Customer Reviews

Sid Meier's Pirates!

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

There's a LOT of game in this box.

There are enough delightful aspects to make it worth a geezer gamer's time and enough light-hearted and simple action to be fun for any kid old enough to enjoy _Treasure Island_. For the hardcore I imagine it's just a romp.

Pirates! is a beautifully-rendered set of minigames stitched together as a story-construction kit packed with yer basic pirate tall-tale elements, plus an extra or two just for fun.

We got the swordfighting part, the ship-jacking part, the town-pillaging part, the pirate-treasure part (complete with fragmentary clues).

We got ripe chaos in the colonies, bad men, good women, and you.

Oh. Did I mention there's dancing?

The action is in sailing, sea battles, sword fights and dancing. The controls in all of them are simple enough that the games are almost instantly immersive, and the acting is never bad, sometimes outstanding, with a lot of rewarding attention to detail. I'll mention the tavern maid after she whacks a lout with a bottle and the exulting Spaniard captain.

The pace is fast enough that you start out busy trying to keep up, the controls simple enough that you can definitely learn how, and about the time you do learn, the depth and detail of the game starts seeping in around the edges.

The Caribbean political and economic situation is constantly changing. Everything about a colony except its existence depends on what comes in or out, by sea. The ships in the game are merchants and smugglers and immigrants and invasion fleets and raiders and garrison troops and couriers. And pirates, of course. You can, ahhh, interfere with this traffic, with consequences.

Another major story element available is getting yourself hooked in to the Caribbean-wide gossip networks of Governor's daughters, tavern maids and mysterious travelers. The latter two will chat with anyone, but the Governors' daughters are choosy about who they'll talk to. Who wants to talk to a pirate that lacks charm? Dance with the ladies, Cap'n.

Dancing, like swordfighting, has a definite rhythm and depends on paying very close attention to your partner. You get better -- there's a basic common repertoire of simple four-step sequences that you soon learn to recognize -- but the variations as you climb the social ladder (did I mention that aspect of the game?) get increasingly complex and the timing and cues subtler and more varied. Swordfighting is child's play compared to the dances women invent.

I've only mentioned some major and minor parts -- sea battles? assaulting cities? (that one's not an action game)? marriage? climbing the social ladder? -- and there are lots of details I won't mention at all. I'll summarize them all this way: they fit.

There's nothing like it. If the minigames themselves were deeper, I suspect you could completely lose yourself in its world. As it stands, it's just a gloriously good game.

I played this on a machine with a (low-end) Radeon X200, a gig of RAM and an Athlon 3500+. I had to crank all the graphics options down to the minimum (although I can run 800x600 rather than 640x480, which matters), set the power-saving CPU speed option to "Always On", and go into the advanced display settings to keep it from forcing e.g. antialiasing. I'm pretty sure the real bottleneck is the graphics card, and that if you've got even the least of the gamer graphics cards you've got nothing to worry about; this one is great up to the low-end 3D stuff but quickly runs out of steam after that.

This game is undoubtedly one of Sid Meier's best. The game is easy to learn, fun to play, has GREAT graphics, and several different difficulty levels.

"Pirates" also has an interesting (if innaccurate) historical aspect. Nine famous pirates can be tracked down and defeated in the game, including Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, L'Ollonais, and Jean Lafitte. History buffs like myself will of course know that Lafitte and Blackbeard were about 115 years apart in history, but it certainly doesn't take any fun out of the game.

There are several different modes of play that keep the game interesting- sailing the seas, battling between ships, duels between you and various opponents (Ship Captains, Military Officers, Wanted Criminals, and other Pirates), tactical attacks on cities (my personal favourite), and dances with governors' daughters. Each mode of play features fast paced yet simple gameplay and excellent graphics.

When you aren't sailing around the world collecting loot, you can also play the storyline. This includes hunting down the evil Baron Raymondo to gather information about your family who was kidnapped when you were a child, followed by daring attempts to rescue them based on the info you gather. Even more important and dramatic is the search for the notorious Marquis Montalban, who had kidnapped your family in the first place due to a debt they owed. Another major game villain is Colonel Mendoza, who will kidnap any fair lady you are on the verge of marrying.

The scale of the game is also impressive. There are dozens of cities and settlements to visit, each one either allied to the French, English, Dutch, or Spanish. There are also Pirate Havens where you may be asked what city is most vulnerable to attack. You are also able to expand your character's abilities by purchasing or recieving as gifts everything from pistols to armor, to improved rudders, to telescopes, to dancing shoes, to shrunken heads, all of which improve the ability of your character.

The game has so many options, quests and possibilities that you can play for hours on end without anything seeming stale. Truly one of the best games I have ever played.

And yes, you can dig for buried treasure.

This is my favorite game. There are so many cities it's almost impossible to remember everything so it feels much like a new game each time you play. Sometimes the sea travel seems slow but they did speed up the ship battles in the last patch. There is no lewd behavior or language, no blood and guts, and no death so I think that this game is pretty family-friendly.

While there should be little doubt that this game is a reissue of the original pirates game of the 80's, and some parts seem dated at best, it is still hours of fun. The drawbacks of the game are dated graphics, some repetitious fight scenes, and rather generic quests but there is just something about Pirates! that is somehow addicting. Hardcore strategy buffs might not care for the game due to its limited choices and micromanagement but for those of us who grew up with the original, it is a wonderful re-release of a classic, and a more than a fair gaming value.

Recently I bought Pirates for my son who is now at the age where he can enjoy computer games more and who has shown great interest in anything pertaining to pirates. Originally, I was going to play the game myself without high expectations of enjoying the game and then show him how to play. However, I've enjoyed the game a great deal!

There are five levels of difficulty, ranging from Apprentice to Swashbuckler and certain skills (fencing, medicine, romance, etc.) your pirate can possess.

Your pirate is able to earn "fame" scores through: promotions, wealth attained, pirates defeated, enemies avenged, pirate treasures recovered, and perhaps other means too.

The graphics are great and another good thing about the game is that your strategy is open-ended based on what you want to be (a romantic, plunderer, wealth accumulator, etc.).

Highly recommeded for both kids and adults (sometimes as in my case it may be hard to differentiate which one I may be when it comes to fun games!). The game manual is extremely well-written and very helpful!!!

Play and enjoy yet another great title by Sid Meier.

By the way Sid, when will you make some other Civil War real time games and make your Gettysburg game compatible with Windows Vista?

This game is so addictive, I never want to stop playing it. There are five levels of difficulty, Apprentice, Journeyman, Adventurer, Rogue, and Swashbuckler. The object is to defeat notorious pirates, find buried treasure, defeat Marquis Montablan, and rescue all your family members. You can become the first, most notorious pirate in the entire Caribbean. I love this game.

This game has a few dificult parts like sneeking out of the towns. But it contains all the pirate activities I could wish for, enough to keep you busy but not to many to get frustrated. After you get the hang of it It's very fun with very easy controls.

Soon all the fair maidens will faint at the sound of your name and sailors will tremble, your home country will stand proud when they hear you sunk another ship.

Capturing towns, wooing fair maidens, finding buried treasure, defeating pirates, and transporting imigrants are only some of the things you do. In all it deserves 100 stars!

Dad, mom, and three kids all enjoy this game. It can be played on many levels and does not contain the sort of graphic images that would preclude the children in our household. The kids enjoy the adventurous nature of the game, while the adults like the strategic aspects. Plenty of fun, easy to learn, and the difficulty level accomodates a range of players. A game everyone can enjoy.

In today's gaming world so much time is spent on nitpicking pixels to death that so often we overlook the basic concept of games: fun. This game takes the romanticized ideal of a pirate slaps in some historical surroundings and characters and is just fun to play. Definitely recommend it to everyone.

This game is alot of fun to play again and again. Every time it is different. We all had fun helping each other find treasures and lost relatives and laughed at each other doing the dancing. From the best gamer in the house to the novice gamer, we all enjoyed it.