Sid Meier's Pirates!

The game is a bit old and that might/can cause some problems on newer pc's due to the age of the game. However, the game is superb and deserves the praise. The game is open world Pirate simulator with many things to do. For example you can raid cities, plunder ships and cities,wage wars on countries, and even dance with the governors daughters which even can lead to marriage. The game puts great emphasis on giving the player freedom to do whatever they want in the game. You're not required to follow the story and even if you complete the story it doesn't end the game. meaning that you will have free will do play the game however you want. The gameplay mechanics can change a lot, when you play different sections of the game. (For example the controls for the ship battles will be different from the controls when you're dancing) For the most part you're using your mouse, wasd or arrow keys to control your ship around, but you can also change it to use your Numlock controls. the numlock controls are used in minigames, such as dancing and raids. those games have their entirely own gameplay aspect. As dancing is based upon quick time events, and raids are turn-based strategy battles. For an older game you're not expecting amazing graphics based upon todays standards. Some even have said that the graphics look a bit child friendly. But that's up to the player to decide. They are still decent enough for the game. If you love pirate themed game you should definitely get this game.

In this game you are very free, first you create a character, then you can do pretty much whatever you want. You can wipe out a whole nation by conquering all of their colonies, or you can follow the story and save your family from the some villain. I don't really know what it's about because i always start doing something else like marrying all the women. Or maybe conquering every ship you see. Well, the possibilities are endless. You can have lots of ships following you and have like 300 crew members or something. It's just really fun.

This may be a case of a game aging poorly, but I don't think this game is all that amazing. it's fun, the combat is ok, the humor is great, the story is pretty good and it's oozing with creativity. The navigation is terrible, the graphics have aged poorly (which I can forgive but it is worth mentioning), and it gets horribly tedious and repetitive. It's worthwhile but not amazing.

With a new look, Sid Meier's Pirates still manages to be as much fun as it was all those years ago. It's a great pirate game that let's you trade, battle, vie for governors daughters and take part siding with countries and take down other pirates to be No. 1. One of the best pirate games around and worth getting.

For anyone who had enjoyed the old DOS/Windows classic of Sid Meier's Pirates! Gold but wanted a nice fresh new colorful 3D look to it should be in for a treat with this game. It brings back all of the aspects from the original game and re-tweaks them to today's standards of modern gaming. One new feature however I am not a fan of is the "dancing" mini-game, which I found to just be completely unnecessary, yet I guess it was added as a means to "earn" the favor of courting a young lady. One feature in this game I rather enjoyed is that it is more story-driven, in that you are trying to locate your abducted family from evil pirates. It adds a nice goal to meet along with going at your own pace to amass fame and fortune. If I had any suggestion of what to add to this game and even it's predecessor it would be to be able to continue the game after you "retire", say as if you had a child with your wife in the game, when they grow up you could continue with them, but that is a minor gripe. The game surely keeps you coming back for more swashbuckling fun!