Sid Meier's Pirates!

"Great to play and replay, and replay"

This is without a doubt one of the most fun games you'll ever play on the PC, or any other system for that matter. Sid Meier's Pirates has so many different angles, aspects and ideas, and it is so simple to play, and there is so much to do, that you will have hours of engrossing entertainment without breaking a sweat.

First you have 4 factions to choose from to start the game: Spanish, French, English and Dutch. The Spanish have the most settlements in the New World, The French have a healthy number, the English hold a few key ports and the Dutch really start with only 3 towns. Ports are places for you to get ship upgrades, trade, recruit sailors, gather info, and court governors' daughters, as well as escape from unwanted battles (as you get more famous countries you pick on will start sending pirate hunters after you, which can be pretty difficult if you've just survived a nasty fight at sea). Having many ports gives you lots of safe harbors and places to do needful things. Also, as you attack countries who are at war with each other, the other side will be eager to give you estates, title, and information to help you fight for their good cause.

However, if you are surrounded by your ports alone, you'll soon realize you have no targets to pick on but your home country! You're men aren't following you for kicks (well, not only kicks) but they also want treasure and success. Treasure and Trade ships constantly cross the Caribbean, but they tend to stay near to their home ports more often than not. So you need to balance being near your home ports to get the refuge/goodies, but you also need to venture out into enemy territory if you want to bring home the bacon. Balancing these two interests, traveling far enough to get good plunder but staying close enough to sell your prizes without starving or drowning, can be quite challenging.

Of course, you can just attack everything with sails and forget homeland loyalty, but you'll soon be persona non grata in every port and won't be able to trade your stolen Spices for shiny coin. Soon, you won't even be able to land at certain cities anymore, and will have to sneak in avoiding guards to conduct any business you may have. You'll need to find some disguises or broker an amnesty at one of the Jesuit missions if you want to trade again, except for the poor-paying Pirate settlements scattered along the way. The Jesuits will ask for things in return, like quests or convoy duty, but play along and they'll generally get a governor to open up some ports to you again to buy supplies and make repairs in.

Another way to handle this is to look for legitimate trade routes in lieu of piracy, the classic buy low sell high game from "Patrician III". You can buy cheap goods, and speak with travelers and tavernkeepers to find out where to sell for profit. Or you can merely hunt Pirates and Indian settlements, accept convoy and guard duty. This is especially important if you play as the Spanish and don't want to offend your home country, as Pirates will constantly attack the treasure fleets and your protection will win you a lot of gratitude with the governors.

Serve a country well enough you'll eventually be able to recruit large numbers of men effectively enough to form small armies, which you can use to capture cities in a fun mini-strategy game. It's basically modified chess game with terrain involved, you have certain units with different strengths and you place them to your advantage using trees for cover, rocks for barriers and hills for bonuses to sight and shot. Once captured, cities will yield a ton of loot and, eventually, give you the option of turning control of the city over to another country. In my current game, South America is pretty much Dutch these days, although now I have to sail to Cuba and Florida If I want to plunder Spanish Treasure fleets.

Another aspect of the game is the story mode, which you are free to pursue or ignore. There's an underlying story about saving your family and defeating some old villains in your past, but you're pretty much free to ignore it or seek it. There's also the pirate scale, which ranks you against other notorious pirates. You can one up these competitors for fame and glory by stealing their treasures using treasure maps, or by meeting and besting them in naval and hand-to-hand combat. Dueling is an important skill, and while it's ridiculously easy at easier levels it gets much tougher in later games. Dueling can alter battles, win women, sack cities or just teach the jerk at the bar a lesson. You'll duel quite a bit, so get good at it. You can also outdo your rivals by pulling off more fantastic stunts, such as sacking a capital city or discovering an Incan lost treasure city. As you get more famous, your rivals will begin to come after you, so don't get caught against the wind.

Your final enemy is Father Time. The game lets you pick from five different starting eras. The major differences between each era are settlement locations, and who's fighting whom. Pick one and start your life, but eventually you'll age and no longer be able to Pirate like you did. Hopefully you'll be able to retire as a Duke with vast treasure, a beautiful wife and several marvelous estates. Otherwise you may end up as the beggar in tavern who tells tales of his adventuring days for a mug. Or somewhere in between.

General game features: There are many items to collect, from specialized crew members for your ship to items like Spanish Rutters (a log book with hidden settlements), dueling pistols, diamond necklaces (for impressing ladies) and shrunken heads (for impressing natives). The world is huge, it takes some time to sail across the seas so watch your food and morale or you may end up getting schooled. There are so many settlements that it's nearly impossible to visit them all, you'll probably find yourself focusing on one region of the world for most of the game and leave the other stuff to another game. You can keep many of the ships you take and there are several types with differing strengths and weaknesses. Some ships hold more men and cannon, others are faster against the wind, and some have larger space to hold plunder between stops in port. You'll find the model that fits you. You can upgrade your ships with different kinds of shot, better cannons, and other such things. Lose a battle and your ship will be lost, and you'll either be marooned or jailed for while.

Also worth noting: The graphics are pretty great for an older game, the music is fantastic, and the gameplay is simple in every aspect but entertaining. Whether you're sailing, dueling, battling on land or at sea, dancing or treasure hunting you'll find the controls rather simple, but not monotonous. For example, in dueling there are seven moves, but by combining these moves together you create a different dueling style for each battle. There are six dance moves, but dancing is far from a walk in the park. It's intuitive control but a challenge as well.

Between the simply mechanics, immense scope and fun factor, this one of the best games for PC out there today. Buy it and enjoy.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/08

Game Release: Sid Meier's Pirates! (US, 05/02/05)