Customer Reviews

Pirates of the Burning Sea 30 Day Game Card

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Miers "Pirates". The handling and fighting of the ships is the same, but this game is more based about you and your playing style. If you like being an agressive play i suggest a Naval Officer for the best ship, or if you like to make money a merchant is for you, vice versa. All in all the game is decent, has nice story line, gameplay and graphics. The only thing i didn't like was handling my character at port, it was very scetchy "laggy" at times, but other than that this game was great.

Pirates of the Burning Sea is a Fun Game. But 25 dollars for a game card that costs 15 dollars a month for captains club accounts is over priced. Go buy on Ebay. they sell them at the price they should be at 9.99. Dont waste your money paying for a game card that is no longer buyable in stores.

I can only assume from the previous reviews that they were written in the long, long ago. Make no mistake, this is a premium MMO that you can now play free of charge. The ship combat is nothing short of brilliant, the RvR (or conquest) aspects allow your actions to really have an effect on gameplay. The game gives you what basically amounts to a sandbox version of the Caribbean that plays until one side conquers enough opposing ports to reach 300 pts, then the game resets the map and you begin anew. One you select a Nation (or Pirate) you are locked in to that choice until the map completes.
Next to the ship combat, the economy is the most robust feature of the game. It is almost completely player driven and can only be compared to EVE Online (although not QUITE as extensive.)
Recently, they implemented new changes that also allow societies to bid on port governorships and control infrastructure and tax rates. The game is now also completely free to play. One need only buy ONE of these game cards to get the benefits of a "Captain Club" account. (more economy slots, more ship slots, etc)
All in all, for 5.88 you'd be hard pressed to find a more original, innovative, and fun game to play.
My slight complaints are that the ground/boarding combat is lacking. It was added as an afterthought, and you can tell as it doesn't stand up to the greatness of ship to ship combat. Also, the game is a bit old so the avatar graphics are slightly dated. The community used to be comprised mostly of veteran players who, in some cases, were quite unfriendly and very "entitled". However with the implementation of F2P, most of these have moved on since they can't very well harass and bully new players effectively anymore.

This game has been out for 2 years; I played in it from beta up to Fall of 2009. In this time frame, a lot of changes happened. FSL opened up with high hopes and 8 servers. In the past 2 years, that shrank to 2. The ship combat system is very innovative, and that is the game's main strength. The emphasis these days is on PvP play, with the balance of power constantly shifting between British, French, Spanish, and Pirate realms. You can still have fun if you prefer PvE, but that is secondary, and it is difficult to make a difference in the Realm vs. Realm plot of the game if you are not a combat monster or part of an organized group. There are areas where incautious or new players can be forced into involuntary PvP play, which is part of what drove me away from the game. If you lose a ship in combat, you will be penalized with loss of gear, which was a major irritant for casual play because of the effort to rebuild. There can be a lot of trash talk, so go into it with a thick skin. I liked the game while I was playing, but I was mostly a PvE or economic player, and the gradual drift towards PvP eventually made me look for alternatives.

PotBS is a poorly implemented PvP/RvR MMO game that has great ship-to-ship combat but lacks in all other aspects. Game balance has been off since day one and harassment of beginning players has always been a major issue. Realm vs Realm play is presently falling below critical mass for each nation to even be able to field a complete fleet for port battles. Player ganking is so rampant that new players have almost no chance to ever join the end-game RvR ranks. Servers have been consolidated several times and its clear that this game is on its last legs. It is not a game to invest time or money in at this point.

Its too bad, since I think there is a niche for this kind of game (heavy on PvP) and with this genre. The ship-to-ship combat is truly a gem.

As for this specific product, I can only write this: "Really; $40+ for a 30-day game card? Are you serious?"

The concept of the game is great, with a very innovative ship combat system. The problem is that it is a realm versus realm game, that never tried to impose population limitations on any realm. The result of this is that there is a huge imbalance between the realms (nations), with most players going either pirate or British. In a RvR game with 4 nations, where ports can actually be captured and held for weeks by the enemy, this means huge amounts of un-fun. On three out of four remaining servers, Spain and France, the other two nations, are reduced to a handful of players, making RvR battles a joke.

Other problems with the game are a player economy that is disfunctional at best, a PVP system that makes PVP only viable at level 50 (and only barely then, unless you grind months to get competitive ships), repetitive missions and horrible avatar combat.