Pros: Graphics are better than the original Pirates, barely. That is all.
Cons: Terrible gameplay. Buggy as springtime in Alaska. Semi-steep learning curve - then boredom. Priced ridiculous.
The Bottom Line: Buy any other game. Besides wasting your money you will be wasting your time. Any good reviews are suspicious. Not many people I know would enjoy this buggy, shallow game.
nixin's Full Review: Sid Meier's Pirates for Windows
I have been a huge fan of Sid Meier, playing his games for nearly 20 years. I played the original Pirates when it came out in 1987 for the Commodore 64. Sadly that ancient version is leaps and bounds ahead of this release!
All of the gaming fun has been taken out. The only good feature of this release? The graphics, but they are nothing compared to FarCry or any game released in the since 2000. The modeling engine is older than what was used for Kingpin or even the original Half Life. Any Playstation 1 game has better graphics than this new Pirates.
Are you new to the Pirates franchise? I strongly recommend not purchasing this game for the following reasons:
Lousy game play, the learning curve is a few hours and then if you want to finish a career, you suffer complete boredom
Mission are repetitive and buggy
Every time you enter a new town the same thing happens over and over and over.
You have to learn how to dance. I have no idea how they came up with this "game inside of a game" gimmick but it is utterly ridiculous and a huge waste of time. You will spend hours trying to follow the moves of some Governor's daughter, teaching you to dance.
The treasure map missions are full of bugs. I have gotten the same map multiple times and can't get a new map, so there is no way to progress my career. I made a bug report to Atari and so far (4/6/05) there is no fix on their web site.
The price is insane. I paid $50 US new. The game is not worth more than $10. If you are a hard core fan or just like pirating around the Caribbean, don't waste your time or money. Get the original Pirates for IBM or try playing a game that came out a few years ago that does much more for Sid's profiteering legacy: Cutthroats
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