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PS2 | Adventure | Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat

Boxart for Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat
Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat 24 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.0
  • SOUND: 4.0
  • CONTROL: 3.5
  • FUN FACTOR 4.5
  • AVG USER SCORE 3.5
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.1
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat

Review by THED-PADDESTROYER | 03/14/2002 | 14:04:47 PM PST

Ahh yes, The Legend of Black Kat. Therein lies a tale of a decent game that offers thunderous action and fabulous adventure to spare.

Taking a look at Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat, it?s hard to see what the appeal is. Here is a game that seems a bit like Tomb Raider on the high seas: You take control of the beautiful and deadly Katarina de Leon, the governor?s daughter, and lead her through her quest to avenge her dead mother (who was an infamous pirate captain herself), reclaim the family treasures, and liberate the ports Kat?s mother once ruled. To do this, you must explore the Five Seas (both by boat and by foot), battle tons of pirates (both alive and undead), unearth buried treasure, and engage in naval battles unlike any the PlayStation 2 has ever seen before. The gameplay is somewhat like that of Drakan, which has been lovingly dubbed ?Tomb Raider with a dragon,? since you alternate between sword-fighting and sea battles, but somehow Pirates comes across as a lot different?and a lot more fun.

Pirates doesn?t spend a lot of time trying to impress you with graphical shine. While the water effects and character animations are just short of amazing, the game seems fuzzy and blocky whenever you?re walking the land. Instances of draw-out (the rare cousin of draw-in) dot the rolling hills and valleys of the islands of the Five Seas, and you can spot the landscape re-texturing itself as you move. So it?s not the graphics that make the game great.

Pirates? sound does a great job of instilling a sense of adventure, from rousing pirate themes to booming cannons and clashing swords. Here, again, the sound seems fuzzy and a bit distant?so while it?s wonderful, it?s not Pirates? secret to success, either.

Pirates is so fun just because of the ways it differs from Tomb Raider and the like. For one, Katarina?s sword seems to seek enemies, making fighting in groups a lot easier and reducing the amount of wasted combos. Ship-to-ship battles are suitably epic as cannonballs tear apart the enemy?s hull and chain shot rips his sails to shreds. Land exploration is just that; no silly crates or jump-puzzles to navigate. Instead, you must choose the right teleporters, leave no stone unturned, and walk every inch of the isles to find buried treasure. Pirates succeeds because it?s built on a reward-for-accomplishment method, more like Banjo-Kazooie or Jak & Daxter than Tomb Raider. You?ll never want for something to do. Stuck on one quest? Go try another one, or explore a new island. Maybe you just want to sail around and sink enemy ships. You can always search for buried treasure you missed, or even for the scattered conch shells that add artwork to your Scrapbook. It was hard enough to put the game down long enough to write this review, if that tells you anything.

Pirates might lack graphical ?oomph,? but it?s fun, and that?s what games should be about. If you?re looking for adventure on the high seas, and a life in the Navy seems a bit out of your league, them maybe you should get into The Legend of Black Kat.


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