Product DescriptionSid Meier is an authoritative designer of some of the leading Role-Play games. What does it take to become one of the most feared, successful, and revered pirates of history? Here's an all new version of the classic Pirate role-play scenario that'll shiver your timbers as you yell ahoy! 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. ESRB = E Everyone
Lot's of fun... (Rating: 5 out of 5) This is a fascinating game, it has a lot of hidden historical treasures behind it. I believe the designers based this game on the journal notes from "The Illustrated Pirate Diares, A Remarkable Eyewitness Account of Captain Morgan and the Buccaneers", by Alexander Exquemelin. From the story of François L'Olonnais, the Career of Captain Henry Morgan, Rock the Brazilian, to Morgan's capture of Maracaibo, Riohacha, Santa Catalina and the city of Panama.
You can choose from 4 colonial powers , Dutch, English, French and Spanish.
Enjoy it!
sid meiers pirates (Rating: 5 out of 5) This game is a blast to play and I have never been disappointed with any
games from Sid Meiers. I would definitely recommend this game.
Fun, borderline addictive, and even educational! (Rating: 5 out of 5) We gave this game to our teenage son for Christmas a couple of years ago. It's interesting to note that he (and I) still play the game on a regular basis.
Just in case you are not aware of this game, here's the premis:
You are a young man living in the 1600s (you choose whether you play starting in the 1620s, 1640s, 1660s, or 1680s), and members of your family have been kidnapped by the ruthless Spanish Count Montablan. He hauled them off to the new world and you pursue him in an effort to find and free them. Since you have no money you sign on as a crew member of a Dutch, French, English, or Spanish ship to make your way from Europe to the Americas. On the way over the crew mutinies and you are appointed captain. Game play begins just before you arrive at your first home port.
When you arrive in a port you can do one of several things:
1) You can visit the governor. He will give you a letter of marque, direct you to the nearest enemy port, and perhaps introduce you to his daughter. All governors have daughters in this game. Sometimes the daughter will invite you to dance. When you dance well enough she will then give you information, helpful items, and a kiss. When you defeat enemy ships, capture enemy towns, or defeat pirates you earn promotions, land, and prestige...not to mention gold!
2) You can visit the tavern. The tavern is where you recruit crew for your ship(s) and gain additional information.
3) You can visit the town merchant. This is where you can sell the stuff you take from other ships and where you can buy most things you need.
4) You can visit the shipyard. This is where you can repair your ship and buy improvements for it.
There are other things you can do in town, like check your status, divide the plunder you've collected, etc.
When you leave port you sail in search of family members, enemy ships to capture, hidden treasure cities, buried treasure, etc. Enjoy running gun battles at sea, sword fights when you board an enemy ship, and rescuing family and lovely ladies. You can also direct your crew as you attack enemy towns in land battles. If you win you can capture towns and appoint a governor from the country of your choice. But don't worry too much about allegiances, you can switch from fighting from one country to another at will. Beware, however, because as you fight a country, capture its cities and towns they will post an increasingly large bounty on your head!
This is an open ended game. You may play as long as you like, and end it whenever you choose. The primary goal is up to you, but keep in mind that the longer you play the older and slower your hero becomes. Then when you decide to retire the ranks you have earned, the beauty of your wife, the amount of gold you've collected, the number of family members you've rescued, and the overall number of prestige points you've accumulated determines what you become after you retire from pirating. The highest post-pirate career is governor and the lowest is a pick-pocket.
The game offers several levels of play, so there's a challenge for most anyone, and a level that most anyone can play.
Parents...this game is rated "E". There is no blood in the swordfights, and no one appears to die...they mostly get pushed or jump overboard or get knocked out. Even during ship to ship battles ship crew size drops as crew members drop into the water after broadsides hit.
The game is quite fun, and has a surprising amount of staying power. Also, the game is educational. Players can learn about buying and selling, resource management, and the geography of the Caribbean.
All in all, I rate this a 5-star game...playable, fun, interesting and challenging - depending on the level you choose. Give it a try and throw in the occasional "Yo, ho, ho!" as you play, just for gusto.
Pirates! ROCKS (Rating: 5 out of 5) From playing this game back on the Sega Genesis to the computer version to even now this game rocks. There are too numerous adventures to play. Hours upon hours of cutlass swinging, mast breaking, treasure finding, relative rescuing fun. Can't beat.
Great Game, But Comes With Minor Kinks (Rating: 4 out of 5) I had already purchased some pirate-themed video games over the past couple of years and became glad that I threw my hat into that genre. Apparently this genre is unique in that it involves elements of both role-playing games and action adventures. The other pirate games I have played focus on the main theme of trade, which is fun from the business and economy sense. (Buy low and sell high; the more money you make, the more expensive features become available.)
Sid Meier's Pirates! deviates from those games, though. (Actually, this game concept came out in 1987, so perhaps the other games deviated from this one.) Pirates! is based on an objective-clearing system (the more objectives cleared - and there are many - the higher your ranking), though it is open-ended to the point that fulfill those ones you want to and with what priority.
Some of these objectives include:
* Rescuing family members - gather maps and learn secrets to their whereabouts
* Finding buried treasure - you actually disembark from your ship, walk on land with a small band of mates, and compare your location to the map markers
* Courting Governors' daughters - this involves the eight directions of movement that must be done in sync with your female counterpart
* Sea battles - this is how you make your money, pick up some loot, and make your fellow sailors happy
* Attacking towns - if you tick off one of the four nations (Spain, France, England, Holland) too much, you will have difficulty entering their ports. What finer excuse to engage in an in-game strategy interface and try to take the town by positioning range and melee units on a board map?
There are other objectives in this game, as well, which bring out the great strategic and action value of this game. Thus, the true genius of Pirates! is the amalgamation of action, adventure, strategy, and role-playing games all into one title. I have not seen this level of diversity in a video game before, and I must say that this was perhaps the best $10 I ever spent on entertainment!
The music and the graphics of Pirates! are somewhat sub-par for what we are used to nowadays, I must admit. However, the game concepts are so simple, yet so diverse, that you won't totally be bothered by the sound or visuals. Actually, the graphics of the ocean and land while you are at sea are pretty fantastic, though you will notice that some things just don't add up when you consider real-time events.
On that topic (real time events), I think that is the greatest weakness of Pirates! But again, the diversity of the game somehow makes up for that. What I mean by weakness in real time events are these:
A) You have the ability to sneak into enemy towns. This is a great concept, but everything is done in super slow motion - even when you are running: your character slowly lifts his legs as he spacewalks through the beautiful Caribbean town, yet he is still able to turn on a dime.
B) Sea battles appear slow-moving, but the awkwardness comes when trying to orient yourself with your surroundings: the water does not move according to the wind, so you cannot gage your movements, speed, or acceleration except by noticing the numbers changing on the screen. Thus, you are really just moving in relation to your opponent, which is somewhat daft. And finally,
(C) Moving around on land does not show on your maps. Also, you cannot cross one side of an island to the other and find a town waiting for you, as on the regular map. I'm not sure what the limitations were to the programming here, but you will find some hold-backs that are hard to fathom in a truly "open ended game." I guess everything can't be perfect.
To close, I highly recommend this game, Sid Meier's Pirates! for everyone who prefers video games as opposed to going out to crowded movie theaters (where people whisper, cell phones distract you, and atypical behavior is bound to happen). I offer this comparison because Pirates! feels like a movie that I am scripting as I play it. With the action sequences that I engage in, it makes movies somewhat worthless - I'd rather interact in my own pirate film than just sitting there watching it! Swordplay is something I can't come by in my everyday life, for example, so watching someone else do it is cool. But if I make the determination to swing low while my opponent goes high, and thus stabbing him over the side of the boat, I would say that that beats watching others on a movie screen any day.
Given cost, excitement and interaction levels, and convenience, Pirates! at $10 is one "movie ticket" that can be replayed over and over again and will save you the hassle of inconsiderate, snot-nosed patrons all around you - this will be your new "movie channel" for a while. Also, the replay value for Pirates! is very high - try coming back to this game after putting it down for a couple months. It's like brand new. Lastly, I'd say that this game still stands above the other pirate-themed video games that I have played; and this genre has turned out to be one of my favorites. I think Sid Meier's Pirates! is probably king of the pirates video game genre. Also, the ease of simply picking up this game and playing it says a lot: challenging, yet fun and easy to learn. Gotta love that.
So buy Sid Meier's Pirates for $10. It'll be one of the better investments in entertainment in your life.