Sid Meier's Pirates!
Description
"Pirates! is unlike any other game in the current PC catalog. Unless you hate fun, you'll love it." - IGN.com
"An amazing, wonderfully lighthearted game that boasts an intoxicating blend of strategy and action, and as such it's a dire threat to your professional and personal productivity...Quite simply one of the most enjoyable games to come out in years." - Gamespot.com
Sail the Caribbean, marauding all on the high seas or ally your ship and crew as a privateer in search of riches - the life you choose is up to you. Face dogged enemies, raid unsuspecting villages, woo fair maidens, avoid capture or dig for buried treasure. Discover what it takes to become one of the most famous pirates in history!
In Pirates you take the leading role of a Pirate Captain in the 17th century Caribbean amassing fortune and fame in an attempt to seize your rightful place as one of the most revered and feared pirates in history. Test your skills as a sea captain exploring the high seas and exotic ports in a richly detailed 3D world. Overtake the enemy and seize valuable booty. Exchange plank-shattering broadsides in fierce naval battles, and engage in duels with worthy opposing captains.
As your reputation and skills grow, so will the size and quality of your crew, and your ability to take on larger enemy ships, raid and plunder heavily fortified ports, and locate ancient treasure. There's a whole cast of interesting and dangerous characters to meet, mysteries to solve, exotic island destinations to discover, and powerful alliances to forge.
The new Pirates carries on with the great gameplay and design simplicity tradition of the award-winning original while adding more challenging and exciting battle options, and deeper and more varied role-playing experience, including multiple paths to a wealthy, happy retirement.
Features:
- Experience an all-new story built upon the most fun and compelling features of the original Pirates! game
- Live out multiple quests through a non-linear, open life timeline where every decision poses distinct challenges and possibilities
- Witness the consequences of your actions in current events throughout the Pirates! world
- Battle, overtake and command 27 different ship types, enhanced with assorted ammo, cannon and other upgrades
- Take on various foes including merchant and military captains, ferocious pirates, evil gentry and even rival suitors - each with different skills and abilities
- Confront enemies on board ships, in seedy taverns, on the ramparts and even at the Governor's mansion
- Wield weapons - or anything within your reach - as you fence against foes
- Engage in fierce naval battles fighting single enemies or multiple ships
- Sneak into towns, escape out of prisons, navigate around adversaries and surprise unsuspecting vessels
- Dispatch landing parties of buccaneers in strategic battles to take over entire cities
- Increase your riches and impress the governor's daughter with your charm, fame, heroism - even your dancing abilities
- Collect items (swords, spyglasses, armour, hats, coats, etc.) that improve skills or provide other new benefits and view them in a new inventory system
- Enhance your gameplay experience with downloadable content including flags, sail emblems, character skins and more
Customer reviews
75
As fun as Civilization, but without the headache
draculrosu12 | March 5, 2013 | See all draculrosu12's reviews »I have the Pirates for Mac version. I've had the Pirates for PC version as well. Both seem to work the same. The game is a lot of fun and the sailing graphics are beautiful. sailing around the sea is a pleasure because of the detail to waves, ships, cities, storms, etc. The game came out in 2005, so cranking the video effects to maximum offers no problem for a modern iMac (late 2009 in my case). I've played several versions of Pirates and Civilization over the years (decades). I've always liked Civilization but it does require a lot of thinking and hopping back and forth across lots of screens, analyzing all kinds of data. Pirates is more casual then Civilization (they are both from the same company). My only complaint is the game fills the screen; there is no way to play within a window. this probably made sense 5 years ago but today I have a 27" monitor
76
A classic
DukePaul | Jan. 15, 2013 | See all DukePaul's reviews »This game from the creator of Civilization franchise is an inmortal title, for me, I play Pirates almost every year, maybe the graphics are very old even they weren't very good in his release, but the gameplay is fun as hell and the story is a great plot about revenge.
You have a lot of freedom to explore the seas to find treasures, attack other ships and steal the loot and frenetic swordfights.
It is a sandbox with endless replay value, every time you start a new game you can do things different.
Sid Meier's Pirates! is very cheap and you can have one of the best games of the previous generation for a low price.
82
it was good then, it's good now too
pauljebe | Sept. 4, 2011 | See all pauljebe's reviews »Pirates is a modern day remake of a classic game. In many ways this is important to consider as games have changed a lot of the years and this title tries hard to please fans of the original. It’s basically a collection of mini-games each with their own controls and tactics.
The game is open ended, allowing you to gain fame and fortune by trading, searching for lost treasures, or sexing up the daughters of the nobility. Or you can win through warfare by winning naval battles, boarding and running off with ships full of loot, or bombarding towns and invading their warehouses. In the end this means you can focus on whatever makes you happiest and retire when you’re content.
You get to advance your pirate by buying better equipment, steal better ships, and gaining new skilled crewmen. No two games will be the same, so replay value is high. Much of the game is simple, but when you put it all together it’s a lot of fun. Pirates is a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and manages to be great fun in the process.
90
A fantastic update of a great old game
ETank | Sept. 3, 2011 | See all ETank's reviews »Sid Meier's Pirates! is an amazing title that, despite its relative age, still holds charm and ambition. The basic premise is that you must rise through the ranks of seaworthiness by finding treasure, attacking enemy ships, and even wooing ladies with your swashbuckling charm.
The game's open-ended approach to how you "win" brings it in line with titles such as Mount & Blade, wherein you get to play in a sandbox for as long as you want, but unlike M&B (at least, unlike the original M&B), there are win conditions in Sid Meier's Pirates!, which means that it can have a finite goal to chase after.
Despite its age, this title is worth playing, and definitely worth loving.
91
Cool simulator
newn | Aug. 12, 2011 | See all newn's reviews »I liked this game from first sight. The first thing that caught m eye was that it's the best simulator for being a pirate, maybe even the only one of such kind. The story of this game is quite interesting - your initial reason for going to sea is that you want to get revenge on an evil Spanish nobleman who wronged your family. After that - it's up to you if you will want to be a treasure hunter, a privateer, a trader or an explorer. You can do a lot in this game - you can sail the Spanish main, fight in swordfights, trade with other ships, search for buried treasures, dance with governor's daughter or sneak into hostile towns. Your life goal is to get as much from your life, as possible until you retire. So basically you can do whatever you want and go whereever you want and whenever you want. Though you have two limitations - food and morale of your men. For food you can steal from other ships, and for morale - you have to be a good captain.
By all that said - I think that it is a very free game with a lot of features which is worth every cent, and even more. It's probably 5€ because it's an old game, I could pay up to 15€ for this nice game. It will consume countless hours and cause many sleepless nights!