Conference hydra::amiga_v1

3890.0. "Pirates By Microprose - Review time..." by NZOV01::MCKENZIE (Stop Pollution; Leave a Legacy) Sun Jul 01 1990 18:52

    Over the weekend I had a chance to look at "Pirates" by Microprose
    which I had borrowed from a friend of mine to evaluate before
    purchasing.
    
    I'm glad I did. 
    
    The game is basically about the pirate/bucaneer (sp) days of the 
    17th Century in the Carribean. You can select a new career, then
    define some characteristics (whether you want to re-inact a 
    historical period, what level you want to start at, what skill
    you pertain to etc etc ) - then you begin. 
    
    I selected the supposed easiest level to begin with. I became
    an English bucaneer, an apprentice captain with good sword skills
    and went on my merry way. 
    
    You start at an English (or whatever nationality you choose-French, Dutch, 
    Spanish or English) town where you can visit the Governor. He tells
    you what your objectives are (eg: We are at war with the Dutch and 
    Spanish. We are allied with the French - I charge you to destroy the
    ships and towns of our enemies) Occasionally you have to play delivery
    boy for him and deliver a letter somewhere else. As you accomplish
    missions and revisit the Govenor, he bestows you with lofty titles,
    which help you get better crews, ships etc and improve your chances
    or marriage to one of the govenors daughters/your social standing...
    
    You can then visit a tavern where you can obtain a crew. The crew are
    paid for on a contract basis. That is they aint paid until the voyage
    is over, then they get a share of whatever plunder you manage to get. 
    If they arent happy with the result, you wont raise the number of men
    for the next voyage, that you might like...
    
    You can also visit the merchant and buy guns, food, supplies etc to 
    use or trade on your way. 
    
    When you come across an ship, you can investigate it. The computer 
    shows you they type of ship it is and the colors it flies. If you
    choose to combat the ship you are then shown the relative crew numbers
    (Yours::the enemies), number of guns and nautical speed. The objective
    is to broadside the enemy and let loose with your guns until you
    either pound the enemy into submission, or until the enemy crew, guns
    etc are reduced to such a point that you can board the enemy ship and 
    take it by force. 
    
    When you board the enemy ship, you must fight the captain. You can
    choose a rapier, cutless or longsword as your weapon. To the winner
    go the spoils. 
    
    Well - you get the idea...now for the opinions:
    
    1. I thought the graphics were excellent and the initial title screen 
       and digitised lapping of water and seagull cries gives the game a
       great start...for the first time. However, although you can save
       the game while in any port, you cannot restore the game other than
       rebooting the computer. This means everytime you screw up and want 
       to backtrack, you have to go through the entire start routine...
    
    2. Since the copy protection scheme is manual-based I assume the
       disks are unprotected...you need to have a pre-formatted disk
       on hand to save games in progress. The protection scheme fits
       in well with the story and is only required everytime one starts
       a new career (as opposed to restoring an previously saved one)
       The documentation was quite in-depth, but very vague in a couple
       of places. 
    
    3. The combat scenes involving swordplay were incredibly slow 
       and mechanical. The graphics were poor and generally it is a 
       tedious scene...one that must be repeated EVERY time you sucessfully
       engage the enemy...needs MUCH improvement. 
    
    4. Mabye I was doing something wrong, but everytime I began to get 
       somewhere (Ie: collected heaps of ships, booty etc) the bloody
       winds changed and I just floundered around the ocean, trying
       desperately to trim sail. Everytime the wind came along I was blown 
       miles off course or repeatedly onto a reef until all my ships were
       sunk...in the end I got so frustrated I abandoned the game
       completely and used my save-game disk for more important stuff.
    
    On a whole I was disappointed with "Pirates" Good graphics and plot
    nice documentation and great concepts, ruined by lousy playability.
    
    I for one will be spending the money I planned to purchase this with, 
    on something else...
    
    Macka

    I have Pirates! and I enjoy it very much.  The C64 version was a gift
    from a friend, which I liked except for the slowness of disk loads
    while moving between various screens.  The Amiga version installs
    nicely onto hard disk for very smooth sailing indeed.   8^)  It also
    multitasks well and exits cleanly back to the workbench.

    Your comment about restoring "everytime you screw up" strikes me as a
    matter of incorrect expectations.  I think you underestimate your
    ability to recover from misfortune.  Also, unlike so many other games,
    you should not expect to carry your first character straight through
    from beginning to end.  This should be a game of many short "training"
    voyages to learn what works (and what doesn't) before you embark on a
    final conquest.  Train *yourself* to operate efficiently, then your
    character's advancement will become quite rapid.

    Yes, the combat sequence is rather mechanical and probably constitutes
    the game's weakest point.  But it's not that bad if you remember that
    your role here is more *strategic* (be aggressive/be defensive) than
    the typical arcade style of controlling individual movements.  Learning
    to select the weapon appropriate for each situation is also important.

    As is true of most sailing vessels in real life, the winds do often
    dictate what course you can follow.  A good captain must learn to use
    those winds to his best advantage.  Remember, too, that ship with sail
    damage is even more at the mercy of the winds, so be sure to keep them
    in good repair!  Visit friendly a merchant to buy repairs, try to
    capture new ships to be added to your fleet with minimal damage, i.e.
    without heavy bombardment.