Sid Meier's Pirates!
Added 5/24/07
From a classic 1980's game by MicroProse comes a game for a new generation. Sid Meier's Pirates! is the third incarnation of Pirates! games by Sid Meier's companies. He was a co-founder of MicroProse and founder of Firaxis Games. So, there you go.
The graphics look incredible, and the sounds and music is excellent. But what blows me away is the gameplay. It's simple but effective. And, considering that the game has pretty much been revamped for the 21st century, that's a lot to say.
The basic plot is, at the age of eight, you barely escaped being pressed in bondage by the evil Marquis de la Montelban (A Spanish bloke, apparently.). Leaving the Old World behind, you go to a local tavern to find a ship willing to take you to the Americas. After signing in your name and joining a ship, the cruel captain pushes the crew too far near the destination, and the crew mutinies. Naming you captain, you set sail, chasing a new life. (Okay, this was me paraphrasing, but that's pretty much it in a nutshell.)
The ultimate goal in this game is to defeat the Marquis Montelban while rescuing your entire family. The nice thing about it is, you don't have to. You can focus on going after gold if you want. You can go after promotions and pirates. You can even be a romantic hero (Yes, you woo the ladies in this one, too.) if you so desire. But the ONLY way to get a high fame score, which is pretty much the only thing that counts, is to do all of the above. Max score is 126. Easy, right? Well... Not quite. It'll take a LONG time, 20+ game years, to become that famous.
So, why play that long? Well, part of the fun is, it gets slightly harder as time goes on. As your character (Who looks like Orlando Bloom, oddly enough.) ages, he gets slower in combat and on the dance floor. On top of that, most would-be pirates want to have a young captian who won't be a possible liability, so reinforcements become harder and harder to get. The flip side? You compete against nine other pirates, each famous in their own right. If you wait long enough, you can attack their ships, "retire" them, and claim 10% of their total plunder. Add that you can grab their buried treasure, too, and you've got a good goal to aim for.
Now, I said that you can woo the ladies. There are a few steps. First, you have to actually get introduced to the lass by her father, the governor. Um, if you happen to be raiding that nation's ships, she ain't saying "Hi!" anytime soon. Then, you have to dance with her at that evening's ball. (Go figure...) Depending on how you do, the lady will either ditch you, or help you. The "help" depends on how well you did and how beautiful she is, according to the game. The more beautiful girls have a way with people, apparently. You could get anything from a criminal on the loose to an item to the location of a villian. Now, there are a few more steps to mention in brief: give jewelry, fight fiance (WHAT!?), dance (again), rescue from Spanish Colonel, and THEN, if you REALLY want to, you can marry the girl. That's pretty much it, actually. What's the fun in all of this? This happens to be a way to get as much as 322,000 gold! Hmm... Not bad!
What about the bulk of the game, sailing the Carribean and attacking ships, like any respectable pirate? Well, you're not a pirate PER SE. You are a PRIVATEER. Although, you can skip the Letter of Marque (Which, historically, was basically a license to pirating by a nation. Captain Kidd, for instance, got one from England to raid French ships. The end result? He attacked an English ship that was sailing under French colors. Oops.) and just go gung ho on any nation's enemies at any time. The variety of ships you'll find is pretty nice, and you can use ANY of them as a flagship. My flagship-of-choice? The Royal Sloop. Most pirates preferred a ship like the Royal Sloop, fast, agile, and small. Also robust enough to not sink in a single volley, like a Pinnace.
The TRUE bulk of the game is the fencing portion, in my mind. You go one-on-one against an enemy captain for control of the ship. If you win, you capture the ship, get any gold on board, and can take any goods you want from the ship as well. You lost? Then you get thrown in prison. It's a simple bout of "pick the dodge, then pick the attack" to be honest. A duck dodges a high slash, a jump dodges a low slash, and a parry blocks a stab. And a parry also lessens the blow of the slashes, but not enough so that that's the ultimate counter, just a helpful tidbit. The real "paper-rock-scissors" portion comes in choosing a sword. Do you know if your foe is using a Rapier? Then grab a Cutlass to block his attacks. Longsword? Anything goes, really. Cutlass? Snatch a Rapier and you can stab him before he strikes. Of course, you can win with any sword. If you're doing the hardest difficulty, grab that Cutlass and you'll be cut less. That's the tried-and-true approach, anyway.
Not all pirates got their fame from just rampaging on the seas. Some razed towns as well. Well, you can do that! Grab a rather large crew (180 is usually enough for small garrisons, but you might need to stock that Ship of the Line to the brim to take out a large garrison.) and set sail towards a rich town with a small guard force. Now, beach the ship and walk into town. If you get a menu, you can attack the town. This is like a throwback to "Master of Magic" to me. You take your units, position them on the battlefield (Which is littered with trees, rocks, and hills.) and then try to eliminate all enemy soldiers while keeping losses to a minimum. If you don't think you'll be able to win a brawl, you can send a unit to the city gates and win the battle that way. I've gotten ridiculous amounts of money by just storming cities. Heck, I got 11500 from Havana and 9000+ from Santiago in the same game once! So, there's that option.
As far as the cities themselves, you can talk with the shipwright, trade with a merchant, or visit the tavern to see what's going on. Most of your information will come from the tavern. It's the only way to buy treasure maps, increase your crew size, and find fat prizes at sea. You also divide the plunder, which is how your crew gets paid and you increase/decrease the difficulty level, which basically says "Alright, boys, we're done for now," in towns.
The problem with this game is, the bugs. First off, have you ever seen your ship get stuck in the middle of the Amazon? I have. I've also seen a Treasure Galleon go FLYING off to Europe, and ships sail under islands in pursuit of the governor I'm escorting. I've also had to visit a couple times to get full promotions from a governor, so I end up going up twice in ranking total, but I get them one at a time. Annoying, but at least I got them. Also, there's apparently a memory leak issue in the game, as I've noticed that the game slows down the longer you play it. It can also get a little choppy.
Overall, though, the enjoyment outweighs the disappointment. I highly recommend this game. It ain't a bad game at all, just maybe a bit high-end for some people. You need some pretty good specs to run this sucker.
GRAPHICS: 9.6/10
GAMEPLAY: 9.8/10
SOUND AND MUSIC: 8.6/10
ORIGINALITY: 8.6/10
REPLAYABILITY: 9.8/10
OVERALL: 46.4/50, 92.8%
VERDICT: A-