A generous waste of time
- June 3rd, 2005, 5:46 AM
- Posted in gaming . reviews
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Sid Meier’s Pirates
Swashbuckletastic!
So I’m browsing through Best Buy, wondering if there’s anything new to get, and suddenly I turn a corner and walked right into a mysterious zone with noone else around, and everything freshly surrounded by an aura of wonder. Amidst all of this was one shining box, colored brightly and artistically displaying images of swords, parrots and eye-patch’ed scurvy bastards.
So mystified was I that I nearly fell to my knees. Instead though, I just bought it. I’ve put a bunch of time into already, and I love it. Very rich gameplay, lots of boats and men fighting, swords crossing and ladies dancing. Not necessarily in that order. The setting is the old world caribbean and gulf of mexico. Goods can be bought and sold in ports for profit, trade routes pillaged, indian raids averted (or arranged), gold acquired and spent, ships to loot and escort, ladies wooed and danced with, buried treasure to unearth, lost relatives to discover, and awards and rankings to be acquired and ignored.
A must own.
My rating: stars
[xrr rating=8.5/10]
is it better than Ancient Art of War at Sea?
Hey Mike,
Yes, definitely. Most of the ‘richness’ of the game is actually outside of the ship-to-ship battles. Tracking down pirates and other ne’erdowells. Finding lost sisters, uncles, etc. Locating other pirate’s treasures, romancing Mayor’s daughters, and so on. Yes, you have to dance in the game. Dancing with daughters is key to getting items in the game.
The ship-to-ship battles are similar as in AAoWaS, although maybe a step further in realism. You have to be very aware of the wind and how to use it to position yourself right. If you manage to get broadside to another ship, then you crawl over onto their deck and fight hand to hand, swinging swords with their captain while your crew fights alongside. Wicked fun. Assuming you win, you then get to plunder their hold for treasure and goods to sell back at port.