Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat

"Seas of Love"

WARNING : The following personal opinion is based on a 15-hour straight gaming session. I haven't finished the whole thing yet, so please make no mistake about it, the score you see nearby is solely based on a VERY sound first impression. So here's my not so short, albeit honest review of a game which SUNNY-SIDE UP THEME (in spite of obvious efforts from the creators to scare us at times) doesn't seem to enthrall contemporary gamers' imagination as much as other subject matters do by relating to frequent dragon flyers, cliche oriental fighters, no-name city thieves or follow-the-leader zombies...

FIRSTLY, more so than any other games that I've played in the recent past (apart from Shenmue 1 & 2 for the DC or Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64), this one is ALIVE! You can travel anytime, anywhere by very feminine foot or by dancing-in-the-wind ship through huge, living environments that don't stop flirting with your thirst for cutthroat Island-style adventures. Pirates The Legend of Black Kat is chock full of elegant little touches: colorful yet nerve-racking allophone parrots that want to save your life mostly, click here & crawl there mutant crabs, travel agency poster sunsets in the backdrop of sometimes soothing, sometimes threatening seas of love, vicious Crimson Guard ships patrolling them without a trace of one single National Holiday on their agenda, flocks of seagulls, sunken wrecks, buried treasure chests, tons of them, so old they even smell rotten, pairs of synchronized jumping dolphins that race against your boat, friendly monkeys that actually look like monkeys, real-time footprints boot-slide marks left along a beach or down a slope, rich baddies under palm trees, ghost ships, thunders during stormy nights, a bragging mermaid who likes women very much, surprisingly clever bosses including Black Beard the Pirate from your childhood, voodoos and skeletons that will make you laugh until they literally kill you. I'm not finished! There’s so much ambience in there… The sound effects are right on, the wind, the waves, the cracking wood of your ship, the birds, the Caribbean drinking songs, the epic combat or ''Love me tender'' melodies, etc. In a word, IMMERSING!

SECONDLY, the game is always FUN (in any case it was for 15 hours in a row, remember) and never takes itself seriously. And that’s why the gameplay is so endearing. The story can be engaging for some, but is so run-of-the-mill in its own pirate category that in the end you could play without it. In a sense, Pirates The Legend of Black Kat as a game will never get old because you don’t play it exclusively to see the story unfold; you play this game in a non-linear way looking for treasure chests, power-ups, maps of unexplored islands, keys, golden coins, ship upgrades, and then once in a while these activities are being spiced up by the somewhat linear but well-told so-so story. The game is all ACTION, with a hybrid land / sea showground that will certainly leave you with a satisfying surf and turf taste.

THIRDLY, the game displays interesting TECHNICAL QUALITIES that I do applaud. FAST, discreet load times (relatively years ahead of those pesky ones in our beloved ''Drakan: The Ancients’ Gates''…), crystal-clear sound effects, loud if not purposely-farfetched voice acting, and clean, almost sultry graphics. The animations of the young heroine named Kat are zesty, her fencing sequences are realistic in an artsy manner; I also note that her walking speed is good compared to other cases in similar action / adventure titles. The butterflies and other living creatures, enemies for instance, move in a satisfying Saturday-morning-on-screen kind of way. The horizon reaches quite far, offering at last a cartoonish style without a cloud of fog. Overall, this game could easily embody a technically perfect N64 game, which in my book is fantastic regardless of the console it's playing on and in spite of reviewers constantly advocating for the ''true power of the PS2''. The graceful ship-to-ship combat portion will however please many visually, taking place on one of the most beautiful waters I've seen in a videogame so far and offering fluid explosion effects during epic battles. Speaking of explosive situations, the controls are precise in both sea / land combats, but the moves performed by Kat herself during such confrontations seem a bit repetitive. Not a ''Devil May Cry'' or a ''Maximo'' control-wise, still there are so many other distractions in the game that I don't really feel cheated by that shortcoming. The design choices made by the developers allow quick transitions between land and sea or from region to region on the World map (accomplished using canned cut-scenes), which come in handy since you'll always want to do some backtracking for a reason or another between the Pirate Isles, the Haunted Isles, the Voodoo Isles, the Winter Isles, the Volcanic Isles, and Skull Cove.

IN THE END, all I can say is that sometimes it's so relaxing to set sail for the remote places of Disneyland memories, explore endless beaches, collect long-lost maps of secret destinations, fight for money instead of blood, admire the reflection of an orange sky over turquoise waters, all this without the gloomy, depressing mood much too often exploited these days by the video games industry (just kidding, I like it too!). Pirates The Legend of Black Kat is not so original per se, but surprised me greatly as being a WELL-BALANCED, refreshing journey across various Seas of Love!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/02, Updated 12/10/02