A wonderful world to sail through
Pros:
Great vibe, good music and story
Cons:
hate the restart forcing, no online play
The Bottom Line:
A great game to wittle the hours away with if you're into pirates!
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
There are not enough pirate games out there. The mystery and lure of the pirate's life has an allure that I find absolutely enthralling. To sail endless seas, the thrills of battle, the euphoric rush of gains or soul crushing crunch for a failure which entails your death. Either immediate or by hanging later.
Sid Meier's tries to capture all of these energies in their title Sid Meier's Pirates.
Taking the story from the eyes of a rich young youth who has his parents murdered by an infamous pirate, you vow revenge and command your own pirate fleet to seek him out and destroy him. Starting off with a tiny vessel that can barely hold off angry dolphin attacks you set off.
The first thing I noticed was the speaking, or more accurately, the gibberish voices used to portray the speaking of all nationalities and peoples. I suppose this would take care of having people speak actual languages for you, and it adds a lot of childish charm which had me smiling to be honest.
me and my friend had an inside joke with what the person says when your character challenges somebody to a duel to save some maiden in a bar. Sounds something like "CHOO VAH!" which had us laughing pretty hard. Ridiculous.
You become more infamous as you woo women through dances, interaction with nobles. Doing favors or making enemies by attacking and destroying ships corresponding to the 3 nationalities in effect. English, French, and Spain.
The only thing I didn't like about this game is that the way it forces you to retire. Arguably many would say that this adds the pressure of moving along and adventuring. The more idle you stay the less successful you are as a pirate. You can extend your longevity and lifespan by voodoo curses, elixirs and other fun stuff you find in tribes, but at some point or another you're going to get old, and have to retire.
When you do the game takes into calculations all you've done. Who've you swooned, who've you killed, enemies you made, allies you founded, everything and give you a small story as to what you do in the future, how you live your last dies and so forth.
There is no online play, which is a major bummer. Maybe in the next title.
