Pirates of the Caribbean is a fantasy adventure game that takes place in an open world with persistent assets. Players use strategy and skill to complete quests, explore uncharted islands, and plunder for treasure on their quest to become one of history’s most notorious pirates!
Sid Meier’s Pirates! is a pirate-themed strategy game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K Games. It was released in 1987, and has since been ported to numerous platforms. The game is set in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy.
RETRO – Matey, matey, matey, matey, matey, matey, matey, In this version of Sid Meier’s original, the fearsome pirate terrorizes the Caribbean once again. Fear not, treasure-laden Spanish galleons, affluent coastal communities, and powerful mayors afraid of your dreaming maidens: the death’s-head banner is flying once again after 17 years!
It concerns me today, yet in 1987, I knew the Caribbean much better than my neighborhood. I’d have shrugged my head in bewilderment if someone had asked me where any street in the neighborhood was, but if they’d asked me which way to sail from Port Royal to Havana, I’d have been sold. I spent an extraordinary amount of time attached to my Commodore 64 display, raiding ships, pillaging towns, and wooing governors’ daughters: in short, I was the most renowned – most game-dedicated – pirate in the New World in Pirates! As time passed, several creators attempted to clone the popularity of the old classic, but most of them failed miserably in their attempts to capture the mood of Pirates! The maestro himself, Sid Meier, seems to be the only one who can bring the classic formula up to date.
The Seven Seas Devils are a group of seven devils that live on the seven seas.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of value, it’s important explaining what’s in Sid’s remake to new pirates. In Pirates!, we follow a Caribbean pirate’s whole career as he progresses from a youthful, inexperienced captain to a legend. Our main purpose is to exact vengeance on Mendoza, a cruel Spanish lord who has wronged our family. We observe our parents and siblings being carried away in the game’s prologue, and as young suitors, we barely escape Mendoza’s grasp. Of fact, our desire for vengeance only serves as a guide at initially, for the inherent beauty of Sid Meier’s game is that we may do nearly whatever we choose.
Let’s say you simply want to become wealthy fast and dirty. In that case, you can plunder one Spanish galleon after another for gold, or take over enemy cities for fame and money, or even play bounty hunter by capturing rival pirate captains, or search for the Incan Empire’s fabulous treasures, explore the hidden corners of the Caribbean, find lost family members, or even trade if you want to be truly peaceful. (Though I can’t image anybody in this game doing anything other than trade…) The true genius of Pirates! is that all of these camel activities are interconnected, allowing you to complete all of them.
To express his delight, the English governor awards us a promotion and an estate as soon as we board our first Spanish ship. However, we quickly realize that looting and then capturing affluent Spanish towns is a much more successful way to ascend up the ranks. Of course, we’ll need guys for this, whom we can get at the local bars (where else…). Of course, the attractive and fat waitress can’t resist our charms, and she’s spied hidden information about, among other things, nasty aristocrats and pirates who allegedly know something about the locations of long-lost family members, with the help of the barkeep. However, army commanders sometimes insult the girl, so even here, we must be skilled with our swords if we are to bring the brave bucks to heel and win the respect of the tavern-keepers. We can even attack towns and cities to land and participate in tactical battle against the garrison in the forest around the stronghold after we’ve recruited enough expensive company. As a result, the possibilities are many, and it is both desirable and important to attempt each one in order to progress.
“You get up… “And you’re a pirate!” exclaims the narrator.
What’s great about Pirates! (and Sid Meier’s other games in general) is the gameplay. Despite its intricacy, you may get right into the middle of the action. There are no tiresome tutorials or extensive explanations that ruin your mood. All you have to do is choose a country and a skill (fencing, medicine, or women’s conquest), and after a little introduction, you’re standing on the deck of your future ship, a sword in your hand (the kind you chose), and the opposing captain in front of you: En garde! Later in the game, there will never be a moment that is difficult to grasp, too intricate, or dull, or that requires considerable management or strategic affinity. You can use the keyboard to perform almost all of your instructions; there are no six million shortcuts, and you don’t even need to change the mouse’s sensitivity. Controlling your ship and firing cannons during conflicts is child’s play; there’s no need to eat our brains with instructional vids (à la Evil Genius…) on what sort of cannonball is excellent for what, for example, since we’ll hit it right away. Squidging, or “diplomacy,” is both fantastic and easy.
The most crucial thing is to get the increasingly respectable loot to a location with both “solvent demand” (i.e., the trader’s purse is thicker than two pads side by side) and a fair price for a specific commodity. It doesn’t take much business knowledge to figure out which towns are successful and why they charge more gold, but there’s a tremendous feeling of accomplishment when our ships’ bellies empty and our wallets fill up beautifully. Diplomacy is very transparent: plainly, governors don’t like it when we seize their ships and cities one after another, so they quickly drive us out; nevertheless, if we do the same to the enemy, we obtain more and more appointments and land, not to mention the governor’s gorgeous daughter’s favors…
For pirates, politics and geography are important.
So, the handling is excellent, but don’t mistake this with basic gameplay! Pirates! is as intricately built and sophisticated as a Swiss watch, and it’s only after you’ve explored more of the Caribbean and begun to detect the links that you’ll notice. For example, we not only have to keep an eye on political developments, but we can also influence them: if, as a French pirate (while maintaining good relations with the French! ), we constantly plunder Spanish ships, we may, after a while, destroy the hard-won peace treaty, and the war between the two nations will resume. If, on the other hand, our interests demand that we play the Dutch for a big promotion, the game will be watched, and the French and the Dutch will soon make peace.
A novel element in this part is that the envoy conveying the proclamation of war or peace is sent on a one-of-a-kind ship, which we may accompany personally if governors want it. We may even provoke the Indians to stage a landing party with a slaughter at a town we intend to sack. Even so, there would be far too many troops with bayonets drawn waiting to greet us as a welcome committee. This episode’s Caribbean is likewise considerably more alive and living than the previous one. Finally, the main map depicts our ship, as well as the numerous countries and pirates wandering the area and assaulting one another. My only regret was that we were unable to join a combat that was already underway and assault the weaker surviving group, taking advantage of its losses. (One of the warriors in this scenario vanishes.)
“Our blood and our life!” (However, not gold…)
The voyage is now also characterized by the typical Pirates’ obstacles! On the one hand, our crew is made up of true intestinal leeches who wouldn’t dare to eat the whole ship’s cargo. (Thankfully, cannibalism isn’t a part of the game…) Naturally, the bigger our crew develops, the quicker they will devastate everything like locusts, and the hungry sailor will become a furious sailor, then a dead sailor, neither of which is advantageous to us.
The second restriction is our people’s rising stinginess and concern about when they will eventually get their allotment, which they may then spend on booze and prostitutes after lengthy trips. The longer we sail and the more we gather for a given share of the gold, the more unhappy and then angry our pirates become, until one day they tell us that we are worth less to them than the dirt on the heel of their boots, and they steal one of our boats, along with a sizable portion of the booty, and flee. Obviously, we cannot travel so far, but after we have been on the road for a long time, we must distribute the spoils, of which we already get the lion’s part. The difficulty is that time passes and we don’t grow any younger, so the true challenge of the game is to ensure that we can wait for as long as possible until the prize is given, that we can maximize our riches, and that we can accomplish as many of our objectives as possible. Another issue is that sailing east is more difficult than sailing west. Fortunately, the designers haven’t gone overboard, and if we’re smart, we can take advantage of the fluctuating wind currents. On the other hand, if you get some navigational equipment, it will be much simpler…
There are no retractable parrots or wheeled peg-legs.
Yes, employing unique equipment and weaponry to aid your pirate’s mission is a new element in this Pirates! Let’s pretend you don’t have the physique of a Persian Prince when you comes to fencing… Never worry; the numerous armours will protect your body, the dual guns will allow you to injure your opponent right away, and the unique blades will make slicing up your opponent much simpler. Or is it possible that your peg leg is troubling you when you’re dancing? (I’m not talking about your pirate peg-legs, since there aren’t any…) In such scenario, you may prove to the girl of your heart that you’re the devil of the dance floor by purchasing the appropriate shoes. Or maybe you wish to engage in piracy for a long and healthy period of time? (The premise of the game is that beyond the age of 30, we get more frail.)
All you have to do is get the special plant bark, which will extend your career and improve your swordsmanship, since older pirates are slower to cut. Almost every moment in the game has a ‘utility,’ which can be purchased for big money from sketchy bearded gentlemen in the neighborhood taverns. We can also refuel our sailboats, in addition to our own tools! Yes, in Pirates!, much as in Need for Speed: Undergrounds! You may improve your boats with stronger sails, special protective iron plates, copper cannons (Gábor ron not included, available separately…), and other goodies that speed up your sailing and offer you an edge in combat.
Aside from the obvious tactical benefits, boat tunability is a fantastic concept in other respects. For one thing, it makes you feel more linked to a certain sailboat and makes you reconsider selling a little slower but well-specced galleon in favor of a faster but fully “virgin” vessel. (Fitting out the ship is not only costly, but also a rather convoluted narrative, since different equipment is available in various ports.) On the other side, when you advance in a nation’s ranks, shipowners charge you a lower fee for tuning equipment, allowing you to sell the ships you’ve seized for a much larger price.
We embarrass them.
One of the most exciting aspects of Pirates is the ship combat! Of course, tuning alone would be useless if you couldn’t take use of your favorite sailboat’s other features. The unique equipment is most often used in boat conflicts, where we can see whether the brass cannon truly does travel farther than the simple one, or if the special canvas helps the boat split quicker when we want to catch up with the opponent’s boat or make a quick turn to escape cannon fire. Although this mystery, hit-and-run hit-and-run operation seems simple at first look, you’ll quickly realize how tactically complex it is. Almost every battle is unique, making it a memorable experience. When our ship is stronger or our crew is outmanned, for example, we must focus all of our energy on getting to the opponent’s barge in a timely manner with as little fatalities as possible. At the same time, we must sashay here and there to attack the opponent while avoiding his cannon fire, taking use of the proper wind. The AI of enemy ships changes depending on the captains, classes, and circumstances.
The weaker Spanish merchantmen, for example, will make a pitiful and lame effort to flee, firing us slowly and steadily. The ruthless pirates and pirate hunters will deflect our guns (if they have a fast enough ship) and then charge at us at breakneck speed. By the way, these are just two extreme instances; there are many more types of boat fights to be waged within these. The only disappointment I had with the ship combat was that we only had one ship to fight with; the others aren’t even visible, as is customary in most Pirates! The use of clones to command the whole fleet (like in the previous Pirates of the Caribbean film…) seemed like a step backwards…
“X indicates the location…” (From the film Monkey Island)
To prevent having the front of the house talking, various parts of the game have to be modified from the original. This involves treasure hunts and looking for long-lost relatives. You can get map pieces from different NPCs when you’ve successfully engaged with them in some fashion. Capturing pirate captains may lead to the finding of long-lost sisters, uncles, aunts, and grandfathers, as well as the location of amazing Incan riches, which can be learned from family members and mayors’ daughters, the latter of whom can be startled by your superb dance abilities (if you know them). So, although the method of getting information hasn’t changed much, the actual search has. When you arrive, you’re in a 3D environment that you can’t zoom in and out for reasons I don’t understand. (I believe the engine would permit it.)
I also don’t see why some of the older, more enjoyable aspects, such as ransoming captured enemy pirate hunters or trading different sorts of food, had to be removed. Okay, this irritates just old sea bears like myself, but let’s face it: Piratestarget !’s demographic includes a lot of “nostalgic” gamers.
Let’s get going.
Thankfully, there are many fresh moments to fill in the voids left by the old game. I’ve previously considered the considerably livelier Caribbean, but you may also consider city occupation. Unlike in the original Pirates!, when we had to command various portions of the squad behind fortress walls or potentially kill off the forces sent out by the castle defenders, here we had to take part in a really well-thought-out tactical/rounded fight. The land combat is as simple to control as the rest of the game and offers a wide range of strategic options. Thank God, instead of pushing the RTS line as Microids did with Cutthroats, the creators here have turned to a turn-based design with tremendous flare.
We have two sorts of units: sabre-wielding riflemen and soldiers, who the city defenders strive to destroy with muskets, infantry, cavalry, and Indians. Each unit has its own set of strengths and limitations, as well as a particular tactical purpose. Soldiers armed with mortars, for example, are only effective from afar and are quite weak in close battle, while cavalry is a fatal force in open charge, but they are finished like a stick when they are motionless and caught in the flank. The location is also important: whether you hide in the woods or bait in the field, Pirates! It makes a difference if a platoon strikes from high ground or whether squads lie down. The fight’s likely ending is also far more realistic: don’t even consider besieging the city with double the overwhelming force of the old classic, or you’ll fail terribly…
Technicolor, widescreen
As realistic as the land combat is, Pirates! has a cartoonish look that fits the game nicely, evoking vintage Errol Flynn films like Pirates of the Caribbean (see also inside the box) rather than a historically accurate film. When I originally saw the screenshots, I was concerned that the mood would be too Disney-esque, but as I received the game in my hands, my concerns vanished. Thankfully, the cartoonish designs never get cheesy, and anybody who thinks it’s too juvenile should look at the bosomy barmaids or the mayors’ daughters.
Our hero has the swagger of a Hollywood star, the pirates are appropriately threatening and badass, the damsels in distress are lovely (or cruel, depending on how they’re purposely fashioned), and the mayors appear different for each country. Nonetheless, I believe a bit more diversity in the physical look would have been nice: I don’t think it’s that impossible to accomplish the technological feat of having more than one model of the females or a certain arch-villain today. Thankfully, the game’s amazing animation compensates for this: at every key moment, we witness sword thrusts, curtsies, and admiring gestures that are recognizable from romantic adventure films – but with the game’s satirical twist.
Warning: this game is very addicting! Only in the presence of a physician!
I wasn’t expecting Sid Meier to outdo himself once again and create a recreation of a classic with his tiny team that I’d be so enthralled by… Meier’s games are a fantastic delight to keep an eye out for: they seem to be a simple little strategy game with well-crafted yet uncomplicated visuals… Then, after supper, you merely stare at them in the direction of the afternoon. You suddenly realize you’ve forgotten who you live with, let alone saying goodbye to them before going to bed, and you’ve missed dinner (what supper?). You can’t even get six horses off the airport the next day when Pirates are on the loose! I’m not exaggerating when I say that Meier’s games are very addicting, with Pirates! being the most so. For anxious family, friends, and girlfriends, I’d simply remark that, on top of everything else, this game is also the best in terms of replayability, so there’s no way out.
-BadSector-(2004)
Pro:
+ Still a fantastic blend of diverse playing styles + A fantastic mix of new and classic aspects + Insanely addicting, just unstoppable
Against:
– The landing search is aggravating enough – Dancing is frustratingly difficult at first – Some previous functions are oddly absent
Atari is the publisher of this game.
Firaxis Games is the creator of this game.
Strategy-Action-Adventure is a strategy-action-adventure style.
The film was released in 2004.
RETRO – Matey, matey, matey, matey, matey, matey, matey, In this version of Sid Meier’s original, the fearsome pirate terrorizes the Caribbean once again. Fear not, treasure-laden Spanish galleons, affluent coastal communities, and powerful mayors afraid of your dreaming maidens: the death’s-head banner is flying once again after 17 years! It concerns me today, yet in 1987, I knew the Caribbean much better than my neighborhood. I’d have shrugged my head in bewilderment if someone had asked me where any street in the neighborhood was, but if they’d asked me which way to sail from Port Royal to Havana,…
Pirates of the Caribbean [RETRO – 2004] – Sid Meier’s Pirates!
Pirates of the Caribbean [RETRO – 2004] – Sid Meier’s Pirates!
2022-01-06
Gergely Herpai (BadSector)
Sid Meier has excelled himself again again, despite the fact that this is “just” a remake. Pirates! is a fantastic experience for fans of the classics as well as those seeking something fresh.
9.3 out of 10 for gameplay
9.2 for graphics
9.2 for the story
8.9 out of 10 for music and audio
9.5 for ambiance
9.2
AWESOME
Sid Meier has excelled himself again again, despite the fact that this is “just” a remake. Pirates! is a fantastic experience for fans of the classics as well as those seeking something fresh.
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Sid Meier’s Pirates! – Pirates of the Caribbean is a video game released in 2004. It was developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K Games. The game is a strategy game that has been ported to numerous platforms, including Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. Reference: sid meier’s pirates free.
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