ic-games Review - Sid Meier's Pirates! - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

ic-games Review - Sid Meier's Pirates! - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii ic-games Review - Home - Review, Preview and Interview for PC, Xbox,Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

Sid Meier's Pirates!

Information
Reviewer: Andrew St.Denis
Developer: Firaxis
Publisher: 2K Games
Reviewed: Xbox
Genre: Action Adventure
UK Release: 22nd Jul 2005
Article Date: 25th Jul 2005
Difficulty: Medium
Retail Price: 29.99
Price Comparison:
0

Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 85%

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Pros

remake of a classic

Updated without destroying the gameplay

Cons

No voice acting

The dancing section

Sluggish menus

Screenshots

55 of 56

1987 was the year, Microprose were the publishers and Sid Meier was the person behind it all. For those that remember the original Pirates with the fondness that I do there may be some trepidation about this remake, since remakes in any medium are rarely upto the standard of the original. 2K Games and Firaxis (Civilization 3) are behind the ‘new and improved’ title, but Sid Meier is still the driving force, and that can’t be a bad thing.

The storyline has changed slightly, but the aim remains the same, your family has been forced into slavery after defaulting on a debt, you however manage to escape and eventually get yourself onto a ship bound for the ‘Spanish Main’. So you find yourself as a pirate captain in the 17th century Caribbean. You must find your family, amass your wealth and notoriety and maybe find yourself a wife amongst the daughters of the governors of the numerous towns.

Your entire career as a dashing pirate revolves around the search for your family, as one by one you track down people who have clues about the whereabouts of individual members of your family. To find your family you have to engage in acts of piracy or privateering. There are also riches to be had, through taking enemy shipping, ransacking towns and uncovering pirate treasure.

You make your way about the Caribbean sailing in various ships, depending on what you have taken from the original owners. Once you start taking the ships you can swap which is the flagship of your little group. You start as with the original title, with a Sloop, a small agile little ship with four cannon. But from that point on this new version of Pirates moves away from the original, under full sails, in fact. For starters every ship in your flotilla is shown on screen, including visual cues as to the damage taken by each ship.

Battles on the high seas are of course the main staple of pirate life, and now its even easier to plan, you can see the ships on screen, at least, those that are in view of your ship. You only get to lead one ship into battle, but you do get chance to change ship before the battle starts. There are three types of shot for your cannon, unlike other titles though only the normal ‘Round Shot’ are automatic on your ship. The Chain Shot and Grape Shot are additions to the ships in the game. Unless there are upgrades made to your ship (of which there are several) to enable the special shot you will be limited to what you can do.

To capture a ship you will either have to make the other captain strike his colours (surrendering) or it’s ‘away boarders’ time. This takes you to another roll over from the original Pirates title, the sword fight. You get to choose the sword you use, then it’s fight time, using the keyboard to manoeuvre, three attack moves, three defensive moves and a taunt against your adversary are at your fingertips. Beating your opponent will capture the ship and depending on how long you are fighting you will lose crewmen in the battle between the two crews. Other times you will find sword fights cropping up are when you meet a nemesis on a ship you captured (whether it surrenders or not) or in town, where you could be fighting guards, wanted criminals or the angry lover of the governors daughter.

One other part of the original title that needed an overhaul was the battles to capture or ransack a town, Now the battles are fought more as a turn based battle, moving your troops comprising of ranged, armed with muskets and cutlass wielding melee troops and the officers. The battles here are a little break from the real time main game, and the AI does make a fight of it.

Updates to your ship are a new addition to Pirates, there are the shot updates as previously mentioned, there are also updates like cotton sails, or fine-grain powder. These will make your ships faster or turn better or fire the cannons further. These additions can be picked up from various towns for a price. There are also specialist crew members, such as doctors or navigator who can be… persuaded, to join up with you, these people will increase various abilities for your crew or the ship (such as a navigator will increase the speed of your ship)

Once you start making a name for yourself you will start attracting the attentions of the daughters of the various governors. One added portion to this game is when you meet the daughter (if you are of sufficient rank) she may invite you to the ball, if you do well here you advance in romance. The invitations can be hard to come by, it can depend on your rank, items you happen to have purchased (from shady men in taverns as a rule). Depending on how pretty she is, makes a difference on how coy she is, and what kind of help she is to you. She can help by passing information on to you or by bestowing gifts, to make your sailing or fighting abilities. Better swords or telescopes or such items can be obtained in this way.

Graphics aren’t groundbreaking, but things look great. There are different graphics for the different ships, then comes the battle or fight sequences. Sea battles look good, with the ships and sails reacting to the wind and direction, the cannon shot looks tame, except for the chain shot, which looks pretty smart. The dance section looks kind of strange, but then I don’t know what the dancing looked like way back then.

Sound effects are pretty good; voices are garbled (intentionally) just sounding like they could be real, but the effects are much better, wind noises and the noises from the ship and rigging sound good, while cannon effects work well. Fight sequences give battle sounds along with taunts as well as the surrounding battle sounds. In-game music isn’t bad, some might find it annoying, but I’ve heard a lot worse, there are also sea shanties that can, on occasions be heard from your crew on the high seas.

The only real downside to Pirates is the voice acting or lack there of, maybe things could have been made to sound more authentic for the different nations. Also the dancing section could be better (or non-existent). For the first few times it’s a novelty, after that it’s a chore to gain new toys or some valuable information. But overall just those little niggles can’t alter what is a real good remake of an excellent game.

Over-all if you can remember the original Pirates game from the 80’s then you will love what Firaxis have done to the game, bringing the latest graphics without destroying what made the title a great game to start with. For those people that missed out first time around then give Pirates a try, you will find a game that will really grab your imagination, probably hitting it with a black-jack and dragging it back to the ship where it will wake with a headache and no land in view. Port Royale was the closest that anyone has come to the original Pirates, until now. All hail Sid Meier, the master of the computer game.

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