Sid Meier's Pirates!
Review
The classic high-seas adventure game brought to the powerful handheld PSP game system
by Rook
reviewed on PSP
Yo Ho - Yo Ho!
Pirates! for the PSP is a delight visually. The same vibrant colors and detail of the PC Pirates! have been well preserved in the port to PSP. Occasionally, there are frame rate issues, but usually only when a large number of ships occupy the same screen.
The cut-scenes have all remained unchanged, and each one of them require its own loading screen, which not only gets annoying, but also slows down gameplay when you have to stop and load just to see the enemy captain fall overboard. Again, this is merely an annoyance and may not be helped given the abilities of the PSP itself. The music and sounds have also been ported almost completely unchanged, from the wonderful Firaxish (aka gibberish) talk to the ballroom dance music.
And really bad eggs
Not everything is perfect in this world of high seas adventure. You will find the occasional oddity or bug throughout your career. None of them will hinder the gameplay, but may cause an angry grumble or a raised eyebrow. Here are a few of them to look out for.
Dancing with the governors' daughter will pose the largest difficulty for veteran Pirates! players. The music is terribly out of synch with both the dance animations and the arrow indicator on where to move next. It is best not to pay any attention to the music or your lovely date and just keep a careful eye on the arrow indicator at the bottom of the screen, or else you will earn the scorn of an embarrassed dance partner.
Keep careful track of what ships you keep in your fleet. Though each ship is listed to have a maximum cannon count, each ship you encounter will have its own armament. One pirate hunter sloop of war will have 18 guns, but the next one encountered may have 10 or 24! Blackbeard's frigate, which normally has 32 guns, had only 28, whereas a certain young pirate captain found a Sloop of War with 28 guns!
One word can describe the pirate hunters in this title: relentless! The AI pirate hunters, that are often sent after you by your enemies, have the advantage of being able to bombard you from outside of your engagement range, damaging a random ship in your fleet. On top of this, they will come at you in almost unreasonable numbers. It is very easy to become over run with a nonstop stream of pirate hunters as the bounty on your head grows.
Run out the guns!
Pirates! has always held a very good replayability rating. The ability to always start the game the same way and yet always have a different game makes it very appealing to those who want the best bang for the buck. To make Pirates! even better, a limited multiplayer has been added for the PSP wireless support! You may begin a duel between yourself and a friend online. The duel is just that, one on one for nothing but bragging rights.
Pirates' Sunset
As the sun set on a bold and daring career on the high seas, the player retires to a satisfying playing experience despite the small quirks or annoyances posed by this PSP version of Pirates! The title maintains a smooth and easy to grasp play style that above all else always remains fun, even in your career's darkest hours. With only minor changes from the PC version, this PSP version of Pirates! better resembles the console versions in the modifications in controls and a plot driven objective map. In the end, this makes the title friendly for novices and especially for younger players. The emphasis is on good nonstop action and adventure and, most of all, fun.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
