Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yarrrrrr! It's the greatest game on the high seas!, 9 Sep 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I decided to buy this game based on a review on a website, and I am SO glad I did!
From the moment you hear the salt-air tinged intro music, to the day you retire to some sunny colony, it's fun all the way.
Some games expect you to earn your fun, forcing you to sit through hours of tedium until you get to do something that makes you grin, but Pirates is NOT one of those games; within minutes you're terrorising towns, boarding barque's, digging for buried treasure and dancing with governor's daughters.
The only limitations are time and the goals you set yourself. Do you want to be the most notorious pirate? The richest? The discoverer of lost Inca cities? A landowner? The choices are almost endless!
Sure, if high end graphics excite you then Pirates isn't your thing; but the graphics are ideal for this type of game, allowing you to manage your fleet of cut-throats and get totally immersed in a 17th century world of high adventure.
I heartily recommend it for anyone who likes action, strategy, trading and adventure games - there's something for everyone, all it lacks is an online mode to make it even more perfect than it already is!
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30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Oh...pirates..., 9 Jul 2008
Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
In the interests of Science I decided to see how long it would take me, on the highest difficulty setting to go from the starting ship, to one of the most powerful base ship - the type used by the famous pirates. 8:49 minutes. Well, that was easy, now just to upgrade it a bit and away I go. But I can't, because the nearest shipward which sells the upgrade I want is to the North-East, and the perpetual westerly winds make sailing in that direction a time consuming and mind numbing chore. Well at least I can pick up some more crew members at a more convenient dock...oh wait, no I can't, because at this difficulty level my crew get so frustrated if they spend more than a day without landing or taking another ship that half of them run away as soon as I drop anchor. Welcome to Sid Meier's Pirates!
Whilst the game pertains to being freeform, it's a bit of an illusion really, you can do pretty much what you want (and there IS a lot to do) But there is a subtle time limit in place. As you play, your crew gets more and more disgruntled, you can keep them amused by landing regularly, doing impressive stuff and capturing other ships or ports, but eventually they'll start leaving in droves that make it practically impossible to maintain a full crew. When this happens, you're best option is to divide the plunder up, and take some time off. This returns the crew to their happiest, but ages you. As you get older, your health gets worse and worse until you finally have to retire from pirating. Whilst this mechanic is good in theory, what it actually means that at high difficulty levels, this occurs all too often, severely limiting what you can acchieve, and at low difficulty levels there simply isn't enough of a challenge.
The main focus of the gameplay is the ship combat, which involves your ship, and however many ships that were sailing in the enemy convoy (normally just 1) sailing around, firing of various types of shot at each other. Generally speaking, it's fun, if a little frustrating that no matter how many ships/crew YOU have in your convoy, you can never use more that your flagship and it's crew. The main problem for me was that I've played Sea Dogs and Pirates of the Caribbean, and whilst both were overall poor and broken games, the ship to ship combat in them was brilliant, and Pirates!' just isn't as interesting. Of course, it often doesn't matter, as by far the best way to win a battle is to charge straight into the enemy ship to initiate boarding. As long as you can beat the captian in the (relitively simple) dueling game before your crew are all dead you win! Even if you're still outnumbered 4 to 1.
Now, the wind. Whilst I understand that technically, yes, the caribbean isles DO have prevailing westerly winds, it is simply frustrating as a game design. Trying to sail east is an infernally dull and tiresome business, to do so effectively you need to tack across the wind, but this just equates to minutes of alternating between the left and right key, watching your ship (God help you if you have one of the slower trade ships) inch towards port. It's even worse in the battles, where if you approach from the west, you have to suffer volley after volley before you can get close enough to properly maneuver, and sometimes the wind is so strong it will even swing you round so you sail in the wrong direction...great.
Now don't get me wrong, there is fun to be had in this game, there are numerous sections to it: swordfighting, ship combat, sneaking into towns, capturing towns, searching for treasure, dancing and so on. But each is really just a minigame, and whilst they gel together quite well, there's not really any single part deep enough to actually impress me. There are nice touches, but in the end it never really felt like a proper game, oh there's a story and everything, but all it amounts to is chasing down the same damn pirate again and again, until he finally relinquishes all the information that you were too dense to get off him the last 3 times.
The Good:
Graphics are charming, many different elements to the game, lots to do, the treasure map system is actually pretty awesome.
The Bad:
Rather shallow, Only really fun on the easier difficulty settings, Oversimplified far too often.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable open-ended adventure from a gaming legend, 1 Jul 2008
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
Sid Meier is a man who understands what makes a good game. A look at his list of credits will reveal many games that have now been labelled as classics - Civilization, Colonization, Gettysburg, Alpha Centauri, Railroad Tycoon and, of course, Pirates!
The joy of Pirates is that it is a really simple gaming concept executed well. There gameplay is unpretentious, the graphics are attractive and the storyline is there for those who want it and can be ignored by those who do not. There are multiple measures for you to assess your success - whether it is the number of family members found, the amount of wealth accumulated or simply enemy pirates or ships defeated or scuttled.
The mechanics of the gameplay are well-designed; duels are fast and exciting (though perhaps a little easy), sea battles require brains as well as out-gunning your opponent whilst storming a town requires careful positioning and an understanding of your military units. One aspect of the game I like is that people can play it completely differently. Some like to trade or plunder ships whereas I have always been a "sack a town and hand it over to my chosen nation" sort of pirate.
There are however some weaker elements that do not quite work. For instance, I found the governor's daughter dance sequences a tedious exercise in sequenced button pressing. Another gripe is that progress against the wind can feel painfully slow and frustrating. Eventually your character can upgrade his ship to assist him in sailing against the wind but there are frequently occasions where you find your ship slowing to a crawl (or even a halt).
Overall Pirates is a highly satisfying gaming experience. It is a game that you will find yourself returning to from time to time and that still looks great and plays well. I highly recommend it.
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