Ho, Ho, Ho, and the same ol' Rum:
Fighting has a few new moves but is pretty much the same as you can parry, block and attack. But the game is still clunky when moving your character on land or in hand to hand battles.
breakdown:
Gameplay: B (many new quests and better story line and the new roll playing P.I.R.A.T.E.S system bring this score up some)
Plot: C (don't really have one as its a open ended game)
Value: B- ($29.99 is really too high of a price in a old tech game more like $19.99)
Sound: B- (voice acting is not this games strong point)
Graphics: C- (need better island and land textures as well as town buildings)
Replay Value: B (neverending amount of quests and things to do make this one long game)
Overall: B (average pirates roll playing game that is a rare gem and worth playing for those who don't mind its game flaws and outdated graphical textures)
Ship combat remains the same but some new features have been added such as traveling in a row boat to another friendly ship (not enemy) and is a neat addition. You can advance time as well but this was present in the last version. Now it seems you can install new can's on your ship and have up to three-four allied ships at one time traveling with you.
The games quests are more numerous but some seem tacked on. I only played through some of them and they are vague on telling you hints or what exactly to do to complete them. Still some are really interesting such as treasure hunting maps.
The world map is much larger incompassing most of the Car. sea and even Central America and Northern South America. You have new cities such as Belize, Puerto Bello, Panama, Caracos, Trinidad & Tobago and Lake Texcoco Tenochtitlan in Central America. It now seems to take a good deal of time to cross the entire map area though makes it more real for me.
The new PIRATES roll playing system adds new characteristics such as Power, Insight, Endurance and Success. There are seven total. The other character attributes from the last game are present and you can choose from four classes such as a Adventurer, Merchant and Corsiar the hardest since it means a pirate class (a enemy to all).
The same countries are present like the Dutch which are well rounded, Spain - the most powerful nation, England - Spain's rival enemy and France - the Dutch friendly. Of course there is a Pirate faction but this is hard to play since you are an outcast and I would recommend playing for one of the other nations above first then going for this class after you gain experience with the game.
The graphics are by large outdated and the resolution only goes up to 1280x1024 which on a 22' wide screen monitor looks kind of distorted. Textures especially land on the many islands need updated badly but character and ship models look decent. Water textures are obviously the game's strong point but other textures need updated.
Sounds are mostly meh. You have background music that is OK but I found it annoying as it repeats so I turned it off. Most characters have one intro voice and after that it's all text. Combat sounds such as ship can's and guns are kind of weak but pass the immersion test.
Overall, you have a game here that Age of pirates Car. Tales should have been in the first place. If you don't want to spend the money on this game just download the Super Mod and patches for AOP Car. Tales providing you own it already and if you don't I would recommend buying this game instead as it would be much less hassle to deal with.