Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales
Review
Great graphics and sounds make this an immersive experience
by Marko Susimetsä
reviewed on PC
The beauty of the Caribbean
Both graphics and sounds have received a nice upgrade from the days of Sea Dogs and even from the days of Pirates of the Caribbean. The new Storm engine (2.5) really delivers with the fantastic water effects, storm effects, rainy days, night time and bright sunny days. Zooming up close to your ship's hull and just admiring the waves hitting the hull as you sail is a joy in itself.
Unfortunately, the engine still professes some problems. For one, the sun doesn't seem to light up the ships much. You'd expect the side turned towards the sun to be brighter than the other side, but that's not the case. Also, you'd expect a modern game to provide the main characters and the other characters with some more polygons. Given that you have to stare at your hero or heroine from behind much of the time, I'd have appreciated to see something a bit prettier (talking about Beatrice here, just so that you know) bouncing on my screen.
The general environment - the islands and the towns - are also very pretty, but whoever modeled them must never have visited the Caribbean, or seen pictures of the place. The buildings look more like something you might expect to see in Europe or Mediterranean rather than in the Caribbean. Also, the Storm engine has its limits: the Caribbean in the game is not bordered by the American shores. In fact, in addition to being a bunch of islands in the middle of a vast and empty sea, the islands have been made smaller than they are in real life.
The sounds of the Caribbean
Having been made in Russia, much of the game music is in that style: grandiose male choirs etc. They are all very well performed and very entertaining in the background, but one wonders if they could have slipped in a couple of more realistic sea chants or sailors' songs. It would certainly have helped with the immersion into the game world, as I cannot imagine that my scallywags all used to attend the church choir before they turned to piracy. Of course, the music now lends to a very cinematic experience, so I am in no means saying that the music isn't beautiful.
Overall, the general soundscape is very attractive and even the voice actors, whose role isn't really that important, perform well enough. The only tiresome fellow is the store owner who always takes a pause before calling you a captain, making you want to hang him from the yardarm to dry a bit until he learns some manners. Some bugs can be found here as well, though. When you use your telescope and turn up or down, so that you stare at the sails or the deck, half of the soundscape seems to suddenly go missing.
Join me in the plundering of the high seas!
I've said a lot about the game in this review, but it still feels as if I'm leaving much out. The trading of goods between the islands, colony management, multiplayer (usual deathmatch stuff), the various swords and guns that you can use - they'd all like to have their spot in the limelight. Let me just be short about it and tell you that you should not overlook trading - if you need more money badly, trading is quite an attractive way to get some more. Swords and guns, well there are a lot of both to choose from, but the main difference that they have on gameplay is the damage that they inflict and their accuracy. Otherwise, you will not see differences in the way your character wields a broadsword, versus a saber. Unfortunately, we can see that the developers had little knowledge of the period even here: The Epee was actually developed about 250 years after the time the game is set in (a better name for a thrusting blade of the period would have been an Estoc or a Tuck) and one of the Rapiers (Expensive Rapier) looks more like a Katana than the cut&thrust Rapier that it is supposed to be.
There are some bugs that detract from the enjoyment (you'd better save often), including the fact that sometimes your enemies just give up right in the middle of the sea battles, furl up their sails and only shoot at ships that pass under their lee (they don't turn around to face their enemies). But these bugs never really spoil the game and even though you'd wish that they weren't there, you'll surely enjoy the rest of the game for what it is: the best game that lets you truly roleplay a gentleman o' fortune.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
