It actually took me a while to start up Tortuga: Two Treasures, but when I finally did, I didn't let go for a long time.
The game takes place in the 18th Century Caribbean, and starts you off right in the middle of a naval combat situation. This is basically your typical tutorial to get acquainted with the controls: arrow keys to move, mouse clicks to fire. "I can do that", I thought, as I turned my ship around to try and sink those pesky English officers. And right away I was totally taken in by the landscape, the water effects, the crew moving around all over the deck and my efforts to place my ship side by side with the other one.
Your goal is to fire at the enemy ship and weaken its hull by using whatever weapons you have handy and your maneuvering abilities to position your ship properly to do the most damage possible. You hear cannons firing and tons of screaming while this happens. To control the speed of your ship, you learn to raise and lower your sails in turns: raise a few, raise some more and you're full speed ahead. Lower a few to slow down, lower them all to come to a stop. As for Hawk, combat on foot doesn't necessarily have to rely on swashbuckling alone. He can use pistols and a sort of Molotov cocktail (bottles to light on fire), and he learns new moves as he "levels up". There are also health-restoring potions you can use. A nice added touch to picking up gold dropped from enemies is the "cemetery" bonus. Kill a ton of people in the same spot and watch as their tombstones appear on the ground. Attract a few more to that same spot and get a gold bonus for your killing spree. I personally don't mind button-mashers, especially when there's a lot of action involved with tons of enemies at once, so you can imagine how pleased I was with the simplicity of the controls.
Tortuga balances both naval and on-foot combat well, but for those expecting something more complicated and immersive in terms of controls, you will grow tired of the easy clicking soon enough.
It's a shame that Tortuga: Two Treasures doesn't offer a bit more of exploration and side-quests. I would have loved to be able to break the barrels and crates that we find in towns, knock down some doors and ransack some houses, maybe kill some villagers in the process… you know, pirating it up a notch! Review text part of Grrlgamer.com. Full text and screenshots at http://www.grrlgamer.com/review.php?g=tortuga2treasures