Simple yet very addicting game.
As the game begins, you are asked questions on: what you want to name your pirate, what special skill your pirate has (I picked fencing, for instance.), and in what time period your career takes place. Then you are asked which of four nationalities you want to align yourself with: the English, the French, the Dutch or the Spanish. Each of these decisions greatly impacts the game and the difficulty level. For example, newer players will want to be aligned with the English, while more experienced players might want to choose the Spanish for more of a challenge.
Immediately after making these important decisions, the game thrusts you into the open sea, giving you your first flagship. The world is at your fingertips, and the game offers you a multitude of things to do with no indication of what to do first. While I enjoyed the freedom of the game, I wish it would have given me at least a hint in the first few minutes as to what to do. But more on that later.
The game takes place in the Caribbean. The area is dotted with many islands and on these islands are settlements belonging to the English, French, Dutch and Spanish. While few, there are also pirate controlled settlements and Indian villages as well. Visiting any one of the towns belonging to the four countries gives you a list of things to do such as going to the tavern to recruit more men, trading with the merchant, or upgrading your ship. Unfortunately, this is one of the aspects I did not like about the game. In my opinion, this is the age of 3-D. Unless playing a game in 2-D or less adds to the playability of the game, all games should strive for as much 3-D game play as they can. And, unfortunately, Pirates! does not give you a chance to do that. The game simply gives you a list of what you can do, unlike Grand Theft Auto, for example, which gives you a choice of what you want to do, and control over your character in going to those places. I believe the game would have been a lot more fun if the island settlements were done in a style similar to that of the towns in Grand Theft Auto.
Another feature of the game is attacking other ships. When out in the ocean, you come into contact with many other ships as well – some carrying the famous pirates of legend. If you meet up with a ship you want to attack, you simply press the “X” button, select the ship you wish to attack, and press the “A” button. The game then takes you to a screen with your ship and the one you are fighting, and a possible “escort” ship. Play includes selecting what type of cannonballs to attack with and how to defeat them: by killing all of the crewmen on board, sinking the ship, or fencing with the ship’s captain. The third option is, by far, the most fun. You control your character as he fences against the other captain for control of his ship. The player and the computer try to strike each other with their swords and, when this happens, the one who was hit moves back a step on the ship. The first one to his respective side of the ship is the one to lose. The pace of the battle depends on your crew’s morale/size compared to your enemy’s. The bigger the differences in your crew’s size versus the enemy captain’s, the faster/slower your character will be in battle. The best strategy is to try to whittle down the enemy captain’s crew before engaging in a fencing match with him. The “promotion” system plays into attacking other ships. Attacking your country’s enemy’s ships makes them very happy with you, prompting them to promote, while attacking their own ships causes you to lose favor with them (Attacking pirate and Indian ships is arbitrary; it gains you promotions with all four countries.). I thought this added a nice element of competition and complication.
One aspect of the game I didn’t enjoy was an aging system Pirates! incorporates. When your pirate reaches the age of 40, the game is over, no matter what happened during your career (There are a few ways to cheat this, but they can be difficult.). If you didn’t finish the story quests in the game, you have to try again in another career. This is unfortunate, as I do not think the game gives you sufficient time to beat the main story quests. This really detracted from the fun of the game. The aging system makes it harder to win fencing battles later in the game. As your pirate ages, he moves more slowly, just like any human, and can’t get in the “hits” he used to. This also makes it much harder to beat the game because much of it focuses on advancing through the ranks. The only way to do this is to defeat other ships you meet in the ocean. Unlike other ships who like to attack you with cannonballs and would rather not fence you, pirates go straight for your ship, giving you no time at all to sink their ship.
While Pirates! has its drawbacks, it’s a game I had a lot of fun playing. I recommend it to anyone who is up for a challenge and wants a game that is innovative and new. Pirates! can be picked up at any game store, such as Gamestop, or any retail store, such as Wal-Mart. The cost is $40.