The concept is fine, but after the game initially hooks you the fatal flaws rear their ugly heads. Avoid at all costs.
Let me preface this review by explaining that I do indeed understand the concept of FTP MMORPGs. Of course the designers need to return a profit on their game, so if the game is free to play for some, there must needs be an Item Mall, etc. where players must pay to advance. Unfortunately, in the case of VCO, this area is abysmally imbalanced, to the point where if you want to have respectable skills, weapons, and items, you'll need to spend many many hours each day grinding just to keep up with the weakest of IM users.
The concept of Voyage Century is actually a great idea. It was originally set in a semi-realistic historical setting, filled with NPCs of actual historical figures; you could speak with Queen Elizabeth and Sir Francis Drake in England, or travel south to Lisbon and make discoveries for Vasco Da Gama. The variety of cities and locations is probably VCO's strongest feature. New players start off in Athens or Alexandria, and from there can venture into the depths of the Great Pyramid or the Labyrinth on Crete. Later you can travel anywhere from Seville and Stockholm in Europe, to the Congo and Mozambique in Africa, to even Bombay, Semarang, and Edo on the Asian map. The splendor of the many cities culminates at Beijing, which is undeniably stunning to behold.
Gameplay is very simple once you learn the basics of the game, as there is practically no skill involved in this MMO. The hardest part is the steep learning curve at the beginning of the game. After that, it's basically just point and click to attack, point and click to move, point and click to manufacture items, ad infinitum. The game moves along as a basic RPG, with all the usual skill upgrades, levelling point systems, and item and equipment attributes that come with it.
Originally, equipment was just as period-realistic as the locations were. You could choose to level up sword, axe, falchion, or gun, each with their own attributes and realistic weapons. The same could be said for the garb, which often appeared as 18th century military clothing and hats. More on this later.
One area in which VCO differs from other MMORPGs is its vast use of ships and the sea. The 3 types of vessels - military, trade, and adventure - is the driving force behind the game, and lets users choose which overall type of game they want to play. Fighters can level up in immense battleships and attack NPCs in various sea battlefields sprinkled across the world. Adventurers can explore the ocean for its many hidden discoveries and level up in extremely fast raider ships. Traders can buy goods from each city and carry them to other cities for a profit, and turn their boats into merchant frigates with a massive cargo hold. Usually players simply do all three, or even go rogue and become a pirate in Tortue. Unfortunately the pirate aspect of the game is not as emphasized as it should have been, to the point that it instead feels like an afterthought.
Note the multiple uses of the word "originally" in the previous paragraphs. This is because the game has been radically changed with each new patch that Snail releases. Not only does each update incorporate more ways for Item Mall use (and imbalance), but they each make the game more and more of a generic fantasy RPG. Tragically, what began as a period voyaging game has since turned into a World of Warcraft clone. This includes all the usual Flaming Bone Blades of Death, Fairy pets, Dolphin ship charms, Vampire and Matrix clothing charms, etc.
These changes, compounded with exponentially more IM imbalance, many NPC quests that never work (and probably never will), glitches and bug abuse that allows players to wrongfully lose hard-earned equipment, an insane amount of useless items floating around, and the like gives the overall image of VCO as one of developer incompetence and sheer sloth. Snail and IGG have sadly destroyed a game that was originally a wonderful breath of fresh air.
Avoid this game at all costs, lest you waste an inordinate amount of time and money on what has become a WoW wannabe. It would be better to just go play WoW.