Arrrrrrrr me maties, if you land scum are reading this then it means my message in a bottle has found a shore. I captain Ryzza have plondered and conquered the 7 seas. I’m the most deadly pirate there is to be found. Many treaures i have found arrrrrrrrrrrrr. One of my crew tried to steal from me but I caught him, so I made him walk the plank! Arrrrrrrr made him swim with the sharks! O yes the game is great. Can get a bit repetitive but it great so divide and plunder arrrrrrrrrrr .Getting your crew numbers up is simple but after time they will want to divide the plunder (gold, food, treasure and ships) Arrrrrrrrrr and your left with bugger all to start over with.
In Sid Meier's Pirates, your mission is to try and find your long lost family and be the best swashbuckling pirate you can be! Sound good? arrrrrrr read on.....
Getting to know your Pirate Choose a side to fight for, English, French, Some other bugger can’t remember (must have put him to the sword Arrrrrrrrr. Which ever 1 you choose you will then have a neutral and an enemy, but it’s really up to you who you want to sail the 7 seas for. Cruising round the map and Ship battles are the only thing I really hated, well only from the point that sailing into the wind slowed you right down and it would take forever to get anywhere, so attack with the wind was extremely important. Who had the wind won the battle? The more crew you have the faster reload the cannons will be faster. Continue to shoot at your enemy till there energy bar is depleted (they will sink) or they will surrender .If your not interested in shooting cannons at your enemy arrrrrrrrrrrrr ram them! Set for full sail arrrrrrrrrrrrr there’s gonna be blood split on the deck today!
Once you hit them you will jump aboard and fight there captain, choose a 1 of 3 swords (long, short, broad) then with simple control attacks/defend (left or up or down or right + X for attacks or change to B for defense) depending on what level of hardness you have set it on will be a level of difficulty of the fight with the enemy captain Arrrrrrrrrrrrr I Captain Ryzza has never lost a sword fight. Your crew number also helps with the outcome the more crew the higher the outcome of a win and so on I you have less crew the higher you will use. If jump aboard and have too little crew you will have the option to reduce the enemy crew numbers with some fancy footwork and a chop rope there and a barrel explosion there you will cut there numbers down good but the key is there will be combinations of buttons to press and on a timer. There are usually 3 times you have to press combination buttons to lower the enemy crew but if completed you will lower the enemy crew to within a few numbers of your own crew. If you win you will have the option to take the enemy ship as your
Setting anchor at any port or harbour that you are ally with give you the option to go to the Tavern(get more crew only the surliest, scurviest, stinkiest should be allowed to board your ship. Double Arrrrrrr. You can also see the dodgy looking bugger in the corner of the tavern for secret info, or just chat a few randoms up) See the Governor (if you have sunk ships the Governor with promote you and if the governor lets you, you can court his hot daughter arrrrrrrrrrrrr what a beauty she is, which then leads to a dancing mini-game .The governor also gives you your missions and in return you will receive hints to where you family are.1 family member at a time.
Those town folk are shooting at me Arrrr ill teach them The game often tells you if hostile city residents have decided to open fire on you, one option is to attack which leads to a turn based RTS game. Another option is to sneak in by the cover of night. This brings a very simple stealth game, the idea of which is simple - Get to your destination without being spotted by the guards. I they do catch you they will throw you out of there town.
Pimp my Ship In port you can also upgrade your ship 8 in total (better sails, hull, different types of Cannon shots) and repair or sell too. You need to shop around a bit to get them all but it shouldn’t take too long till you have a sacked out, fully modded ship. There’s a wide variety of ships for the taking, and all of them can be upgraded. Arrrr go for the rims, baby, always the rims!
Follow the Leader One thing I notice is that you can have a fleet of up to 5 ships but only 1 ship can enter a battle so that seems a bit stupid when it comes time they you can be against 2 enemy ships(main and escort) What’s the point I say in having so many ships? Incase 1 gets damage? If so why need 5? Because you are a pirate arrrr we are tight and don’t want to send our gold on repairs? The Xbox can handle the ships on screen as there if an offline 4 ship sea battle mode.
Arrrr look at me, the pirate! What’s that crap he is listening to The graphics aren’t that much to look just your average cartoon graphic(imagine broken sword) and you will soon forget about the back ground music as it is off nothing o interest but its in ok with the game.
Arrrrrrrrrrr did you say TREASURE??? At the pub go see the dodgy looking fellow that looks like he’s joed out after one to many jugs of the local brew. He will offer you a treasure map in return for some gold (Arrr of which he will probably blow on more jugs of beer and not even both to get a bath) If you accept you will be given a treasure map. This map will be brief and will only give you 2 compass directions and an area to look around. This is the only other annoying part of the game .With very little to go by from the treasure map it can take some time in finding and with the annoying wind direction this can be painfully slow at times. To find the treasure simply cruise towards the shore where you think the treasure is. It will give you the option of letting the crew go inland and search. Now if you select yes then you will get 1 of 2 outcomes. 1, you will find the treasure or 2, will find nothing. Both of these outcomes will take a week which means food so picking the right spot is important.
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr be quiet I'm the Captain Keeping your crew happy is important. Make sure you are always on the look out for treasure maps , sea battles , completing mission, keeping food levels at a good level otherwise the will get angry and they will leave your crew.
Final word on being a Pirate Overall this game won’t last long in your Xbox, the game play is great but it is very simple minded game play and limited. For me my first comments were "Arrrrr I’m the mightiest Pirate around" and after a weeks play I was more like" Arrrr scallywag I’m gonna retire from being a pirate all have been done" Aiii Captain Ryzza have really enjoyed being a pirate and I know we all have a pirate inside of us just waiting to come out. So me swash buckling maties arrrrrrrrrr get your swords get your fake parrot and set sail for the open seas ...............DIVIDE AND PLONDER, TREAUSRE AWAITS... Arrrr i give it a score of 8gold pieces out of 10gold pieces
