Talk like a pirate day has passed, wearing your puffy shirt just isn’t magic anymore, and you’ve noticed that you have to focus all of your concentration on walking a straight line to avoid running into people (damn eye patch!). So what are pirate lovers to do to Live the Life? Why, pop in your copy of Sid Meier’s Pirates!: Live the Life, of course!

Released in 2005 for the Xbox, Sid Meier’s Pirates! was a successful computer title ported to Microsoft’s console by Firaxis Games and published by 2k Games. Missing Pirates! when it released, I picked up a copy this backwards compatable game last year and was immediately addicted. In short, this pirate simulation is an action packed game that can be played for ten minutes or hours at a time.

As a land-lover myself, I wondered, before I played, what was the appeal of Pirates!? Described as part strategy, part action, and part adventure, I can tell you that this game brings naval battles, village plundering, sword fighting, trade/commerce, and dancing with the ladies together in an orgy of piratey goodness.

Sid Meier’s Pirates! begins with the protagonist as a young boy evading capture as a Spaniard official enslaves the rest of his family. After this initial story setup, we flash forward ten years and the story’s hero, controlled by you, enters a bar where you select his name, difficulty level, skill set, and nationality with which to sail. After setting sail with the English, Dutch, French, or Spanish, the crew mutinies against the existing captain and sets your player as the new captain. After you have control of the ship, the rest of the game is an open-ended quest for fame, wealth, notoriety, and family.

Most of the gameplay involves sailing around the Caribbean islands and attacking other ships. Any ship, regardless of nationality, that you encounter can be attacked by pressing the “x” button. While in attack mode you have a variety of options including firing one of three types of cannonballs, boarding the other ship, and crashing into the enemy. As sinking the ship isn’t the best way to increase your wealth, you will often find yourself in the board-the-ship-swordfight-mini-game. Coming off as a tug of war, you win the swordfight, the ship, the loot, and usually some crew after hitting the captain enough times.

In the game several famous or historical pirates are portrayed in a top ten list with your hero being number ten on the list. As these famous pirates are defeated and treasure captured, you climb the ranks of the top pirate list. Wasn’t it always a dream of yours to be a part of the Caribbean’s Next Top Pirate?

Sailing around and defeating Blackbeard or Captain Kidd is great fun, but you and your crew will need time off the boat. There are many ports to explore. At each of the ports you can repair and upgrade your ship, talk with the governor (who always seems to be pimping out his daughter), recruit crew, buy and sell goods, and hang out in the bar. At the bar many things can happen such as learning where a famous pirate is, being offered to buy special items such as pistols, or given portions of maps that lead you to family members and treasure.

Speaking of land, you also have the opportunity to attack cities and ports. These turn based land battles take place on a grid map of forests, hills, and flat land. During your sides turn you can choose to attack or move. After winning a land battle, you may choose the nationality of the city’s new government.

You might be asking yourself, if you haven’t played Pirates!, why haven’t I purchased this game? Well, in heart, it is a PC game. This means that not only are the controls not exactly what you want, but the gameplay contains a few monotonous mini-games. Yeah, when you first escort a lady to a dance it can seem humorous. However, by that sixth time it is old. The same goes for the swordfight minigame.

Sid Meier’s Pirates! is not a perfect game but if you can get past the flaws above you will be in for a treat. A game that can take up hours of your life, it is the best game that I have found that allows you to Live the Life of a pirate.

Title: Sid Meier’s Pirates! Publisher: 2k Games Developer: Fireaxis Games Platform(s): Xbox, PC Release Date: July 11, 2025

       

Tags: pirate, Spawn Kill Favorites, xbox, Xbox Originals

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Editorials, Featured, Spawn Kill Favorites, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.