Arrr me little barnacles have you played Pirates!
For those of you who don’t know (and probably care) one of the games I’ve played the most in my entire life is probably Sid Meier’s Pirates! I’ve played it on my old Amiga, I’ve played Pirates! Gold and I’ve even been playing the old DOS version on my PCs for years (I prefer the original to the Gold remake).
Around 2 months ago I got the new remake for the PC and it was awesome! I suggest that anyone who likes computer games, pirates or generally having fun should go out and buy it now!
You start off with a ship, a few men and lost family to find. The idea is that you find your family (who are scattered across the Caribbean) by winning duels with evil Spaniards, who give you maps once they are defeated.
Along the way you get to travel from port to port (or city), choosing to trade with the port or sack it (either from sea, ground <strike>or air!</strike>). While you are in port you can go to the local tavern to recruit more men to your crew, catch up on the local gossip or buy maps (to buried treasure) or information about other ports. You can also trade with a local trader or ship merchant to buy sell goods or ships.
The other main thing you can do is go to the Governor’s mansion and talk to him. At first you won’t be very respected by the Governors of ports, but as your reputation grows you will be respected more. You can choose to ally with different nations and help them fight wars with other nations. So, if you ally with the British and they are war with the French you get brownie points for blowing the French out of the water. However, if you attack an ally you’ll loose brownie points.
When Governors begin to like you they introduce you to their daughters, who you can woo by dancing like Disco Stu. Once they’ve fallen for you they’ll start giving you information about where to get loot from. You can also marry one, though you lose all your other informants if you do. Being married when you retire does boost your overall score though.
You also encounter ships along the way, you get to choose whether to attack the ship, let it pass or ask it for the latest news. If you attack a pirate ship, or pirate hunter you can hold the scum for ransom until his family pay for him to be released. You also get to attack the Silver Train and the Treasure Fleet (the locations of which you can find out from Governors daughters), which will make you a very rich pirate.
Cool things that have been added is the challenges that you get from other pirates and the fact that you can see other ships around you; before you just ran into them. It’s a lot easier to navigate around the map too. In the olden days you used to have to take sun charts to learn your location when you where surrounded by water on all sides.
I’ve only installed the game and given it a couple of goes, but I was reminded of the game by finding the old map which came with the game while I was looking for old flight sims (Falcon 4.0 and Battle of Britain is awesome with the community made patches).
The thing that makes me smile in the remake is that you can escort people to ports then attack their ships, you are a pirate after all so why wouldn’t you?
There’s far too much in the game for me to expain with out me ranting. It is highly open ended, the maps change every time you start a new game, and it’s totally fun.
I strongly suggest (demand) that you all get the game now!
I SAID NOW, GET OFF YOUR FAT ASSES AND GET IT!
