Good game I like it.
User Rating: 8.5 | Sid Meier's Pirates! XBOX
Gameplay: in many ways the game is very close to the original - so close that parts of the manual and script are verbatim from the original game. The only thing missing is the "command a famous expedition" option from the original game. These six short, scripted missions were delightful. The game suffers from the omission. Well the plot is pretty much the game, Evil Colonel Mendoza goes around the Caribbean and kidnaps all the governors' daughters that you court. He keeps the daughters in his forecastle, which looks surprisingly like the abandoned cabins where evil Baron Raymondo has hidden away your sister, uncle, aunt and grandfather. At one point I had twenty Colonel Mendozas sailing the seas. I found four of them sailing in formation north of Santiago. As in the original game, you can start out on a French, Spanish, English, or Dutch vessel. Nationality, historical age, and difficulty choice determine your starting ship for the game. So then you go around the Caribean doing quests, courting goventers daughters, Attacking towns, trade with towns and find kidnapped goveners daughters. The controls are quite easy to manage just the four arrow on your keyboard and thats about it to move around. When you also get to do some fenceing with other captains. Fencing is different. The original game used the buttons of the contol to deal the nine side-view fencing moves: high, mid-level and low slash, thrust and defense. The new fencing game uses seven keys for thrust and parry, chop and jump, slash and duck, and taunt. Number pad controls for all games was best - while mouse control worked on menus in the mini games, the mouse was a liability. Graphics: The graphics are quite good in this game, they are colorful and vibrant and everything moves quite smoothly and nicely.. They are all in 3-D but the over view of the map is in 2-D. Sound: The soundtrack is quite good to listen to and it fits the game well. Also the sounds of the ships on the water, gun fire and sword clashes all sound good and sound like they should sound. To bad there is no voice acting in this game which I would of liked to hear/see.
Value: This game has ok replay value. Once you have gone though the game once then you have pretty much done every thing. It can be pretty repetative in the fighting and visiting the taverns that mostly look the same. I would of liked to see a little more veriaty with the fighting, boats and tavers and towns your visit. Don't get me wrong this is a good game but it just get a little repetative at times. I give this game 8.5 out of 10.
