Pirates is a good game, good, but there is still definite room for
improvement.
Good bits – Detail on ships in ship to ship encounters is fantastic,
people get blown overboard by cannon fire and celebrate on deck when there is a
victory. Decks are crowded, which is nice, much better than the two to three
people (if any) you get on other pirate games. Hulls get visibly damaged, sails
come down, the sea looks superb.
- Animations in hand to hand combat are fun and look quite different depending
upon your fighting style. You want to learn that next move just to see what it
will look like on screen.
- Towns are unique and populated by interesting NPCs.
The game plays a lot like the Sea Dogs games, except in a slightly more
arcady way. Crew mysteriously come back to life after an engagement and the ship
repairs itself. Principles of moving your ship around are pretty much
identical.
Bad bits – Bugs! This game is full of bugs they should have probably
ironed out in beta. This in turn leads to big patches every few days, which can
be a real pain to download. Hopefully this will not be a problem for long though
as they do seem to be making an effort to iron these out.
- No collisions. Characters walk right through each other. This can spoil the
immersion.
At the end of the day though, what will probably make you buy this or not is
whether or not you like the idea of sailing a ship around, and saying ‘yo
ho’. It isn't perfect, but if you're a fan of pirates there is nothing better
on the market, and it will give you hours of enjoyment.
