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Pirates of the Caribbean (not always the intended title) was on track to be a really good game, maybe even a great game. That is until Warner Brothers came along, hijacked the title (through force or the force of money), slapped the movie title all over it, and shoved it out the door long before it was finished.
I wanted to like this game. I really wanted to enjoy this game. I am a big fan of the pirating genre. That, coupled with the open-ended game play, had me very excited about this game. Throw in the complex and well-designed sailing and naval combat sequences and you have yourself a fantastic title in the works. Indeed, all of these things are definitely true in Pirates.
The game does have a nice, open-ended feel. You are allowed to progress through the main storyline generally at your leisure, taking on side missions and your own adventures at your choosing. You can progress and upgrade the skills of not only yourself, but also different officers that you can recruit at local taverns. You can amass wealth through trade or warfare, develop your naval skills and build your own small fleet to sail about the Caribbean if you choose.
Naval combat in this game is an art. Unlike other pirate games, the naval combat is neither quick, nor is it trivial. It takes skill to engage enemies on the high seas, both skills for your character and officers and skills for you as the player. Combat at sea can take a long time to resolve. Making strategic and tactical maneuvers and choices is critical and mistakes can be costly. While the naval combat in the game is challenging and rewarding, it also involves a steep learning curve. Doubtless the enemies will sink your ship numerous times, resulting in much frustration and reloading from the last save point, before you begin to grasp the combat nuances and start to acheive success.
In addition to combat at sea, you have many options in the world to find adventure and treasure. Whether engaging in honest trade of goods, or smuggling contraband goods between the islands, moving cargo around can be profitable and dangerous. On the islands, you are free to roam about, stealing things from houses, chatting up (or slaughtering) the locals, adventuring into dark dungeons in search of treasure, or having a drink at the tavern. You can gamble, hire new crew and officers, listen to rumors around town, pick up side missions, outfit yourself or your officers, upgrade and repair your ship, and do numerous other tasks, some meaningful and some tedious, on land in and around the towns.
All of this sounds like a great idea for a fun, exciting, and rewarding game. In fact, it is a great idea. Unfortunately, this game just can't get it together and escape the numerous, sometimes very serious, bugs and problems that plague it at every turn. Rather than try and explain the circumstances for the bugs, I think it is sufficient to simply list the most egregious ones that I recall, in no particular order.
- Blank screens after zoning between areas
- Huge pauses (freezes) in the game while simple things like sound effect were loaded
- Atrocious spelling and grammatical errors throughout most of the game text
- Friendly AI (your accompanying officers) coming completely unhinged in tight spaces, particularly dungeons
- Crashes in game play at various points
It was this last one that ruined it for me. After hours and hours of dealing with the problems, I was having a grand adventure. I ran into a smuggler who wanted some of the contraband that I was hauling (I wasn't aware that it was contraband on this particular island). I decided to do the pirate-like thing and deal. Of course, the deal went south. The officials showed up and we had to take them down in swashbuckling saber combat. Then the smugglers turned on us and we had to kill them too! We did, then quickly made our escape back to the ship, wealthier and successful. Just as we were sighing with relief, a big mean government ship attacked us, determined to bring us in for our crimes. We evaded and used our speed to out-manuever the larger vessel, eventually whittling away its hull and sails with our long range cannons until we were about to close and board her. As I zoomed in with my spyglass to check on the ship's status, it happened. I lost control. No input did anything, except the start/pause menu. Then I realized that the opposing ship was no longer doing anything, she just sat there on the screen, bobbing lifelessly in the water. We were still moving and the fish were still occassionally splashing, but for all intents and purposes, it was over. The game had died. Again. In the heat of battle. Did I mention that you cannot save during naval combat? I looked sadly at my last save point, over an hour prior to this adventure. I had won a new sword, gained a level, advanced the story, undertaken this pirating mission and was about to win my first heavy ship if we had successfully boarded her. Now I had nothing. That was the closing moment for this game. I ejected the disc, tossed it back in the package, and sent it back to Gamefly.
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