time for another one of those Zoombie Write up thingies. If you're new here, let me explain. First, I describe the history of the game in question (assuming I know it) and then jibber jabber about the game till even regular gamers want to rip our their eyes and shout, "STOP! STOP! PLEASE STOP IT!"
Now!
What game to talk about today...
Ah yes...the most addictive game based off pirates which you can with play ONE FINGER.
Yes, you can play this game with a hook. I'm not joking.
What is this game?
First, some history.
Way back in the 90s, there was a guy named Sid Meier who loved to make really awesome games then stick his name on the front of them. First, he made Civilization, where you lead a nation from the stone age to the space age, beating in everyone else's head with a stick...or a nuke.
Then he made Pirates, the DOS version. It was basic, had rather silly graphics, but was an entertaining pirate simulator where you and your daring do-pirater traveled all over the Carrabian, stealing stuff and poking people in the crotch with a rapiar.
Then he made a lot of other games that don't matter and were never famous or won millions of awards.
And then he made...PIRATES!
AGAIN!
Yes, this game is a remake. But its not like you could ever take that classic and make it better! What is there to improve? Its not like you can just give an ancient game flashy, creative, colorful graphics, improve gameplay and presentation, and add a thousand little touches that make it as immersive as any modern game.
Unless, of course, you're a flipping Genius, like SID MEIER!
In this game, you play as a Pirate, who starts at age 8, and through a series of unfortuante events, your family is kidnaped by this evil baron person thing. You run away and come back 10 years later to find a job on a ship heading to Ye Newe Worlde.
You can sign on with the Brits, the French, the Dutch or the Spanish, each of which determines where you start in the new world...but you can also choose what skill your hero starts at (Gunnery, Navigation, Swordsmanship, Medicine and...Wooing tha Ladies)
Once you've chosen your start, you...start!
The ship you are on is run by a jerk, so eventually the crew decides to screw that noise and mutiny. You, being the most handsome and dashing, get to captian the ship (just like in real life) and its time to find your family, make a fortune and woo some ladies.
Now the true genius of the games design comes to the fore...its SO easy to learn! All your controls are shown on the bottm right hand corner of the screen, laid out...on your NUMPAD!
That's why I said you can play this game with one finger (though on higher difficulties, you'd want to use multiple fingers). You actually can play it with a hook!
You manuver your ship on the world map, visiting cities by sailing into them, and attacking other ships by sailing up close to them. When you attack a ship, the game goes to a somewhat simplistic but addictive as all hell. You have to broadside the enemy ships, using various cannon shots to kill crew (grapshot), destroy the hull (roundshot) or cripple the mast (chain shot).
But you're a pirate, not a warship! You're here for the plundaarrrrrr, so to grab the delicious gold, you have to RAM the enemy ship.
The ships crash together and we go to another awesome game mode: Dueling!
In this, there are 3 dodge moves and 3 attack movies. Every attack knocks the enemy backwards, while every blow they land on you knocks you back. You have to fight qucik, though! If your crew all die while you fight, a single blow will force you to surrendur!
However, the same is true of them, so if your pirates out number the enemy, then you'll have an easier time of it.
Now, as you plunder ships and stuff, you'll earn the respect and ire of various nations, depending on whether or not they're at war with or trading with the enemy. Want to work for the Spanish? Knock over their enemies ships and sell them at British ports. Want to enamor yourself with the Spanish? Raid their enemies ports!
Want to piss them ALL off?
Raid them all equally.
Earning the respect of a nation gets you promoted, giving you various awesome perks, such as land, cheaper ship upgrades at their ports, more crew men.
Now, if you sail to a town that hates you cause you keep stealing their trade gallions, well, you have three options. Sail away like the whimp you are, sneak into town (which is another mini-game wherein you sneak past various gaurds)...or ATTACK THE PLACE!
And then the game becomes, I kid you not, a turn based stratagy game where you command various pirates about a battlefeild, taking into acount thigns such as cover, moral, flanking attacks, height, and so on.
And its still VERY learnable, and its still all controlled by the numpad.
You can play this game forever if you are so inclined...but your pirate will age. An old pirate has a harder and harder time. Also, your crew gets sick of sailing around eventually...they want all that money sitting in your hold!
You eventually have to split up your hoard with the crew. The harder the game is, the bigger percentage of the loot you get to keep. Months pass and you can either retire (which will print out a score card that'll tell you how good you were at this whole...pirating thing) or you can resume adventuring with your old ship, new crew, and new travels to embark on.
There are a LOAD of things to do in this game. Want to conquer every town for the Dutch?
You can do that.
Want to become the most feared pirate in the whole world?
You can do that.
Want to do nothing but hunt buried treasure while banging the daughters of govoners? You can do that too.
Mmm...booty.
What?
Oh right! Your family! There IS an overall quest to find your missing family, but unfortunately, its the most reptetive part of this game: you have to track down Count Mendoza again and again and again and again and again and again. Every time, you beat the shit out of him and he gives you part of the map to find your family. Once you have the whole map...you find a sibling.
Once you have ever part of your family saved, you can retire happily...or go right on pirating.
So, even though this game is a little old, it still dosn't show its age...its graphical style is so colorful and creative that you won't notice the odd missing polygon or lower resolution on the texture.
The music is top notch. The sound effects are brilliant. The gameplay is addictive.
Yarhar!
Tis the pirates life for me!
Now!
What game to talk about today...
Ah yes...the most addictive game based off pirates which you can with play ONE FINGER.
Yes, you can play this game with a hook. I'm not joking.
What is this game?
First, some history.
Way back in the 90s, there was a guy named Sid Meier who loved to make really awesome games then stick his name on the front of them. First, he made Civilization, where you lead a nation from the stone age to the space age, beating in everyone else's head with a stick...or a nuke.
Then he made Pirates, the DOS version. It was basic, had rather silly graphics, but was an entertaining pirate simulator where you and your daring do-pirater traveled all over the Carrabian, stealing stuff and poking people in the crotch with a rapiar.
Then he made a lot of other games that don't matter and were never famous or won millions of awards.
And then he made...PIRATES!
AGAIN!
Yes, this game is a remake. But its not like you could ever take that classic and make it better! What is there to improve? Its not like you can just give an ancient game flashy, creative, colorful graphics, improve gameplay and presentation, and add a thousand little touches that make it as immersive as any modern game.
Unless, of course, you're a flipping Genius, like SID MEIER!
In this game, you play as a Pirate, who starts at age 8, and through a series of unfortuante events, your family is kidnaped by this evil baron person thing. You run away and come back 10 years later to find a job on a ship heading to Ye Newe Worlde.
You can sign on with the Brits, the French, the Dutch or the Spanish, each of which determines where you start in the new world...but you can also choose what skill your hero starts at (Gunnery, Navigation, Swordsmanship, Medicine and...Wooing tha Ladies)
Once you've chosen your start, you...start!
The ship you are on is run by a jerk, so eventually the crew decides to screw that noise and mutiny. You, being the most handsome and dashing, get to captian the ship (just like in real life) and its time to find your family, make a fortune and woo some ladies.
Now the true genius of the games design comes to the fore...its SO easy to learn! All your controls are shown on the bottm right hand corner of the screen, laid out...on your NUMPAD!
That's why I said you can play this game with one finger (though on higher difficulties, you'd want to use multiple fingers). You actually can play it with a hook!
You manuver your ship on the world map, visiting cities by sailing into them, and attacking other ships by sailing up close to them. When you attack a ship, the game goes to a somewhat simplistic but addictive as all hell. You have to broadside the enemy ships, using various cannon shots to kill crew (grapshot), destroy the hull (roundshot) or cripple the mast (chain shot).
But you're a pirate, not a warship! You're here for the plundaarrrrrr, so to grab the delicious gold, you have to RAM the enemy ship.
The ships crash together and we go to another awesome game mode: Dueling!
In this, there are 3 dodge moves and 3 attack movies. Every attack knocks the enemy backwards, while every blow they land on you knocks you back. You have to fight qucik, though! If your crew all die while you fight, a single blow will force you to surrendur!
However, the same is true of them, so if your pirates out number the enemy, then you'll have an easier time of it.
Now, as you plunder ships and stuff, you'll earn the respect and ire of various nations, depending on whether or not they're at war with or trading with the enemy. Want to work for the Spanish? Knock over their enemies ships and sell them at British ports. Want to enamor yourself with the Spanish? Raid their enemies ports!
Want to piss them ALL off?
Raid them all equally.
Earning the respect of a nation gets you promoted, giving you various awesome perks, such as land, cheaper ship upgrades at their ports, more crew men.
Now, if you sail to a town that hates you cause you keep stealing their trade gallions, well, you have three options. Sail away like the whimp you are, sneak into town (which is another mini-game wherein you sneak past various gaurds)...or ATTACK THE PLACE!
And then the game becomes, I kid you not, a turn based stratagy game where you command various pirates about a battlefeild, taking into acount thigns such as cover, moral, flanking attacks, height, and so on.
And its still VERY learnable, and its still all controlled by the numpad.
You can play this game forever if you are so inclined...but your pirate will age. An old pirate has a harder and harder time. Also, your crew gets sick of sailing around eventually...they want all that money sitting in your hold!
You eventually have to split up your hoard with the crew. The harder the game is, the bigger percentage of the loot you get to keep. Months pass and you can either retire (which will print out a score card that'll tell you how good you were at this whole...pirating thing) or you can resume adventuring with your old ship, new crew, and new travels to embark on.
There are a LOAD of things to do in this game. Want to conquer every town for the Dutch?
You can do that.
Want to become the most feared pirate in the whole world?
You can do that.
Want to do nothing but hunt buried treasure while banging the daughters of govoners? You can do that too.
Mmm...booty.
What?
Oh right! Your family! There IS an overall quest to find your missing family, but unfortunately, its the most reptetive part of this game: you have to track down Count Mendoza again and again and again and again and again and again. Every time, you beat the shit out of him and he gives you part of the map to find your family. Once you have the whole map...you find a sibling.
Once you have ever part of your family saved, you can retire happily...or go right on pirating.
So, even though this game is a little old, it still dosn't show its age...its graphical style is so colorful and creative that you won't notice the odd missing polygon or lower resolution on the texture.
The music is top notch. The sound effects are brilliant. The gameplay is addictive.
Yarhar!
Tis the pirates life for me!
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