Sid Meier's Pirates! (Live the Life)

Other products by 2K Games

Product Features

• The 1987 cross-genre classic returns with an all-new story, a new engine, updated gameplay, and 3-D graphics
• Play as a pirate captain cruising the 17th century Caribbean
• Confront enemies on board ships, in seedy taverns, and in other locations; use anything within your reach as a weapon
• Engage in fierce naval battles fighting single enemies or multiple ships
• For 1 player

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00029QR8I
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches ; 10.9 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 22, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (150 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,549 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Originally released in 1987, Pirates! received unprecedented critical acclaim for crossing multiple game genres to offer unique, unrivaled gameplay options. Pirates! set the industry standard for innovative game design with its unique blend of open-ended role-playing, real-time adventures and thrilling action sequences.

Now it's time for Sid Meier and Firaxis Games to bring this pioneering action-adventure game into the 21st century. An entirely new game engine will deliver updated gameplay, stunning new features, spectacular 3D graphics and enhanced sound effects, so players can fully experience the intrigue, adventure and danger of life as a pirate on the Spanish Main.

In Pirates! you take the leading role of a Pirate Captain in the 17th century Caribbean amassing fortune and fame in an attempt to seize your rightful place as one of the most revered (and feared!) pirates in history. Test your skills as a sea captain exploring the high seas and exotic ports in a richly detailed 3D world. Overtake the enemy and seize valuable booty. Exchange plank-shattering broadsides in fierce naval battles, and engage in duels with worthy opposing captains.

The new Pirates! carries on with the great gameplay and design simplicity tradition of the award-winning original, while adding more challenging and exciting battle options. It offers a deeper and more varied role-playing experience that includes multiple paths to a wealthy retirement. This and many other features and additions make this gaming classic one of the most highly anticipated releases of this century!

Game Features:

• Experience an all-new story built upon the most fun and compelling features of the original Pirates! game
• Live out multiple quests through a non-linear, open life timeline where every decision poses distinct challenges and possibilities
• Witness the consequences of your actions in current events throughout the Pirates! world
• Battle, overtake and command 27 different ship types, enhanced with assorted ammo, cannon and other upgrades
• Take on various foes including merchant and military captains, ferocious pirates, evil gentry and even rival suitors -- each with different skills and abilities
• Confront enemies on board ships, in seedy taverns, on the ramparts and even at the Governor's mansion Wield weapons -- or anything within your reach -- as you fence against foes
• Engage in fierce naval battles fighting single enemies or multiple ships
• Sneak into towns, escape out of prisons, navigate around adversaries and surprise unsuspecting vessels Dispatch landing parties of buccaneers in strategic battles to take over entire cities
• Increase your riches and impress the governor's daughter with your charm, fame, heroism -- even your dancing abilities
• Collect items (swords, spyglasses, armor, hats, coats, etc.) that improve skills or provide other new benefits and view them in a new inventory system Enhance your gameplay experience with downloadable content including flags, sail emblems, character skins and more

Awards:
Since its initial release, Pirates! has sold more than a million units worldwide, and received numerous awards:

• Action Game of the Year
• Computer Gaming World Magazine
• Historical Game of the Year
• Compute Magazine
• Best Fantasy/Role Playing Game
• Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design

Having been inducted into the Hall of Fame by both Computer Gaming World and GameSpy, and voted one of the top 20 all-time games by Computer Gaming World Magazine, Pirates! is recognized as one of the greatest games ever created.

Product Description

From Sid Meier, award winning creator of theCivilization Series.



Raid the Caribbean as a 17th-century pirate captain in this epic, open-endedseafaring adventure.

Pirates! offers players the chance to take on the role of a privateer the in Caribbean.From here, the game is pretty much up to you. You can get involved in trading,treasure hunting, ship fights, town assaults, duels and all manner of otheractivities. The game is wonderfully episodic and presents a variety ofopportunities to the player based on context. You pick your nationality fromSpanish, English, French and Dutch, a starting date, and a special talent, suchas sword fighting or ship handling.

• Dig up buried treasure
• Plunder French ports
• Engage in fierce naval battles
• Romance governor's daughters
• Duel enemy captains

Once you've created a captain, you're given a ship and a few men and taskedwith charting your own course through the waters of the Caribbean and thesometimes stormier sea of European politics. Based on Sid Meier's 1987 hit ofthe same name.

• Experience an all-new story built upon the most fun and compelling features of the original Pirates! game
• Live out multiple quests through a non-linear, open life timeline where every decision poses distinct challenges and possibilities
• Witness the consequences of your actions in current events throughout the Pirates! world
• Battle, overtake and command 27 different ship types, enhanced with assorted ammo, cannon and other upgrades
• Take on various foes including merchant and military captains, ferocious pirates, evil gentry and even rival suitors - each with different s

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

407 of 421 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pirates! Just like old times., November 27, 2004

By	Pauly C. (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

If you have played any of the previous Pirates! games of the past, you will immediately recognize this game. The gameplay is essentially the same, with some added extras. The ship to ship battles play just like it did 15 years ago - and this is mostly a good thing.


Pros:
- Excellent graphics. The water animation is great looking.
- Varied tasks such as attacking ships and towns, finding treasure, finding lost family, keep you very busy.
- Easy gameplay. You can get into the game fairly quickly.
- Different "missions" keep you wanting to play more and more and watch your character progress.

Cons:
- Repetetive gameplay and animations/cutscenes. Everything in the game becomes tiresome when you have seen the same thing 20 times. There are only a few animations for each task in the game. Every town looks exactly the same also. There is no variety in the taverns, except for the colour of the hair of the "woman" at the bar. When swordfighting, there are pretty much 3 backgrounds that they take place. It is way too scripted also.
- No way to speed up sailing against the wind. Out of all of the things to make more realistic, they should not have picked this one.
- Sneaking into town is extremely boring, time consuming, and unvaried. There are two speeds to this - slow and slower.
- Even if you sail under one nation's flag, you can still earn promotions from other countries. The difference between being a pirate and privateer is practically zero.
- Limited upgrades to ships. While the game boasts upward of 20 ships, you can only add about 7 upgrades (sails, armour, etc). Unique/special upgrades would have been a nice touch.

Overall, it's a fun game and will keep you busy for many, many hours. However, you will become bored with it's repetetion too quickly. There just isn't enough variety in the game. Sailing and attacking ships is the best part of the game, and after a while, you will cringe at having to go into town for the 1000000th time to talk to the governor / dance with the daughter / fix your ship / trade goods. It's EXACTLY the same in every town, and that is my biggest gripe.

192 of 200 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun with a few pros and cons, December 17, 2004

By	AB (Rockville, MD) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

I never played the original though I watched my friend play it ad nauseum when we were kids, so thought I'd try this one out.

Pros: Easy to learn and fun, barely glanced at the manual and was on my way.

Ship battles are neat and upgrading your ship/fleet and getting more sailors is fun.

Sword fighting is fun, and at higher difficulties you have to do more than just do a low attack followed by a high to win.

Graphics are excellent and both the ship feel and the character feel is great.

Battles on land are pretty fun, and there's a bit of strategy to finding cover and moving your units the right places.

Quests are fun, you look for missing family members, treasure and other pirates as well as deliver governors and villagers to new towns as an escort and you get promotions. If you attack the Spanish enough you won't be allowed into most of their ports, so there is a price to pay for sinking all those richly laden merchant vessels :)

Buying special gear is fun at the tavern from the guy in the back.

Musical score is nice.


Cons: Wooing the governor's daughter and protecting bar maids from nasty pirates is fun but dancing is a pain. Maybe there is some trick to it but even a piano player is hard pressed I think to keep up with the key strokes required to perfect dancing in this game


The towns do look the same and you have to go to them a lot to get food, repair your ship and get more sailors.

Keeping sailors happy seems quite hard though that's probably realistic.

Sneaking into town I don't even bother, I just attack if I have enough men.

Overall this is the kind of game like Civ3, though a bit less challenging, that you get bored of after a while but over the years keep revisiting once in a while and never quite uninstall from your computer :)

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Did not live up to expetations., December 10, 2004

By	Ethan Mcafee "ethanmc" (Washington DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

Being a huge fan of the orginal Pirates and other Sid Meier games, I was very exited about the potential for this new version. However, in the end it did not live up to my expectations of a challeging strategy game. This game is too easy, repeditive and really made for young children, not the typical Sid Meier Civilization types. After playing for a few hours I asked "Is this all the game offers?"

Similiar to the old Pirates, you are the captain of a pirate ship in the Carribean. Most of the game revolves around sailing to different ports, atacking other ships, and dancing with the governors daughters.

Sailing around is exceedingly boring and time consuming. Since the wind almost always blows in the same direction, it literally takes you 30 minutes to sail from one side to the other. Trading in the ports is virtually worthless... everything is based on fixed prices... it is a minor minor part of the game... when you can get thousands of gold from attacking pirates... do you really care if you make 50 gold by trading goods? No!

Attacking other ships is repeditive and easy. It starts where you sail your boat after their boat and fire cannons at each other. 90% of the time, their boat heads directly at your boat and then you duel. It makes it rare that you have a long drawn out cannon match. I thought the sword duels would be fun, they aren't. Simply by constantly tapping the "jab" button you will win all the matches... No need to dodge, jump, etc... I have yet to lose in over 50 duels with this simple strategy... Also, it makes no sense when your boat with 40 sailors can easily take over an enemys with 200 or more all the time.

At the different ports... The governors daughter asks you to goto the dance... where you follow her dance moves around by pressing the keypad..... Then you do it over and over and over again.... It wasn't fun the first time... its less fun the 50th time.

If people are looking for a much more complete and exciting pirates strategy game, I recommend Port Royale 2.