I’ve now spent several more (okay, at least 10 more) hours with the game, finishing one career, starting another, and here is my status report:
I am totally obsessed, and this bothers me. It bothers me because there is not one thing in this game I can point to and say, “YES, here! Here is why it’s so great!” If you take any one element from it and evaluate it, it’s generally just fine. No big shakes, just fine. Now, the ship-to-ship combat is definitely the best “mini-game” in the game, and is essentially the Age of Sail games, speeded up and with all the bugs removed, which is what they should have been to begin with. But still, one ship pounding away at another until one wins, hard to make a case for that being a great game.
So you’ll ask me, “what makes this so great?” And I can’t tell you. But this just might be the greatest example of the greatest game genre ever devised. The subtitle of the game is “Live The Life”, and that is really what is so compelling about it. Games are generally divided into three categories, and here they are:
1. Games where you’re supposed to do something specific, very well. (Chess, Asteroids, Civilization)
2. Games where you’re told it’s open-ended but you find this to be a lie because a) there really is a singular plot you are supposed to follow, and everthing else is a side game (GTA), or b) it really is open ended, but everything’s so goddamn boring why would you ever bother? (most space trading games).
3. Games where it really feels open ended, and you don’t mind that because everything you do is so enjoyable.
I would say that Pirates! is the first and only game to fit into #3.
The knock on it could be “well, it’s just a bunch of mini-games strung together”, but here’s my theory: That’s fucking life, dude. Look closely, and life IS a bunch of mini-games. And you can basically choose where you go, but shit happens, and sooner or later, you end up playing another mini-game. The work mini-game, the driving mini-game, the romance mini-game… That’s what it’s all about.
And Pirates! has a bunch of fun mini-games which just happen to tie together in one brilliantly cohesive, horrifically addictive whole.
And again, like life, you can see how silly the whole thing is, even as you’re compelled to just keep on going.
Ice Cream Jonsey