Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat

"Being a pirate has never been so much fun!"

Pirates. What can I say. They've been overlooked in te videogame world for the most part. Ok there have BEEN pirates in alot of games, but very few games ABOUT pirates. Uncharted Waters and it's sequel were great, but they were more of a sim game than anything. Shipwreckers was fun, but really as far as gameply had little to do with pirates in their element. Enter Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat, origionally titled Pirates of Skull Cove. This game isn't exactly true to life either. But do we really want that? If follows the usuall stereotypes associated with pirate. Big sgips, Parots, bright striped shirts and headbands, and everyone says ''Arrr'' (well not as much as Shipreckers did) Thiss game is by far one of the most entertaining and fun games ever.

Story - 8

It isn't exactly the deepest thing you'll ever read, but it is good. It's very tipical of pirates though. It features all the staples of pirate lore. Ghost ships, King Neptune, skeleton pirates, and talking parots. The parots are how you save by the way. THe stroy follows Katerina de Leon through her adventures to avenge her father's and mother's deaths. The evil Captain Hawk and his cronnies will always be there to get in the way. (Hawk is the one who kills Kat's father at the beginning of the game) You'l travel to a myriad of different locales to find Chart Stones to help unlock the location of Skull Cove, the resting place of your mother's lost treasure (what, you were exxpecting a pirate game without TREASURE???)

Gameplay -10

This is where the game shines. It is very similar, almost identical to Drakan: The Ancient Gates.it's fun. Pure and simple. The controlls are easy to use and use standard third-person mechanics. There are two modes of play, on foot, and at sea. Both control nearly identicly, so there is little learning curve to worry about. In both modes there is a huge plethora of weapons and items to use. On foot you get everything from magical elemental tikis, to throwing knives, to poison darts, to throwing axes. On the ship you get all sorts of standard sea battle gear, like flaming pots to burn enemy sails and buckets of gasious fluid to choak enemy crewmen. The battle can get pretty deep for a basic action game. The areas you'll visit are vast and diverse, from volcanic isles, to Frozen archipelegos, to Carribean-esques islands, to haunted isles. The game isn't too tough either, though it definitley isn't easy. There are quite a few bosses to figth, and they each requie different tactics to beat. There is a to of hidden treasure, which is found via Kat's phychic abilities. The controller vibrates as you get closer to a buried item. A neat little concep which adds alot to the game.

Graphics - 9

The game looks really good. With vibrant colors and crisp textures. The xbox version has some enhancements over the ps2 version, which still ooks good, by the way. But the xbox version has ambient water and crisper textures. Especially in the grass. The character models are standard fare. They look good, nothing extraordinary like Splinter Cell or Metroid Prime, but good nonetheless. The particle effects are really good as well. The draw distence is far and maeks the environments come to life. There is very little framerate issue, only in tight places, and even then it is barely noticeable.

Sound - 9

There isn't really any music, but when a you get a new item or an exent happens, you get some good action-type music, ala Superman kind of. The enemies and Kat make pretty reallistic sounds and even the flow of the water sounds good.

Longevity -10

This game will take you a while if you want everything. There are a TON of hidden treasures and special items that will require ALOT of searching, so this could take a while. This adds alot to the leangth of the game. And it is definitely the type of game you'll want to play through again in a few months.

Pverall -10

The story is a little weak, but that's to be expected in a pirate game. The game is terrific nonetheless. I highly recoment it to fans of Zelda or other action rpg's. An A++ title

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/02, Updated 03/11/03