Print Article: Sid Meier's Pirates! Review



		Sid Meier's Pirates! Review December 07, 2004

Summary: Yargh! Avast me hearties, Sid Meier's raised the Jolly Roger yet again and set forth to Live the Life of a Pirate! The game hasn't changed much over the years, but boy are the improvements welcome, subtle and fitting. Check out Jakub's review for the full scoop.

Overview Page:: ( 1 / 6 )

Pirates casts the player in the role of a young man who's lost his family to the evil Marquis Montalban and his equally evil side-kick, Baron Raymondo. If you wish, however, you can completely ignore the storyline and simply go on pirating, trading and sacking towns. There are changes to the gameplay, but nothing overly dramatic. Firaxis merely brought the game up to date, rather than re-working the whole idea.

The action continues from a third-person isometric perspective, similar to Diablo. The game is similar in artistic style to WarCraft III or World of WarCraft, emphasizing simple yet attractive cartoon-style graphics. It's not cel-shaded, but does make use of pixel shaders for water effects, though little else.

Pirates forces the player to start on the easiest difficulty level in the easiest period the first time around, but after completing that game, you can switch to any difficulty and any time period. Sadly, the original 1560: The Silver Age setting has been removed.

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The game map is now fully 3D with other ships visible on the screen from a considerable distance, and there is also a full map of the Caribbean, and of course the treasure maps. On the world map, the player can sail via mouse controls or the keypad. Interestingly enough, all ships seem to have schedules and routes, and there appears to be at least rudimentary AI controlling the "needs" of the towns and cities under the AI's control. It will send of smugglers to trade with enemies it is at war with, invasion fleets to attack enemy towns, raiders to wreak havoc on enemy shipping and colonist ships from Jesuit settlements to bring up the population.

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Following the footsteps of the first Pirates game, this modern adaptation pits English, Spanish, Dutch and French nations against each other in the Caribbean. In addition, there are now pirate settlements spread around, just in case the player decides to go truly hardcore and declare war on all four nationalities. These pirate settlements are usually host to one of nine other famous pirates, all based on historical figures. It is possible - and indeed encouraged - to hunt these rival pirates down in order to improve your own standing on the Top 10 Pirates listing. Not to mention the fact that these swashbucklers are typically floating around with holds full of gold.

Page Deuce Page:: ( 2 / 6 )
Pirates has fewer cities than the original game, and they're not as rich as they used to be, but they're harder to conquer. The concept of a naval invasion has been abandoned - any time you want to attack a town, it will be by land. Though the AI is lacking (no better than Advance Wars, without the benefits of scripting), it usually has superior numbers and this forces the player to game the game - taking every advantage of terrain and bad AI habits. Combat is done in turn-based "I go, you go" mode. The enemy has a variety of units at his disposal, like native Archers, native Scouts, infantry, guardsmen and cavalry. Natives get to move through jungle tiles at no extra cost, cavalry have extra move points and are devastating on the open field. Meanwhile, the player has only three kinds of infantry to fight with - Buccaneers who have muskets to fire at range but are poor in close combat, Pirates who are decent in close combat, and one unit of Officers who are deadly in a melee. The game automatically scales the number and sizes of individual brigades to make battles manageable - a nice touch.

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In naval combat, the AI can be similarly abused - it doesn't improve as the difficulty level goes up, its ships only get stronger relative to the players - but again, the challenge is in gaming the game. Even at the easiest difficulty level, we found ourselves setting challenges to make things more interesting - trying to go an entire career without being hit in a duel, for example. It's quite possible, especially at the easiest difficulty level, where the game will even tell you what key to hit in order to avoid being struck.

Duelling decides the fate of all combat once a ship is boarded, or if the defenders decide to fight from within a fort, rather than sallying forth. The player uses the 7, 4, and 1 keys on the keypad to make high, mid-height and low strikes at his opponent. 8, 5, and 2 defend against high, mid and low, while the #6 button taunts your foe. The fighting sequences may seem there only for cosmetic effect early on, but on higher difficulty levels they become very interesting and challenging.

Dancing, unfortunately, is not so much fun. Despite my success and duelling, dancing was an endless stream of frustrations except at the lowest difficulties. Since it's impossible to get married without having successful dances, at higher difficulty levels my character always ended up being an old bachelor. Irritatingly enough, even if you do go through the chore, your wife still continues insisting on dances, as do the daughters of other governors, despite the heavy ball and chain... I mean gold band on your finger.

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Your dance partner will give directions about which key to press. Unfortunately there is so little time between the direction and the start of the movement that it's very difficult to pull off the proper dance move. To make matters even more frustrating, the indicator movements are very similar to each other. Does she want you to press 4 or 1? 6 or 3? Who knows - but it's frustrating.

Shipping Page:: ( 3 / 6 )

Your Pirate gets his goodies too, usually in two tiers. For example, you can get a leather vest for protection in fighting, and later upgrade to a metal breastplate. Similarly, your swords, fighting shirt, weather glass and spy glass can be replaced with superior hardware. All these have beneficial effects that become increasingly necessary as your pirate gets older and the world becomes tougher, and especially when the game is more difficult.

There are more kinds of ships than in the original Pirates, and they're also better modeled. Galleon-class ships are no longer abnormally fast even with the wind at their backs, as was true in earlier games. As always, the wind will be coming from the East and headed to the West, though at times it will veer a few degrees North or South, depending on the season.

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That's really all there is to Sid Meier's Pirates - sail along, take enemy ships (sinking or capturing, depending on whether or not you want the extra cargo room), attack the occasional enemy town if you're strong enough, while sailing around looking for pirate treasure landmarks and the evil Baron and Marquis. The world feels quite fleshed out, thanks to AI ships and their schedules, the missions to find lost family members and treasure, and your goals of nailing a "beautiful", rather than merely attractive or plain governor's daughter.

You gain rank in various nations depending on the services you provide. Capturing enemy towns is huge, but improving your own by escorting troops or immigrants, or by defeating enemy invasion fleets (including indian war canoes) is also good for some serious brownie points. Your wife/fiancee/love, like the serving wench at the tavern, can give you hints about where notable enemy ships are going and even give the exact spot on the map about where they are.

As a smart pirate, you'll soon learn strategies, like that enemy smugglers are always rich and easy - if fast - targets, and that as tempting as a Dutch frigate with a military payroll onboard is, it's probably best not to tangle with it at Rogue difficulty with only 40 pirates and 8 guns aboard your pitiful sloop. The named AI pirates will even go after you if you're in their area, if you've dug up their treasure!

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Not all is perfect with Pirates - there are a few bugs (like freezing the mouse cursor), and even as a fun, "light" game, it could stand to be a bit deeper. And yet, there's no denying that it's one of the most entertaining titles of the year, good for a 30-minute session or an 8-hour marathon.

Ballistics Report Page:: ( 4 / 6 )

Pros

Gameplay
Simple, yet diverse and addictive. Retains all the good of the original, drops the bad stuff.

Intuitive
One of the easiest games in the world to pick up, one of the hardest to put down.

Many game modes
It's not just sailing around and shooting things, it's about trading, swordfighting, and yes, even dancing.

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Cons

Not as deep as it could be
The game is simpler than it needs to be. It could stand to have a bit more complexity and depth, while retaining ease-of-use.

Annoying bugs
Though few, they're consistent. Disappearing pirate treasure maps and frozen mouse cursors are relatively frequent in our sessions.

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Final Verdict Page:: ( 5 / 6 )

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