It’s been a while since I posted anything due to my busy schedule. I have lots to post but unable to squeeze anytime to blog for a while so I will do it bit by bit when I have some time to spare.

Ever wanted to be a pirate? I’m sure every child did wish they could be a pirate when they grow up. Well, here is your chance to be one in Sid Meier’s Pirates (USA Version). This pirate game resemblance back to 20 years ago during  “Apple” computer era where the screen is black n green but only now that the game is in full color and some motion graphics added.

You start the game by joining one of the nation’s Pirate’s – The British, The Dutch, The Spanish or The French. Once you have decided, you will embark on a journey with your Captain and be tortured like a slave until you incite a mutiny which you eventually became the new Captain. This is where the game begins!

Among the interesting features are:

Dancing

As a respected person, you should learn to dance with the Mayor’s daughter. Once you have perfected your moves, the Mayor’s daughter will fall deeper in love with you which you might marry later in the game. Marrying a Mayor’s daughter is part of a quest which you must complete in order to move on. You can have more than 1 wife fyi.

Trade & Economy

You will sail around the whole to make some bread and butter. You can also rob merchants and other pirates for their loots and treasures. You can also purchase goods and resale it in other town but that isn’t like a pirate. However, please note that the more people you hire, your share of treasures become lesser.

Naval Battles & Capturing

While sailing, you can bombard other pirates, merchants and also the legendary pirates (such as Captain Kidd). Once you won the battle, you will seize their treasures, ship and even some of their crew will join you.  By attacking other pirates, some professionals might offer to be part of your crew such as chef, navigator and etc. You can also seize over the opponents ships which you can use, some which are more powerful. Once you have captured it, remember to repair it in the nearest town and upgrade it to the maximum. From my experiments, the most powerful ships available are the ones used by the Legendary Pirates.

Sword fighting

When you go aboard other pirate’s ship, you will trigger a mini sword fighting scene where you will be testing your sword fighting skills. Beware if your crew is wipe out, you will surrender the battle instantly.

Land Warfare and Capturing of Cities

When you keep attacking a nation’s ship or merchants, the hatred towards you will rise. You will be barred from entering their town or even be attacked when you are about to docked at the harbor. Here is where the fun part begins! (at least for me) You can either keep bombarding their ships apart and prevent them from entering the town or raid the town and convert it into another country’s town by appointing a new mayor. I somehow converted half of Spain’s towns to become British cities. However please note that by doing so, you will have a bounty on your head where mine was up to 120, 000 the last time I checked.

Overall this game is fun and exciting and it has no ends. It can end whenever you want to just by retiring if you do not want to complete the game by doing missions. However if you go by the storyline and missions at the end you will find that the hero (which you are using is a real cheapskate!!) Why? Find out yourself … hehe.

The graphics are not so beautiful and the game itself is a repeatable process. It then gets down to the person itself whether the game is interesting or boring. It will be a great game if you play it on your free time but if you tend to play for long hours you will find it boring.