Saph
06-23-2011, 05:05 AM
Hello fellow gamers and wonderful review readers!
Today I'd like to introduce you to a game that you may or may not already know! All that I know is, that it is one of the best Pirate RPGs in history, with a cutting edge naval warfare engine that will make your adrenaline pump!
AAARRRR Mateys, and now walk ye the plank spread before you, and fall into the maw of
http://www.gamers-globe.dk/img/games/3/3/packshot/pirates-of-the-caribbean-pc-packshot.jpg
System requirements
Windows:
800 MHz Intel Pentium III or AMD Equivalent CPU
128 MB RAM
8x CD/DVD-ROM drive
1.5 GB hard disk space
32 MB DirectX 8.1 compatible graphics card
DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
Windows
Plot
http://cdn4.spong.com/screen-shot/p/i/piratesoft102149/_-Ubi-Soft-Entertainment-to-publish-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-in-EMEA-territories-_.jpg
You play the role of Captain Nathaniel Hawk, an englishman who has recently sailed to the caribbean isles to deliver a cargo of leather to Oxbay. What appears to be a normal day of repearing the vessel, selling your booty, and replacing the scurvy gnaves who were ill begotten enough to get swept away by calypso herself during a mighty storm, it suddenly takes a turn for the worse as you board your ship again, for a squadron of battleships and man'o'wars appear like ghosts from the fog, and they are flying french colors.
The english navy stationed there, a lousy 2 warships, are quickly destroyed by the french fleet, and in less than a half hour port Oxbay is in french hands.
Only 1 sloop(A type of ship)manages to escape unseen into the waters, to warn the english govenor of Redmond island.
You are the captain of said sloop, and time is now to do with as you please. Do you want to tell the govenor to go **** himself, or are you a law abiding captain with a dream of being in the fleet? Or maybe you simply wanna keep your head below the gillotine line, and be a simple trader? Whatever you want to do, it is yours to do, nobody forces you to do anything.
Gameplay
Pirates of the Caribbean is by far one of the best pirate related RPGs that I've ever seen, and blows even most of the modern movie franchise games out of the water!
The gameplay is absolutely fantastic, and split into 4 types of gaming:
On land, exploring.
On land, fighting(Sword drawn)
Sailing, world map(watch out for french and pirates early on! If you become a pirate it is likely that all nationalities have a bounty on your head! So be careful here! Storms too! Storms are bad!)
Sailing, combat(On the ocean, face to face with 1-4 enemy ships, along with 0-3 allied ships with you. You can also board a ship, and fight on the deck, and if you win, the ship is in your mercy)
Each type of gameplay has different controls and things you can do, for example on sailing mode(non world map), you can hit tab and actually walk your own ships deck.
Land HOOOO!
http://www.xbox365.com/gdb/images/EpVpFulyuknaMFnrHS/Pirates_of_the_Caribbean_24_500.jpg
In the world map sailing mode, you can sail from island to island, and each island is unique in its nationanility, import/export/contraband, equipment, ship quality, and wealth. Each island is complete with a port, where you gain entrance to the village. There're also seperate shores where you can moor and travel to the village through the jungle(In case you're on bad terms with the islands nationality, and that brings me to the next thing each island has). Each island also has a fort, which is the main stronghold of the island.
Man the Cannons!
Combat in PotC can be extremely hectic and quite stressful at times, and other times you might as well give up and accept your fate, or you might be lucky and get a clean win. You can have 'automatic' cannon volleys, in which case the crews morale, your skill as captain with cannons, as well as a cannoneer(If you hired one), all of these factors will then increase the percentage in which you get a hit, as well as a critical hit. This is when you're seeing the ship from a birds eye view, but if you push tab and you yourself is walking the deck, then you become the cannoneer, and you have to aim with a scope. The scope has 4 possible colors:
Green: Allied ship, do not shoot when it is green, as there's a 90%+ chance of your bombs hitting an ally
Yellow: Standard warning, you are quite likely to hit water, but if you see an enemy ship in the direction you're shooting, you never know!
Red: Enemy ship, shoot with the scope being this color to get a 90%+ chance of having atleast 1 cannonball hit the enemy.
Gray: Neutral ship, it may decide to hit you, or you may decide to hit it.
Arrrr me steel shall be your maker!
http://www.vgrevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/POTC-Combat.jpg
Fighting in 3rd person can be either annoying, or a tremendous ego boost! You have a few things you can do while fighting enemies on land:
Attack
Parry
Shoot your gun
strafe
Move forward
Move back
Turn
Run
What I like about combat in PotC is that its not just a matter of "My skill is higher than yours so I win, HAR HAR!!!", but more of a personal skill of the player. When is a good time to shoot your gun, since while you shoot you cant attack or parry, and you can be killed in 1-3 hits easily. When is a good time to strike, and when is a good time to go on the defense? Whatever you happen to be best at, that is what you should focus on untill you gain higher levels.
Throw the grapels! Let us board 'em!
During a naval combat, all hope is not lost at any point! Say you're losing, and your ship is taking in water(aka sinking, duh). You can with the last few minutes you have left before the ship sinks, sail up next to an enemy ship, matching their speed, and making your ship paralel to theirs, you'll get the option to board their ship, at which point the fight turns up close and personal as your crew boards their ship, and you can fight head to head on your or their deck. Depending on the number of crew each ship has left, more will be present on the boarding battlefield, up to 4 vs. 4 at most. If you're a good fencer, with the professional fencer ability, you can easily kill most 3 guards by yourself, but don't get cocky, as no captain is invincible. If you win a deck fight, you get to loot the little chests, crannies, and crates scattered around the deck, and then move down to the next level, where another fight errupts. This can go on for as much as 4-5 times, depending on the number of crew men, and the ship size of your enemy(For example, a sloop is likely to only have 1 level, while a battleship is almost guaranteed to have 5)
You're going where now!?
Fast travel is a nice little feature in the game in case you're in a hurry Real life, or if you're just impatient, and dont really care about the realism aspect of the game!
Fast travel is accessed through the Enter key, and, if you're for example in a town, you can fast travel to the store, shipyard, tavern, port, and(if the town has one)the town hall.
You can also fast travel when you're sailing in non world map mode. For example, if you're in a naval fight with enemy ships, you can fast travel to an enemy ship, making a successful boarding easier and more likely, as you're placed right next to the ship you selected. You can also fast travel to key points on an island, if you're close to one, for example a seperate shore named the Devils throat, or simply fast travelt to the port of said islands town.
Time to hit the jackpot, ladey!
http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/pirates-caribbean/potc-04.jpg
Tired of winning against enemy ships with your 4 unbeatable, high level, extremely well captained battleships with the biggest guns you can possibly buy with gold, and the best defense possible? Tired of being bored with all ships in the entire caribbean steering clear of your path, making your life of piracy sortof lacking in piracy?
I have a solution for you.
Attack a fort. Forts are the defensive stronghold of a town, and every single town in the game has one! The act of taking a fort is extremely difficult and dangerous, but if you succeed, it is extremely rewarding, with large amounts of booty, tons of gold, and a morale boost for your crew, and also a huge chunk of experience for you, and all captains and officers under your command as well.
The act of taking a fort has 2 stages:
Naval war
Ground war
Naval war: Attacking from your ship(s), and trying to aim for their cannons, as their walls are completely immune to any damage you make! Aim high and hit their cannons, making their long range defenses useless, and allowing you to board, which leads you to ground war.
Ground war: Attacking on land with your crew. Just like an enemy ship, you go from section to section of the fort, killing any guards you see, until the end where you capture the fort, and therefor the city, and you get to loot the entire city for gold, supplies, and contraband such as silk, chocolate, ebony, mahogany, whatever.
Once you have taken a fort, the town associated with it will be deserted completely when you walk into it, but will reset the moment you sail away.
Aye matey, there be treasure in them there caves, I tells ye!
If you decide you've had enough of putting your life at stake on the high seas, you can always moor at a fittingly large island, and go adventuring in the jungle! There're many caverns and secret places to find, explore, and gain incredible treasure, from huge amounts of gold, to extremely valueable weaponry
Don't like the world the way it is?
There've been many discussions on the internet over the years stating that PotC is a fantastic game, but lacking in overall polished-ness due to the fact that it was released hastily. In response to this, a website/forum named Pirates Ahoy has, on their own steam, created a fully functioning altering mod for PotC called Build Mod 13. It'll take all of the little things that you may find annoying in PotC, and make them available to you! One thing is for example that you can play other characters than Nathaniel, such as Jack Sparrow. You can even play a female! The engine also gets put alittle on steroids, with MUCH taller waves and MUCH more ferocious storms, but without any extra damage, it just looks REALLY HARDCORE!
It also enables you to not immediately die from getting sunk. If you get sunk, you get put on a dingy, the smallest boat available, pretty much a small fishing boat with the ores taken out and a sail put up instead. It has zero cannons, and no defense at all! It is just EXTREMELY FAST! It is pretty much PotC's formula 1, extremely fast little sucker. Perfect tool to get up close to a huge ship, and board them before they can fire their cannons, meaning that you'll gain an unharmed ship, with hopefully the crew intact, and a number of ammo for your cannons, all for free! Just cause you get sunk and you sit on a dingy with 7 of your surviving crew members does not mean that the game is over, there're many ways to work your way back to become the terror of the caribbean, or the friendly face everyone wants to know!
So if you think that the standard PotC is alittle lacking, I highly advice you to try build mod 13 by Pirates Ahoy.
Scores
Gameplay: 9/10. Fantastic gameplay, lots of fun stuff to do, and fun while doing it even! Lots of oppertunities, and lots of places to explore, people to meet, ships to command, and scurvy gnaves to give a watery grave!
Graphics: 5/10. The graphics are of course outdated having been released in the early 2000s, but they're not so hopelessly bad that it takes away from the atmosphere! The graphics are not great, they're not even good, but they're acceptable.
Sound: 6/10. This was a hard one, since 2 huge factors come in. 1 is that the sound is fantastic, with lots of sounds, and very convincing noises of fighting, guns blazing, and bustling cities with lots of non understandable overlapping talking in said cities. The bad side is that said nice sounds are looped.
Unique features: 2/10. This game has 1 massive flaw. Everything looks the same. The ship decks look the same when you board an enemy ship, even if your ship was a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE city compared to their tiny little fishing boat. Caverns also all have the same layout, and there's maybe a handful of unique ways a house can look like, but there're literally hundreds of doors leading to hundreds of houses, so with only say I guess 15 of them being unique, then the last 85 houses will just get a random one each of the first 15. The repetitive, deja vu feel to when you're walking from 1 place to another is a real buzzkill and a mood ruiner, and makes it hard for this game to remain an RPG.
Combat: 8/10. One of the games Strongpoints. The combat in the game is extremely entertaining in its apparent simplicity, but despite that it can sometimes be slightly repetitive, the combat just never seems to get old!
Overall score: 8.5/10
The game is one of the best pirate games I've ever played, and after I got this I completely stopped even wanting to try others, as this game is now the picture I get when someone says "pirate game". It is unbeatably awesome, and any pirate fan gamer worth his purse should own this.
Today I'd like to introduce you to a game that you may or may not already know! All that I know is, that it is one of the best Pirate RPGs in history, with a cutting edge naval warfare engine that will make your adrenaline pump!
AAARRRR Mateys, and now walk ye the plank spread before you, and fall into the maw of
http://www.gamers-globe.dk/img/games/3/3/packshot/pirates-of-the-caribbean-pc-packshot.jpg
System requirements
Windows:
800 MHz Intel Pentium III or AMD Equivalent CPU
128 MB RAM
8x CD/DVD-ROM drive
1.5 GB hard disk space
32 MB DirectX 8.1 compatible graphics card
DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
Windows
Plot
http://cdn4.spong.com/screen-shot/p/i/piratesoft102149/_-Ubi-Soft-Entertainment-to-publish-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-in-EMEA-territories-_.jpg
You play the role of Captain Nathaniel Hawk, an englishman who has recently sailed to the caribbean isles to deliver a cargo of leather to Oxbay. What appears to be a normal day of repearing the vessel, selling your booty, and replacing the scurvy gnaves who were ill begotten enough to get swept away by calypso herself during a mighty storm, it suddenly takes a turn for the worse as you board your ship again, for a squadron of battleships and man'o'wars appear like ghosts from the fog, and they are flying french colors.
The english navy stationed there, a lousy 2 warships, are quickly destroyed by the french fleet, and in less than a half hour port Oxbay is in french hands.
Only 1 sloop(A type of ship)manages to escape unseen into the waters, to warn the english govenor of Redmond island.
You are the captain of said sloop, and time is now to do with as you please. Do you want to tell the govenor to go **** himself, or are you a law abiding captain with a dream of being in the fleet? Or maybe you simply wanna keep your head below the gillotine line, and be a simple trader? Whatever you want to do, it is yours to do, nobody forces you to do anything.
Gameplay
Pirates of the Caribbean is by far one of the best pirate related RPGs that I've ever seen, and blows even most of the modern movie franchise games out of the water!
The gameplay is absolutely fantastic, and split into 4 types of gaming:
On land, exploring.
On land, fighting(Sword drawn)
Sailing, world map(watch out for french and pirates early on! If you become a pirate it is likely that all nationalities have a bounty on your head! So be careful here! Storms too! Storms are bad!)
Sailing, combat(On the ocean, face to face with 1-4 enemy ships, along with 0-3 allied ships with you. You can also board a ship, and fight on the deck, and if you win, the ship is in your mercy)
Each type of gameplay has different controls and things you can do, for example on sailing mode(non world map), you can hit tab and actually walk your own ships deck.
Land HOOOO!
http://www.xbox365.com/gdb/images/EpVpFulyuknaMFnrHS/Pirates_of_the_Caribbean_24_500.jpg
In the world map sailing mode, you can sail from island to island, and each island is unique in its nationanility, import/export/contraband, equipment, ship quality, and wealth. Each island is complete with a port, where you gain entrance to the village. There're also seperate shores where you can moor and travel to the village through the jungle(In case you're on bad terms with the islands nationality, and that brings me to the next thing each island has). Each island also has a fort, which is the main stronghold of the island.
Man the Cannons!
Combat in PotC can be extremely hectic and quite stressful at times, and other times you might as well give up and accept your fate, or you might be lucky and get a clean win. You can have 'automatic' cannon volleys, in which case the crews morale, your skill as captain with cannons, as well as a cannoneer(If you hired one), all of these factors will then increase the percentage in which you get a hit, as well as a critical hit. This is when you're seeing the ship from a birds eye view, but if you push tab and you yourself is walking the deck, then you become the cannoneer, and you have to aim with a scope. The scope has 4 possible colors:
Green: Allied ship, do not shoot when it is green, as there's a 90%+ chance of your bombs hitting an ally
Yellow: Standard warning, you are quite likely to hit water, but if you see an enemy ship in the direction you're shooting, you never know!
Red: Enemy ship, shoot with the scope being this color to get a 90%+ chance of having atleast 1 cannonball hit the enemy.
Gray: Neutral ship, it may decide to hit you, or you may decide to hit it.
Arrrr me steel shall be your maker!
http://www.vgrevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/POTC-Combat.jpg
Fighting in 3rd person can be either annoying, or a tremendous ego boost! You have a few things you can do while fighting enemies on land:
Attack
Parry
Shoot your gun
strafe
Move forward
Move back
Turn
Run
What I like about combat in PotC is that its not just a matter of "My skill is higher than yours so I win, HAR HAR!!!", but more of a personal skill of the player. When is a good time to shoot your gun, since while you shoot you cant attack or parry, and you can be killed in 1-3 hits easily. When is a good time to strike, and when is a good time to go on the defense? Whatever you happen to be best at, that is what you should focus on untill you gain higher levels.
Throw the grapels! Let us board 'em!
During a naval combat, all hope is not lost at any point! Say you're losing, and your ship is taking in water(aka sinking, duh). You can with the last few minutes you have left before the ship sinks, sail up next to an enemy ship, matching their speed, and making your ship paralel to theirs, you'll get the option to board their ship, at which point the fight turns up close and personal as your crew boards their ship, and you can fight head to head on your or their deck. Depending on the number of crew each ship has left, more will be present on the boarding battlefield, up to 4 vs. 4 at most. If you're a good fencer, with the professional fencer ability, you can easily kill most 3 guards by yourself, but don't get cocky, as no captain is invincible. If you win a deck fight, you get to loot the little chests, crannies, and crates scattered around the deck, and then move down to the next level, where another fight errupts. This can go on for as much as 4-5 times, depending on the number of crew men, and the ship size of your enemy(For example, a sloop is likely to only have 1 level, while a battleship is almost guaranteed to have 5)
You're going where now!?
Fast travel is a nice little feature in the game in case you're in a hurry Real life, or if you're just impatient, and dont really care about the realism aspect of the game!
Fast travel is accessed through the Enter key, and, if you're for example in a town, you can fast travel to the store, shipyard, tavern, port, and(if the town has one)the town hall.
You can also fast travel when you're sailing in non world map mode. For example, if you're in a naval fight with enemy ships, you can fast travel to an enemy ship, making a successful boarding easier and more likely, as you're placed right next to the ship you selected. You can also fast travel to key points on an island, if you're close to one, for example a seperate shore named the Devils throat, or simply fast travelt to the port of said islands town.
Time to hit the jackpot, ladey!
http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/pirates-caribbean/potc-04.jpg
Tired of winning against enemy ships with your 4 unbeatable, high level, extremely well captained battleships with the biggest guns you can possibly buy with gold, and the best defense possible? Tired of being bored with all ships in the entire caribbean steering clear of your path, making your life of piracy sortof lacking in piracy?
I have a solution for you.
Attack a fort. Forts are the defensive stronghold of a town, and every single town in the game has one! The act of taking a fort is extremely difficult and dangerous, but if you succeed, it is extremely rewarding, with large amounts of booty, tons of gold, and a morale boost for your crew, and also a huge chunk of experience for you, and all captains and officers under your command as well.
The act of taking a fort has 2 stages:
Naval war
Ground war
Naval war: Attacking from your ship(s), and trying to aim for their cannons, as their walls are completely immune to any damage you make! Aim high and hit their cannons, making their long range defenses useless, and allowing you to board, which leads you to ground war.
Ground war: Attacking on land with your crew. Just like an enemy ship, you go from section to section of the fort, killing any guards you see, until the end where you capture the fort, and therefor the city, and you get to loot the entire city for gold, supplies, and contraband such as silk, chocolate, ebony, mahogany, whatever.
Once you have taken a fort, the town associated with it will be deserted completely when you walk into it, but will reset the moment you sail away.
Aye matey, there be treasure in them there caves, I tells ye!
If you decide you've had enough of putting your life at stake on the high seas, you can always moor at a fittingly large island, and go adventuring in the jungle! There're many caverns and secret places to find, explore, and gain incredible treasure, from huge amounts of gold, to extremely valueable weaponry
Don't like the world the way it is?
There've been many discussions on the internet over the years stating that PotC is a fantastic game, but lacking in overall polished-ness due to the fact that it was released hastily. In response to this, a website/forum named Pirates Ahoy has, on their own steam, created a fully functioning altering mod for PotC called Build Mod 13. It'll take all of the little things that you may find annoying in PotC, and make them available to you! One thing is for example that you can play other characters than Nathaniel, such as Jack Sparrow. You can even play a female! The engine also gets put alittle on steroids, with MUCH taller waves and MUCH more ferocious storms, but without any extra damage, it just looks REALLY HARDCORE!
It also enables you to not immediately die from getting sunk. If you get sunk, you get put on a dingy, the smallest boat available, pretty much a small fishing boat with the ores taken out and a sail put up instead. It has zero cannons, and no defense at all! It is just EXTREMELY FAST! It is pretty much PotC's formula 1, extremely fast little sucker. Perfect tool to get up close to a huge ship, and board them before they can fire their cannons, meaning that you'll gain an unharmed ship, with hopefully the crew intact, and a number of ammo for your cannons, all for free! Just cause you get sunk and you sit on a dingy with 7 of your surviving crew members does not mean that the game is over, there're many ways to work your way back to become the terror of the caribbean, or the friendly face everyone wants to know!
So if you think that the standard PotC is alittle lacking, I highly advice you to try build mod 13 by Pirates Ahoy.
Scores
Gameplay: 9/10. Fantastic gameplay, lots of fun stuff to do, and fun while doing it even! Lots of oppertunities, and lots of places to explore, people to meet, ships to command, and scurvy gnaves to give a watery grave!
Graphics: 5/10. The graphics are of course outdated having been released in the early 2000s, but they're not so hopelessly bad that it takes away from the atmosphere! The graphics are not great, they're not even good, but they're acceptable.
Sound: 6/10. This was a hard one, since 2 huge factors come in. 1 is that the sound is fantastic, with lots of sounds, and very convincing noises of fighting, guns blazing, and bustling cities with lots of non understandable overlapping talking in said cities. The bad side is that said nice sounds are looped.
Unique features: 2/10. This game has 1 massive flaw. Everything looks the same. The ship decks look the same when you board an enemy ship, even if your ship was a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE city compared to their tiny little fishing boat. Caverns also all have the same layout, and there's maybe a handful of unique ways a house can look like, but there're literally hundreds of doors leading to hundreds of houses, so with only say I guess 15 of them being unique, then the last 85 houses will just get a random one each of the first 15. The repetitive, deja vu feel to when you're walking from 1 place to another is a real buzzkill and a mood ruiner, and makes it hard for this game to remain an RPG.
Combat: 8/10. One of the games Strongpoints. The combat in the game is extremely entertaining in its apparent simplicity, but despite that it can sometimes be slightly repetitive, the combat just never seems to get old!
Overall score: 8.5/10
The game is one of the best pirate games I've ever played, and after I got this I completely stopped even wanting to try others, as this game is now the picture I get when someone says "pirate game". It is unbeatably awesome, and any pirate fan gamer worth his purse should own this.