Loosely based on the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, this game puts you in the role of a young sea captain setting out from a little English port, off to make his fortune. The setting of the fictional (at least I think they’re fictional) islands in the Caribbean and the fact that your character looks a little like Will Turner from the films it about where the similarities end – so if you are looking for a typical film tie-in game, this isn’t it. What we basically have here is a full-blown pirate RPG, with a serious attempt made to merge the two genres. (A similar attempt was made with Sea Dogs - though the developers claim this was not the original intention but happened over time – which would have worked nicely if that game hadn’t been so buggy.) In many ways Bethesda Softworks have managed to achieve this, but there are still some failings.
The game starts with an optional tutorial mode led by your boatswain, and he pops up at various times throughout the game to offer help. In true RPG (Role Playing Game) style, when you’re in the ports you can wander through the area, talking to the inhabitants, seeking out quests, trading, visiting the Governor, picking up local gossip, and of course the all-time favourite pastime in RPGs: randomly entering peoples’ houses and taking whatever’s inside. The graphics are very nicely done indeed, whether in town or at sea. There are other places you can explore as well like caves and jungles, with new weirdness to be found there (though some of them seem to simply be there as they are nice to look at!) The ambient sound effects are very nice as well, and there is quite a bit of sampled speech here and there which is good quality. Aesthetically I can’t fault the game and there are certainly a large number of characters with quite varied quests for you to find in a pretty big gaming world.
As with all RPGs, you have a set of stats that you can improve as you gain enough experience to level up. For example you can have skill in leadership, meaning your men will fight harder and be less likely to give up, or swordplay, and various other things. As you go along you can also acquire specific skills related to certain aspects of the game, such as better control of the ship and less damage during storms. There are many options for upgrading your equipment, your ship’s abilities, and your crew (recruiting officers with better skills). Several nationalities are to be befriended or contended with, and of course there be pirates in these waters. Argh. It all sounds like the perfect gaming experience for pirate sim and RPG fans, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately I found that the interface let the game down badly. (Possibly because I was using the keyboard & mouse, possibly because I didn’t have enough patience with it, but all the same I think the interface was poor for several reasons.) Even after customising it I didn’t’ feel comfortable with it. It works much better in RPG mode – exploring places and talking to people etc – than it does in pirate mode. The sword-fighting seems unnecessarily irksome, and the naval battles that are mooted as “intense and exciting” on the packaging initially appear impossible, unwieldy, or just plain boring. It does improve a bit if you manage to upgrade your ship. But even then it seems quite cumbersome. The screen where you sail between destinations on the other hand is unsatisfactory for the opposite reason – it’s too easy. I mean, simplifying true ship movement a little is probably necessary in a computer game, but in this your ship drives more like a dodgem. You can’t just put a sailing ship into reverse!
I’m afraid that in the end I rather gave up on this game, despite the fact that it had so many good features. As I get older I seem to have less and less patience with computer games, so I guess that if you have a bit more patience you could well find Pirates of the Caribbean very rewarding. I feel a little mean giving it only 3 stars, but from my personal experience it isn’t worth more. (If you have a multi-buttoned joypad that you’re comfortable using it might also add that extra star to the rating.)
System Requirements
OS: Windows Me, 2000, XP, x64
CPU: Pentium III 800Mhz
HDD space: 2.9Gb (comes on 2 CD-ROMs)
RAM: 128Mb
Graphics card: 32Mb
DirectX: 9.0
Tested On:
OS: Windows XP Home Edition SP2
CPU: Pentium 4 2.4GHz
RAM: 768Mb
Graphics card: 256Mb (GeForce 5500 FX)
DirectX 9.0c
I had no problems, the graphics looked good and ran very smoothly.
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