Introduction
From
the far reaches of a game
genre that was almost lost comes Sea Dogs, reminiscent of the games of old
like Sid Meier's Pirates! or one of my personal favorites Privateer ( from
the Wing Commander Series ). This game is abound with all the pirating goodies
of old from pillaging towns, to capturing ships and taking all their goods.
And if you are heartless enough to your crew, a mutiny is in store. Saturated
with a non-linear storyline the game sucks you in offering hours of gaming
goodness.
Storyline
The
storyline and in game cut scenes are nicely done which help to keep the
game going to let you know that there is more to do than capturing the next
Spanish Treasure Fleet. Without giving too much away your storyline can
progress in about four different ways as you can take up allegiance with
either the Spanish, English, French, or Pirates ( if you call it an allegiance
). As your storyline can progress at almost any moment you can take a break
and plunder the seas if you like, or maybe take an alternative route and
change your allegiances, but only for a cost. You travel from city to city
picking up officers, completing quests, trading goods, and often talking
to the common folk of the town.
Gameplay
The
game is riddled with RPG elements as you soon learn through gaining levels
and experience on the seas. You can gain experience through battles and
quests. When you gain a level you are not only able to put skill points
into areas from gunlaying accuracy to sailing, but you may be able to buy
new classes of ships that the game has included. Often coveted is the Man
'O War with an immense amount of firepower it is truly a king. With many
choices for ships quests and routes to go Sea Dogs provides many hours of
gameplay to make up for some of its negative points.
Graphics
The
graphics are beautiful ranging from graphic, ocean scenery to the detailed
era correct towns of the 17th century. As I travel from one country's controlled
island to another I get a sense of where I am by the scenery and clothes
that seem to be painstakingly accurate. And things never get too slow on
the seas as I am always coming upon a lone merchant to be plundered or a
large pirate fleet coming for revenge. There is also an option for "turbo"
to speed things up, which can come in handy when you finally realize at
what a sluggish pace some of the larger ships turn. Almost everything about
the sea battles is perfect. As you learn the ropes of being a seafaring
captain, and learn how to turn your boat into firing range the fastest by
lowering and raising your sails, as well as using the wind to your advantage.
Sound
The
sound is even on par as the background music reminds me of the pirate movies
of old. Your shipmates yell when being hit, and talk to you when changing
the cannon ammunition. The in-game speech is thick with accents and can
be catchy and amusing at times. Although I do wish there was speech throughout
the entire game as most of the options for speaking are only listed through
text. I would have also like to have seen more speech samples during the
battles or sailing, as it can sometimes be either too quiet, or too monotonous
in the way your crew sounds off the same phrase for an action.
Bugs
As
with many games released around the Christmas season this one has bugs.
Often I would find myself turning in circles as the game did not like some
of my remapped keys, or I would run into a bump in a quest that I could
no longer continue because of a bug. When capturing a ship you are required
to "duel" the captain as a representation of the battle ensuing between
the crew of your ship and the crew of their ship. This course is plausible
but I am sure that it would have been much more fun to actually be IN the
battle on the ship, or at least put in a deal where you can move and strafe
your opponent rather than at a stand still in the sword duel. Lastly the
greatest downfall I think the game has is no multiplayer support, but I
have heard rumors of something being cooked up by the guys at Akella to
include a patch that will allow you to have ship battles between your friends
sometime next year.
Conclusion
All
in all this game provides a huge amount of time as I have spent countless
hours writing down information in regards to the prices of goods at different
ports to gain some gold in my pocket. I have even lost sleep hoping to finish
up certain quests just to get a little inch farther in the game. Through
its tiny fallacies this game provides heap of fun, coupled with great graphics
and addicting gameplay. Akella has even propped up a patch for the game
to fix a lot of the AI bugs and quest bugs. However this excellent game
deserves to be in anyones swashbuckling library and I can only hope we get
to see a second dose of this series in the future for the privateer in all
of us.
-Review by
Ckaoz
