map to hide the body and avoid being discovered by other enemies.Although "Hometown" does not have any subversive innovation in stealth gameplay, it is quite solid in the part I experienced.

I especially like a detail in the game: Rosary can be upgraded, and the different effects on the hanging beads will affect the gameplay. For example, there is a way to reduce the sound of footsteps, which is especially useful when sneaking.

However, when I walked to the "last man" among the kidnappers - Messina, you have to discover his true identity and story when you play it yourself - Enzo launched a sword battle challenge to him.Messina also put down her gun and accepted the challenge.During the battle, I did find it difficult to get it right at the right time, but in the end I barely saved Enzo's health and won the sword battle.(By the way, I tried it out on average, I died a few times in three hours. There are many difficulties to choose from. You can adjust it if you want to be easier or more challenging.)

After returning to the vineyard, Torissi heard about Isabella's kidnapping and told Enzo: Messina, he is going to live.Uh...this...I...but, the boss finally said that I did a good job.The smile Isabella showed at Enzo, too.

Kidnapping in the room

The last chapter I tried was Chapter 5, which made me show my skills and stealth operations.This time the mission is to sneak into the home of the man who planned to kidnap Ginaro (and thus implicated Isabella) and take him back to meet the boss - in other words, "kidnapping kidnappers."

This task can almost be put directly into the "Cell Division" series: you can choose a variety of paths to climb up the hillside and dive into the mansion on the top of the mountain.I quietly solved the guards blocking the road, and finally sneaked into the mansion and successfully found the target.

However, I was not so lucky when I returned.As I walked out of the house with my target, the remaining guards found me and had to shoot and kill a bloody way.As for what happened after I brought this person back? You have to play with it yourself to know.

Hometown, new expectations

After experiencing "Brothers of the Seas: Hometown" for three hours, I had little worries.I played three chapters during the trial, but how many chapters are there in total? At present, it is unlikely that this story is just a simple six-hour process.Although I don't know what the total length of the game is, considering that the producers said at the beginning that they hope all players can reach the level, plus the $50 price, it is reasonable to speculate that this will not be a 40-hour or even 30-hour large-scale work.

However, it's totally OK for me.I am a working father. If "Brothers of the Seas: Hometown" can be fully experienced on one weekend or two weekends, I would be very happy.

More importantly, I can now say with confidence that no matter how long it ends up, I will definitely have a lot of fun in this game.Although the gameplay is all familiar with the system, the contents of stealth, shooting, sword battles, driving, etc. are all done solidly.For a "Brothers of the Seas", the most critical element - the plot - really made me devote myself to the whole process and I really want to know what will happen next.

It's really great to be able to return to "The Four Seas Brothers 1" and "The Four Seas Brothers 2".This kind of experience hasn't been around for a long time.

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