Overview

One of my favourite games ever on any system was MPS Labs’ game Pirates! (published by Microprose) on my old Atari ST. Cutthroats is an attempt to update the same basic game idea to the modern (well, modernish computer), with flashier graphics, more in-depth tactical land battles, and the like. How well does it succeed?

First Impressions

The presentation throughout is very slick, from the nicely-produced game manual to the intro movie and game menu itself. This was part of Eidos’ drive to prove that they weren’t a “one game company” (Tomb Raider) a few years ago. The options you had when docked are virtually identical to those in Pirates! - i.e. visit the Governor, visit the tavern (to recruit), visit the merchant… etc. When you set sail, everything looked good. I was prepared for a very enjoyable gaming experience… though as I was to find out, Cutthroats didn’t quite deliver…

Interface

Everything is mouse-driven or, if you prefer, accessed by keyboard shortcuts. I have no problem with the menu interface or the battle controls at sea (though these seemed rather sluggish), but the land battles left a little to be desired. The problem was that they had tried to add more tactical depth to the land battles, but some units simply refused to respond to your controls at any time – meaning you eventually gave up trying to use them at all.

Difficulty

The difficulty is actually gauged fairly well, but with the game being rather prone to crashing for no adequately explained reason, I never quite got into it enough to really be able to do anything really interesting. Certainly all the basic components you would want seemed to be there – national affiliation & Letters of Marque, missions, treasure maps… There just didn’t seem to be the kind of fun factor that the original game Pirates! had.

Aesthetics

While it’s an old game so you wouldn’t expect too much from the graphics, Cutthroats looks pretty good even today. The ship models are well designed, the different areas and terrains actually look different, etc – nothing spectacular, but not bad at all.

The sampled speech is clear with no obvious clipping, and the explosion sound effects are good and not too samey. However the music, while being good at first, is far too repetitive and gets monotonous quite quickly.

Will You Still Be Playing it in 6 Months’ Time?

I wasn’t. Unless you are blessed with a system that refuses to crash the game, you’ll find the constant restarts too annoying to allow you to really get into the game. I’m not 100% sure that you would anyway, but at least you’d have a decent chance! As it is, I strongly suspect that you’ll play it for a while but end up getting fed up of it.

Is it Worth the Money?

If you see it for a few quid / dollars and like this sort of game, you may find it’s not a complete waste of money. Of course, they may have patched it sufficiently since I played it to make a real difference.

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Final Ratings

Graphics: - 73% - not bad, but nothing special.

Sound: - 80% - good sampled speech but overly repetitive music.

Playability: - 76% - reasonably good control system for most of the game, glitches in the land battle controls.

Longevity: - 45% - would probably be pretty good if it weren’t for the frequent crashes…

Replay Value: - 56% - it’s got a reasonable amount of challenge and it quite fun to play – just not as much fun as it should be.

Value For Money: - 55% - you should be able to pick it up really cheaply these days, so it’s not a complete disaster.

Overall Rating: - 58% - it tries really hard, but ultimately it fails. (Note to Microprose – release an updated version of Pirates! - please!!



System Requirements

Nothing special, you can even play it with no 3D card at all - but I wouldn't advise it! (I've done it... the screen updates are really slow, and the game crasehs even more frequently!)

Links

For a much more satisfying (though still not quite perfect) update of a classic game, try Cinemaware's Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown


Recommended: No