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Sid Meier's Pirates! iPad Review
by Anthony Gallegos - IGN.com | 29 July 2011 12:00Same great game, new controls.
Sid Meier's Pirates! has terrorized the pixelated seas of of many a platform since its original release over 20 years ago, earning praise and fans with every passing iteration. It received a facelift in the 2004 PC re-release, but the core game – living the life of a pirate – has remained the same. The newest version is out on iPad, and for a criminally low price of admission, you can enjoy countless hours and near endless replayability in arguably the greatest pirate game ever.
The core game of Pirates! centers upon captaining and managing a ship. You begin with a small vessel, and it's up to you to recruit crew members and keep up their morale. The key to a pirate's morale? Treasure! That, and making sure to not stay out at sea for too long. You know, it's like real pirate life; you need to port regularly. Loot-hunting begins with a sail around a scaled down version of the Caribbean, where engaging enemy ships in close proximity will yield treasury results. Combat plays out with a real-time combat sequence, tasking players with skillfully navigating through enemy fire to maneuver your ship into prime offensive position. You can sink vessels with cannon fire, or smash into them and mount a sword-drawn offensive in a bid to take control of the ship. It all comes down to what your goal is. If you're out toplunder, you can board ships and steal its cargo, or you can simply terrorize a nation by sending its ships to the bottom of the sea.
When you're not terrorizing the seas, you can visit towns, where you can recruit more pirates, seek out rumors in bars, meet with local officials to find out your standing in the world, and meet with merchants to repair your ship and sell your stolen goods. It's a nice way to break up the pacing between sea battles, and adds another layer of strategy. Which nations you attack determines which ports you can enter(there's nothing worse than finding yourself in an area with nothing but hostile ports, so keep that in mind when you're laying waste to everyone in sight). Ship to ship combat is surprisingly fun, and works really well with the touch controls. You tap where you want your ship to turn and then tap along its side to fire. It's simple to learn, but it takes a cunning player to whittle down enemy vessels and become a true pirate captain.
Other actions also work well with the touch screen. Sword battles – which originally were executed with several different keystrokes on a keyboard – are replaced with intuitive swipes. And now, instead of taking over cities through slow, turn-based strategy sequences, you simply bombard the city at a distance with a really clever shooting mini-game. Everything in the interface has been expertly adapted to work with the iPad, creating a great handheld experience.
Closing Comments
Pirates! on iPad is an excellent port that could easily be sold for much more than its sub $10 price. With near endless replayability, this ranks among the best investments any iPad owner could make. If you’ve ever wanted to live the life of a pirate, or at least the highly romanticized version of one anyways, it’s time to set sail with Sid Meier’s timeless game.
Supplied by IGN.com
