23 June 2022, 21:03 | #1 |
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Sid Meier's Pirates! Live the high life on high seas! Review
Hey,
I've been thinking about it for a while but finally decided to give my 5 cents on this timeless classic. The first and best to this day pirate life simulator ever made. [ Show youtube player ] Let me know what you think! Also, did anyone else found this game to be the best port of all versions? |
23 June 2022, 21:17 | #2 | |
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As for the best version, there might be something to it. I used to firmly claim that the 8-bit C64 (and PC) original is the best, but recently played a lot of them to compare, and might just agree that Amiga version wins after all. It retains the precision of the originals without changing anything and adds decent gfx/sfx. I will also preliminarly state that it's also better than Gold, (or anything else that came later on) but that's based on my old impressions...have to compare them again soon. |
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23 June 2022, 21:27 | #3 | |
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And I still think that the newest version is just as good as Amiga's one. Quite honestly, Pirates! is a concept that's difficult to botch, even Gold was good. Just not as good. Think of Port Royale games, they're more on a trade/business side of things but the underlying idea is similar and the influence of Pirates! is more than obvious there. Last edited by kad3t; 23 June 2022 at 22:17. Reason: I'm a dummy and wrote Ports of Call but thought Port Royale ;) |
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23 June 2022, 21:54 | #4 |
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Eh, sorry, I like Ports Of Call, but that game is just a fraction of what Pirates has to offer.
In Pirates you literally live a life, and the amount of various things/goals which you can do and pursue, and which actually matter and affect this life, is staggering. And the best thing is the way they structured it, with getting older, more injured, dividing the loot, etc, and the absolutely genius idea of having the "life ranking" at the end. This is what the whole game revolves around and how it's supposed to be played, with trying to make wise decisions along the way, but not cheating by saving/reloading. When I was a kid I didn't really fully grasp that and save scummed to oblivion, but now I enjoy doing "runs" like in true roguelikes. |
23 June 2022, 22:04 | #5 |
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Oh, yes! One my of favourites of all time for sure.
Interesting remark on the lack of an in-game map in the video. Obviously, I also had a pirated copy (it's called Pirates after all), but I never had an issue with this. I just played it so much that all the locations, all the distances were present in my mind |
23 June 2022, 22:17 | #6 |
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Pirates is a game that was open-world/sandbox before open-world/sandbox was a thing. I had a friend that played it like Hanse (trading), one that just hunted for other ships and I always tried to hunt down the Silver Train (very unsuccessfully I might add ). You could also try diplomacy or like you show in the video just exploration. Way ahead of its time for sure. Oh and another great video
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23 June 2022, 22:19 | #7 | |
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I obviously (or not obviously at all) meant Port Royale games. |
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23 June 2022, 22:21 | #8 | |
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23 June 2022, 22:23 | #9 | |
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That was (well, is really) the beauty of Pirates! Not only it gave you multiple options to play it, but you could also bend it, for the lack of a better word, to your will and have fun in it the way you liked it. Not the way it was designed to be enjoyed. |
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23 June 2022, 22:25 | #10 |
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Most of the time, I actually would just sail the east-west axis on the nothern part of South America anyway. Repeatedly pillage all the Spanish cities there, regardless of war/peace or other events
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23 June 2022, 23:28 | #11 |
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23 June 2022, 23:46 | #12 |
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I have recently finally played both Pirates and Pirates Gold for the first time.
I am a big fan of pirating/trading simulators (played a lot of Sea Dogs) so I had high hopes for Pirates and... it just felt lacking. The entire interface is very clunky. I know I should be looking at it through the "period glasses", but the combat just requires you to mash a button and pray, while the navigation map is very slow and frustrating to use. The rest is okay but the repetitive combat and sailing part kills it for me. Really wanted to like it though Pirates Gold improves some parts of it, though. IIRC the combat and sailing parts are slightly better but the "city map" just slows down the action for no real benefit. Will probably give it another spin down the road, maybe I was just hasty in my judgement. |
23 June 2022, 23:51 | #13 |
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I think the video review shows very well that the combat wasn't 'mash and pray', but that you could really make a difference in those action sequences (also the starting fencing one). The timing and angle that you shoot make all the difference.
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24 June 2022, 00:03 | #14 | |
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Pirates! is great and is historical piece. But as with most other games in existence, it does not have to be liked by everyone. And that's cool too, so don't worry about it. |
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24 June 2022, 00:05 | #15 | |
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Oh, I should've really mentioned it in the video, shouldn't I? That the force you take with you into combat influences morale and morale is basis for deciding who won. |
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24 June 2022, 00:10 | #16 |
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I guess so, but let people go to the tavern for a drink just to find out how crucial it is to success
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24 June 2022, 01:09 | #17 |
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Oh my days, if you'd seen the footage for the video before I cut it to pieces. For starters it was three files hours long each and also every time I was in port I was going to tavern like 3-4 times each. Just to exhaust all possibilities in each one.
Last edited by kad3t; 24 June 2022 at 01:16. Reason: Grammar that failed me for whatever reason ;) |
24 June 2022, 01:15 | #18 |
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The originals were good but nothing was as good as the iPad version that came out early on, and disappeared from the store about 5 years ago. I think it had issues with iOS 9? Anyway it was the best. I played many different Pirates! ports but iPad was king. It was so good even the dancing minigame wasn't horrible.
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24 June 2022, 02:41 | #19 | |
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And to be quite honest, I didn't mind the dance mini-game too much. I considered it just to be an addition and since it wasn't as annoying as what Pirates! Gold did to original I actually liked the Steam/Console version a lot. |
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24 June 2022, 07:32 | #20 |
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Y'know, Pirates is one that I never played back in the day but discovered fairly recently. Suffice it to say I think this game is excellent, and has a ton of replayability. It's a ton of fun. I only wish I'd discovered it in my youth.
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