[Video Games] Sid Meier's Pirates
Aug. 28th, 2005 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trooper6An Xbox review:
Sid Meier's Pirates -- Firaxis
What the Game Is: I'm not quite sure what genre this game falls into. [Checks online] Hm...it seems it is categorized as a Strategy game. It certainly isn't a strategy game like Civilization or even The Sims. This is a collection short pirate-y mini-games.
Plot/Level Design: Like I said, this is a collection of mini-games. There is an overarching plot (revenge). You travel about the Caribbean doing pirate-y things, advancing the plot (or ignoring it), getting loot, and getting older. One of the issues, for me, was that Sid Meier wanted a game that wouldn't drag on forever. Something short and sweet. To achieve this, you age. You start off at 18, and by the time you are 30-ish you are old and haggard, with bad reflexes, and won't really be able to be a successful pirate anymore. Then you have to retire (this happens really quickly). But you also can't spend your entire time pursuing the main plot because your crew wants a constant influx of money...if they don't get it, they mutiny. The mechanisms used to keep you moving forward and keep the game short (the need to constantly bring in more and more loot, the aging, the decreasing ability to recruit new crew), didn't work well for the game, in my opinion. They felt too harsh and artificial...they made me focus on doing things other than the main plot just to keep my crew from mutinying--which slowed my my plot progress down to a crawl...all the while I was getting older and more haggard. I found that the two times I played the game I never got anywhere near completing the main plot. Though I did retire high ranking, I never saved my family or defeated the Big Bad. This is very frustrating to me. Because without the main plot, all you have is collection of really repetitive encounters with no real purpose that become very trying (for me at least, your mileage may vary).
Audio: There is a dance with the governor's daughter mini-game, and the music is cool--harpsichords are involved. There are lots of nice little musical touches. The music for the Spanish ports is different from the music for the French ports, etc. That was nice. Good music, nothing exceptional. The pirates speak in a form of Sim-ese, which is amusing.
Graphics: They are okay. Nothing special. Though there is the nice touch that you get less handsome as you age.
Controls: Some people had trouble with the sailing section...but after a while I got the hang of it, and that wasn't a problem. The controls were fine.
Extras: There is a very cool Pirate-o-pedia. The unlockables (concept art) are not very interesting.
Replay: I replayed it once. The game is short (less than 10 hours) so it is easily repeated. But the game is really repetitive. It's the same set of mini-games over and over. I still haven't finished the main mission, this frustrates me as a completist...but I'm not going to play the game again--I couldn't bear one more repetitive sword fight.
Critical Reception [new section added to make up front my interest in analyzing the critical reception of media--inspired by comments by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ichbinkelsey]: A lot of the reviews seemed very lukewarm or negative. I have to agree with most of the aspects of the critical reception: too repetitive. On the other hand, I've read more than a few reviews that judged it harshly for not being like the film Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't think that's a very fair critique considering that this is a strategy game, not an action-adventure game. Some reviewers hated the romancing the governor's daughter sections. There was much ire aimed at the dancing mini-game, and some of the reviews began to border on sexist and homophobic for my taste. Apparently dancing is too poncy for manly pirates. The dancing mini-game, I quite liked--even if it was excruciatingly hard dancing with a very attracting daughter on the hardest difficulties. So while I was frustrated my Pirates and agreed with quite a bit of the reviews, I was unsettled by some of the vibes that permeated a lot of the reviews.
Grade: D
Summation: Unfortunately I can't recommend this game. Not even as a fun, party, knockabout sort of game. And not as a quickie game either. The first time through, the game is quite compelling. After all, it did keep me up for an ungodly number of hours (this was all before class started...so my recent late nights have been all prepping for class not goofing off on video games). But the second time I played it, I just got more and more annoyed. I found it all so repetitive and I got no closer to finishing the overall mission. I think one's ability to finish that final mission has a lot more to do with luck (if one is lucky enough to get easy/conveniant lead-up missions) than skill. If one is interested in Pirates, rent it...but certainly don't buy it. I did find fun in it. I did find compelling parts, but I also really found it frustrating. And that frustration wasn't a good frustration.
What's next?
Quickie Game:
Main Feature Game:
(Since this review is for a game I finished a while ago, there is no what's next section)
Sid Meier's Pirates -- Firaxis
What the Game Is: I'm not quite sure what genre this game falls into. [Checks online] Hm...it seems it is categorized as a Strategy game. It certainly isn't a strategy game like Civilization or even The Sims. This is a collection short pirate-y mini-games.
Plot/Level Design: Like I said, this is a collection of mini-games. There is an overarching plot (revenge). You travel about the Caribbean doing pirate-y things, advancing the plot (or ignoring it), getting loot, and getting older. One of the issues, for me, was that Sid Meier wanted a game that wouldn't drag on forever. Something short and sweet. To achieve this, you age. You start off at 18, and by the time you are 30-ish you are old and haggard, with bad reflexes, and won't really be able to be a successful pirate anymore. Then you have to retire (this happens really quickly). But you also can't spend your entire time pursuing the main plot because your crew wants a constant influx of money...if they don't get it, they mutiny. The mechanisms used to keep you moving forward and keep the game short (the need to constantly bring in more and more loot, the aging, the decreasing ability to recruit new crew), didn't work well for the game, in my opinion. They felt too harsh and artificial...they made me focus on doing things other than the main plot just to keep my crew from mutinying--which slowed my my plot progress down to a crawl...all the while I was getting older and more haggard. I found that the two times I played the game I never got anywhere near completing the main plot. Though I did retire high ranking, I never saved my family or defeated the Big Bad. This is very frustrating to me. Because without the main plot, all you have is collection of really repetitive encounters with no real purpose that become very trying (for me at least, your mileage may vary).
Audio: There is a dance with the governor's daughter mini-game, and the music is cool--harpsichords are involved. There are lots of nice little musical touches. The music for the Spanish ports is different from the music for the French ports, etc. That was nice. Good music, nothing exceptional. The pirates speak in a form of Sim-ese, which is amusing.
Graphics: They are okay. Nothing special. Though there is the nice touch that you get less handsome as you age.
Controls: Some people had trouble with the sailing section...but after a while I got the hang of it, and that wasn't a problem. The controls were fine.
Extras: There is a very cool Pirate-o-pedia. The unlockables (concept art) are not very interesting.
Replay: I replayed it once. The game is short (less than 10 hours) so it is easily repeated. But the game is really repetitive. It's the same set of mini-games over and over. I still haven't finished the main mission, this frustrates me as a completist...but I'm not going to play the game again--I couldn't bear one more repetitive sword fight.
Critical Reception [new section added to make up front my interest in analyzing the critical reception of media--inspired by comments by
ichbinkelsey]: A lot of the reviews seemed very lukewarm or negative. I have to agree with most of the aspects of the critical reception: too repetitive. On the other hand, I've read more than a few reviews that judged it harshly for not being like the film Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't think that's a very fair critique considering that this is a strategy game, not an action-adventure game. Some reviewers hated the romancing the governor's daughter sections. There was much ire aimed at the dancing mini-game, and some of the reviews began to border on sexist and homophobic for my taste. Apparently dancing is too poncy for manly pirates. The dancing mini-game, I quite liked--even if it was excruciatingly hard dancing with a very attracting daughter on the hardest difficulties. So while I was frustrated my Pirates and agreed with quite a bit of the reviews, I was unsettled by some of the vibes that permeated a lot of the reviews.Grade: D
Summation: Unfortunately I can't recommend this game. Not even as a fun, party, knockabout sort of game. And not as a quickie game either. The first time through, the game is quite compelling. After all, it did keep me up for an ungodly number of hours (this was all before class started...so my recent late nights have been all prepping for class not goofing off on video games). But the second time I played it, I just got more and more annoyed. I found it all so repetitive and I got no closer to finishing the overall mission. I think one's ability to finish that final mission has a lot more to do with luck (if one is lucky enough to get easy/conveniant lead-up missions) than skill. If one is interested in Pirates, rent it...but certainly don't buy it. I did find fun in it. I did find compelling parts, but I also really found it frustrating. And that frustration wasn't a good frustration.
What's next?
Quickie Game:
Main Feature Game:
(Since this review is for a game I finished a while ago, there is no what's next section)
