Genre: StrategyDeveloper: MicroProse Software Inc.Year: 1987
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You sure might have played the 2004 hit Sid Meier's Pirates!, which received great media interest partly due to the fact that it is another important release from a major publisher... but the whole point behind this game is that it is a faithful remake of one of the best games ever created, first released over 18 years ago. I will introduce the original jewel now.
To design great games was not enough for Sid Meier -- he had to create new genres entirely. And Pirates! is a ganre in itself: it's not only a themed historical game, but one that mixes adventure, action, strategy and RPG elements in one. Thus it's hard to define this game, and I chose to place it on the strategy genre mainly because Sid Meier's best games were strategy.
Pirates' graphics are simple but won't let you down: it certainly took a certain measure of inspiration to create that ship combat engine work so smoothly -- even for nowadays' standards. Sounds are very primitive, like any other PC game from 1987.
Here's the story: as a child, you lost your family to some villain that had them locked up and scattered over the map. The years passed and grown up you decided to become the captain of a ship in the caribbean region -- and locate your family somehow.
The game is totally non-linear. As the captain of a ship, it makes no difference where you'll start looking for your family, or even if you'll look for them at all: you can start pillaging and sinking any other ships instead, look for treasures, hunt famous pirates down, participate in the caribbean politics, hang out with noblemen's daughters, cross swords with enemy captains, etc. Sounds complex to you? Trust me, the amount of options available is perfectly well balanced.
I won't be addressing every little feature and possibility in the game, but I must say the gameplay is generally very good, once you know the commands. You might think it's impossible for the 1987 game to feature all options found in the 2004 remake, but I can't think of a thing that's realy different in both games. The remake has more ships and available items, but that's about it.
As all Sid Meier's games, this one is the work of a genius, extremely replayable, fun, and challenging. A true masterpiece!
