Caltrops - Gamerasutra - Re: new Pirates game. Initial impressions

Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra

by Ray of Light 01/09/2005, 3:04pm PST

After promotion, the next stage of wooing is to escort a governor's daughter to the grand ball. She gestures, you click (hard!) or type (less hard!) the corresponding movement. The controls also light up (like in swordplay) if you're still in Apprentice mode (FABIO take note: that you thought this happens all the time means you're still in apprentice mode. The game just isn't very hard; live a little).

Swordfighting is almost exactly the same as before, but without the "move backward" defense of the original. The enemy telegraphs his attack, like before, and anyone who's played a round of Mortal Kombat will beat him easily. Various artifacts (fancy blades, a fancy shirt) will make you fast enough that defense becomes unneccessary.

Making other ships visible while sailing, with a little description of what each one is, is the best new thing. The worst new thing is the "sneak into town" minigame, which is basically Pac-Man at 1/16 speed in off-axis overhead perspective; if you have any force at all you may as well just sack the town instead. Land combat is turn-based, not real-time; it's sort of like Archon and pretty fun.

For the most part, the strengths (naval combat) and weaknesses (lack of scale; slow and boring sea travel) of the original are intact. If you ignore the graphics, it still feels a lot like a Commodore 64 game, and it's hard to imagine it being made or sold in 2005 without a built-in historical fanbase.

I, of course, pirated this game, as I consider it to be a patch to make my legally-owned Microprose original (copyright 1987) run on Windows XP.

Ray!