Yaaaaaaaaaaaaar! Pirates!
I'm glad to say that I've always enjoyed the Sid Meier's pirate games. The commodore 64 version I played in the early 90's, was very 8 bit but had a lot of gameplay to carry it. The 2004 version of the game is still today a very playable and enjoyable adventure and hasn't aged all that much at all. No wonder it's sold on so many mobile devices. Indeed it seems to have spread onto any and all devices, operating systems, consoles and everything in between. I'm happy it has! I wish I'd seen and thought about it again sooner! It will be the game I keep playing to quench my pirate thirsty as I wait for another Pirate game to be released.
I'd seen the game pop up on steam the other day and was a little surprised. I had a look thinking it was an updated or remastered version but on seeing the details I realised it wasn't and that prompted me to have a look for my original game CD's. A few minutes later and I had the rare chance to use my PC's DVD drive again. It was a quick and painless 2 disc install.
I rooted out my old saved games and with another quick action had loaded up my old save!
It was easy to get back into the game again. A new to the game player may find a slight transition period simply for the fact that the game uses the num-pad for its control method/options. This makes sense as you play the game.
There are a lot of situations your character can find himself in.... Land navigation and battles, town sneaking, sea navigation, sea battles, character combat and dancing. While is may sound like a lot they all flow seamlessly.
Dancing may sound like an odd addition to that list, but if you are to gain the affections of any governors daughter you need to be able to follow the motions. Plus the rewards she might give as a gift are worth it.
The game is unsurprisingly all about gaining wealth, prestige and fame. Social ranking within the nations and among the other pirates is a balancing act to gain rank with all the nations as the game progresses. Nations are constantly bouncing between fighting each other and peaceful trade.
You can accumulate wealth primarily by raiding towns and ships not to mention gaining land from nation's bestowing more rank on you. Not that the land actually matters or that you can do anything with it but the more of everything the better for you .... your a pirate, of course more it better.
But even if you don't fire a shot and only want to trade items for gold you can. Not that there would be much fun in it. There is an economy in the game. Not everywhere sells things at the same price and some towns sell items cheap and demand other items and are willing to pay for it. It does add to the mix and can be a life saver to get that quick 300 gold to repair your ship and avoid attacking the Spanish because you want to play nice to get your next rank from their local governor.
It's simple, it's complex. It's style is all about fun. There are dozens of small touches of detail that make the game a joy to play. I particularly like the way your crew starts to 'sing' as you sail away from a winning pirate verses pirate battle.
There is a whole lot more I'm missing out on explaining but these images and a great video series down below will show the game a lot better than any words.
The stat's on my old save game seems to indicate I played it to a 'T'. Engage smug mode.
SplatterCatGaming's Let's Play Sid Meier's Pirates! - Episode 1 - Mr. Mildew, is the start of a great playthrough series, well worth watching:
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