Title: Sid Meier’s Pirates!

Genre: Real Time Strategy

Publisher, Developer: Atari, Fixas

Rating: Everyone

Console: PC

Minimum requirements (PC only): 1GHz CPU, 128MB RAM, and GeForce2 or equivalent video-card

Price$25-$35

Gather round me hardies and I will spin a tale of the sea. ‘Tis a not yarn fer de faint of heart nor any scurvy ker that don’t have his trusty parrot on his shoulcder. It is one of swashbucklin’, sailin’, trasure huntin’ and piratin’.

It is Sid Meier’s Pirates!

The title, which is actually a remake of a game made by Atari in the mid-80s, is another real time strategy one that was released in 2004, but has the staying power and the addicting game play that make it a really easy and fun game to get into.

If you ever wanted to step into a Pirates of the Caribbean movie or the famed Disney ride then this game is for you. Since there is no alcohol, tobacco, or blood this is a game you can be sure that the game really is for all ages. The worst thing for the younger buccaneers is the low cut shirts of some of the more well-endowed wenches you come across in the game, but it is nothing to get your eye-patch in a twist over.

After your family has been kidnapped at the start of the game by a group of villains you catch sail to the tropical Caribbean as a young knave with high hopes of garnering their safe escape and making some gold along the way.

You can choose to be commissioned to plunder by the Spanish (easiest), English, French or Dutch (hardest). With varying difficulty settings and a non-linear story line the decision of where your loyalties lie is a minor one.

You also choose your specialty (ie. Fighting, medicine etc.) and when you want to base your adventure (ie. 1600-1620, 1660-1680 etc.).

One you have your ship you can raid passing ships for gold and cargo, sink any vessal you wish, visit towns and gather more rift-raft for your crew or sell your plunder for a pretty penny.

The more you do to help a country’s cause the higher your rank will become for that nationality and you will gain perks. This can be done with any of the countries though so it isn’t hard to be an English Baron, a French Admiral and a Dutch Colonel all at the same time.

You can romance governor’s daughters, take over towns, get ships upgraded with better weapons and hulls or divide the plunder you have accumulated when the crew gets cranky while in towns.

During your travels you will get hints on where the evil Baron Raymondo is, where secret treasures are buried or where some of the most famous pirates who sailed the seven seas such as Blackbeard, Captain Kid and Captain Morgan are sailing.

The Baron holds the secret maps to where your family is held and is one of the ultimate goals in the game. Chasing him around the Caribbean can be a bit taxing when you have to do it for the 12th time to track down the last map to find your family.

The game is so deep on game play and goals that you can waste a whole evening saying, “I am just going to do one more thing.” That amount of work to do is overwhelming though.

The game has a travel mode where you steer your ship around the water of the tropical seas. There is a combat mode where you trade broadsides with an enemy vessel or one you wish to plunder. There is a battle mode where you go blade-to-blade with a salty pirate or a scared ship’s captain. There is a dance mode to help you woo daughters with your twinkle toes. There is a mode where you talk to bar flies getting information about your enemies. Even if you come upon a hostile town, which will happen a lot if you pick on a certain nationality a lot, you have to sneak into town which has its own mode. So as you can see your peg legs will be a bit tired.

The game controls are designed for a desktop as the number pad is used extensively when sword fighting with other pirates and ship captains, dancing with govenor’s daughters and sailing your ship. Sometimes you can keep up with a few mouse clicks on the key pad on the screen, but using the real keys is faster and more effective.

You also have to be somewhat familiar with how the wind effects how you sail your ship both in traveling and fighting because in the 1600s, when the game is based, Mother Nature did what outboard motors do today.

The graphics are smooth even though there are a few bugs that can make characters look as though they have been dipped in a vat of melted gold. The sound has a lot of subtly as when your sings merrily after winning a sea battle or when you hear a different song for each of the different nationalities towns, but it doesn’t blow you away.

Overall this is a fun game that has a lot of different things that can be done, but that is sometimes the problem. The controls can get a little dicey as well.

7.5 out of 10