Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales

Permission to Come Aboard!

Of course, if you want to get up close and personal with your enemies, you can always run alongside a ship and board her with an armed crew. The action switches to an on-deck conflict where swords and swagger are the weapons of choice. All the standard swashbuckling strokes remain at your disposal, such as slashing power strikes, low energy thrusts and feints and defensive tactics like strafing, dodging, parrying and blocks. You can also blow away the scalawags with the trusty flintlock pistol.

And once you've made a name for yourselfto the point where merchants are quivering at the mere mention of your namethe next logical step is to attack the ports that they call home. You can either attack at sea, laying siege to the island's fort, or sneak ashore with a contingent of sailors to cut their throats in the dark of night. The latter option is both less difficult and less honorable, which is just how we pirates be liking it. After you've sacked the port, you can either pillage it or raze it to the ground. Razing completely destroys the town while pillaging simply loots all the booty, otherwise allowing commerce to continue. From there you have a simulation style interface for building structures, allocating supplies and quelling unrest. The strategy model is passable but it is a little lean when compared to such blockbusters as Civilization IV.

Thar She Blows!

Age of Pirates is not all rum and wenches, though. The controls are often quirky and ambiguous, enough so that it occasionally detracts from the fun.

The trade and capture screens for buying supplies, hiring deckhands and swapping ships are also difficult to decipher and navigate. The lack of a tutorial is also disappointing, as it would have gone a long way to alleviate our problems. The only assistance comes by way of surly landlubbers that offer random and often useless tips concerning game play and strategy. And that's only if you manage to catch them as they wander aimlessly about town.

The Enemy AI in melee combat is also appallingly simple, a strange twist considering the challenge found in the ship-to-ship combat. The game also suffers from frequent and unnecessary load times. Pretty much every change of scenery requires one and it really takes the wind out of the game's sails.

However, for every aspect that Atari bungled, they got two others right. The formula still needs a bit of work, to be sure, but Age of Pirates is definitely a potent breath mint fit for the mangiest of pirates, if only for the seaworthy ambience and ability to play in full pirate regalia without feeling silly.

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