Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales (AKA Seadogs 2) impressions

[Oche]

I've bought "Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales" when it came out in 2006, to my favorable surprise (as a Pirate buff) GOG had recently refurbished it as "Sea Dogs: Caribbean Tales" making it playable once again allowing to skip the DVD copy protection BS.

The game may have its main flaws as many other games, but nevertheless IMHO is still fun to play:

Here's my review i did on gamespot back in 2006:

"This is a true Pirate's game. I've been longing to experience a game like this ever since i heard that Sid Meier was gonna redo the Classic "Pirates!", which unfortunately became a total letdown, at least for real Pirate enthusiasts. The gameplay of Age of Pirates is what Sid Meier didn't take the least of trouble to make, it is really something truly magnificent since it combines pure Role Playing and Adventure without a linear sequence throughout the game. You can be a trader, corsair, pirate, etc, you decide you fate. I have never played neither Sea Dogs, or Pirates of the Caribbean which appear to implement the same game engine, so i took quite some time knowing the ropes of the game, but only to find real satisfaction and enjoyment.

Now bear in mind that the learning curve is steep, have some patience, it will pay off, took me about 5 hours or something to know the basic stuff, and +30 to grasp the whole game essence, but once you do you truly beging to understand the game. I'm not one of those cheap asses who expect to get everything out of the last penny, but i can assure you that for $30 dollars is quite a bargain.

It is a must for true Naval combat and Pirate freaks. The naval combat is the best to date, a true attempt to make a Sailing Ship Combat simulator. If Sailing combat simulation evolves from this then we shall have great Naval and Pirate games. In my opinion it is the best quality of the game.

At first look it can seem repetitive, take this guy from A to B, escort this ship from here to there, etc, but there is more to that.

The things i do not like about the game:

- The soundtrack: It sounds like "Willow" meets "Clash of the Titans", so i play with the music off all the time.

- Minor bugs: Crashing to Desktop not frequent but there, and other minor issues, besides that it is stable.

- No period selection: Only one time period.

- Reduced size of the Spanish Main or Caribbean Theatre: There are only a few colonies, There are no Bahamas colonies, Cuba, Bermuda, Terra firma, Panama, Mexico, etc.

- Size of Islands not accurate: Nobody's perfect. At least "Cutthroats" had the approximate size of all islands in the caribbean.

- No Careening: You can't find an isolated beach among the coasts to repair your ships.

- No true land tactital battles: This is a minor issue, it would be too much to ask for this game engine anyway, at least now.

- No diversity in Character selection: You are tied to selecting either Sharks, the guy or the gal, no customization of character (How did they let this out!).

- You cannot break in on locked houses and buildings or steal/obtain any effects from people you kill in the colonies.

The things i like about the game:

- The Ship to Ship Combat: oh my god, it's every Pirate's dream, you have to see it to believe it.

- The Graphics: Very well done, the ships and towns look great.

- The sounds: Nicely done, a few bugs but manageable.

- Open ended: You can do whatever the hell you want to, you choose your path.

- The Boarding and Fencing: The best in its kind.

- Contraband: Nice feature adding depth to the game.

- Trading system: Many goods to look about and buy here and sell there at a comfortable price, good system for those who like to trade.

- Slaves: Avoided element in any trading games because of the political correct **** Slaves were a reality.

- Officers: There is a very nice system which you can hire, appoint and dismiss officers to different options in your ship or appointing him to one of your ships.

- Tactics: You can use and command other vessels as well in naval combat.

- No political correct crap: If you have to kill the crew and its captain or raze a town you just do it!, it's a f@#$%^! Pirate game not a Walt Disney cartoon.

- Replay value: Very high, addictive as hell.

- True world effects: Like weather and plague.

- Ship types, weapons and upgrades: There is room for more weapons, ships, crew and bigger and better ships, cannons, sails, hulls, blades, pistols, etc.

I will be playing this game for some time. I bow down before the designer team and truly thank them for this, these are the kind of games that deserve true credit and recognition. So finally if you truly enjoy the historical period or the Pirates subject you i recommend you get this game."

http://www.gamespot.com/age-of-pirates-caribbean-tales/user-reviews/2200-191391/

[Philippe]

The towns in AoP:CT looked great, and I'm really sorry they weren't carried over to AoP 2: CoAS or the recently released Sea Dogs To Each His Own.

AoP2: CoAS and the new Sea Dogs To Each His Own have better ship models than AoP:CT, though they're still not perfect.  So far the difference that I've been able to detect between the ships in AoP2:CoAS and the new Sea Dogs seems to be that the ships in the new Sea Dogs are slightly higher resolution.

The aspect ratio of AoP2 is a problem on modern computers.  There are partial solutions, but they're not perfect. The new Sea Dogs has the correct aspect ratio and has slightly higher resolution all around.

The maps of the Caribbean in AoP2 and the new Sea Dogs are essentially the same. They're not Google Maps realistic, but they're much better than the map in AoP:CT.

There are some bugs in Sea Dogs To Each His Own.  They're getting squashed and so far I haven't encountered any that are game-stoppers.

The quality of translation in Sea Dogs To Each His Own is nothing short of atrocious.  Barely coherent and often bad for immersion.  I'm used to playing the game with the music and the spoken dialog turned off, but to play Sea Dogs you have to not look too closely at what someone on the screen just said.

Apart from that I rather like Sea Dogs To Each His Own, and it will be a great game when the Russian developers have done the needful.  It's not a major departure from AoP2 and could probably best be described as AoP2.5.  But if you're into pirate games, it's certainly worth getting.

I really miss the scope and relative accuracy of the Sid Meier map.  And whenever I get fed up with the broken Russian-English I start looking at the Mount and Blade Caribbean spinoff and wondering how bad it would be to play one of these games without first person ship combat.

[Philippe]

Denizens of a cat house in Sea Dogs To Each His Own.















Swiving happens offscreen (which is a good thing given the quality of the artwork) but with sound effects.

But I really wish the next developer who publishes a pirate game takes the trouble to read Barth's Sotweed Factor first. 

[JasonPratt]

So, a higher rank girl gets more, um, coverage?  :o Is the idea that her reputation advertises for her?

[Philippe]

Don't really know the answer to that one. 

Brothel's services don't come cheap, and I'm usually too strapped for cash for systematic studies.

[Oche]

The towns in AoP:CT looked great, and I'm really sorry they weren't carried over to AoP 2: CoAS or the recently released Sea Dogs To Each His Own.

AoP2: CoAS and the new Sea Dogs To Each His Own have better ship models than AoP:CT, though they're still not perfect.  So far the difference that I've been able to detect between the ships in AoP2:CoAS and the new Sea Dogs seems to be that the ships in the new Sea Dogs are slightly higher resolution.

The aspect ratio of AoP2 is a problem on modern computers.  There are partial solutions, but they're not perfect. The new Sea Dogs has the correct aspect ratio and has slightly higher resolution all around.

The maps of the Caribbean in AoP2 and the new Sea Dogs are essentially the same. They're not Google Maps realistic, but they're much better than the map in AoP:CT.

There are some bugs in Sea Dogs To Each His Own.  They're getting squashed and so far I haven't encountered any that are game-stoppers.

The quality of translation in Sea Dogs To Each His Own is nothing short of atrocious.  Barely coherent and often bad for immersion.  I'm used to playing the game with the music and the spoken dialog turned off, but to play Sea Dogs you have to not look too closely at what someone on the screen just said.

Apart from that I rather like Sea Dogs To Each His Own, and it will be a great game when the Russian developers have done the needful.  It's not a major departure from AoP2 and could probably best be described as AoP2.5.  But if you're into pirate games, it's certainly worth getting.

I really miss the scope and relative accuracy of the Sid Meier map.  And whenever I get fed up with the broken Russian-English I start looking at the Mount and Blade Caribbean spinoff and wondering how bad it would be to play one of these games without first person ship combat.

I will definitely get into AOP2 but not for now, the RPG element seems to have been increased a lot since AOP, right?. The Caribbean spinoff for MB didn't run well on my aging rig, but for that one too i can wait until i get a better machine because i'm fond of the M&B games as well.

Best scope for a pirate game map for me was found in "Cutthroats: Terror on the high seas", i have an old laptop just to play that one from time to time and a few other oldies, still waiting for GOG to refurbish it and others but so far i've been satisfied with their game revivals.

[Gusington]

You wrote for Gamespot?? I did not know this.

[Oche]

You wrote for Gamespot?? I did not know this.

Nope, that was just a personal review of AOP, i've also reviewed a few others, they are listed and shown accessing the reviewer's profile.

[Gusington]

Oh. You should have just lied and said yes :)

[acctingman]

( . )( . )  :D

[Gusington]

Hahaha

[Philippe]

This is one of the in-game maps that you can buy from a merchant in AoP 2: CoAS.





The game world has a bit more detail, but this should give a pretty good idea of what goes on.  It's not real geography, but at least the major locations are in the right general relationship to each other. 

But I do find myself missing Sid Meier's geography.

[Oche]

This is one of the in-game maps that you can buy from a merchant in AoP 2: CoAS.





The game world has a bit more detail, but this should give a pretty good idea of what goes on.  It's not real geography, but at least the major locations are in the right general relationship to each other. 

But I do find myself missing Sid Meier's geography.

I can see why  ;D, it's better than the original random maps for Sea Dogs and POTC for sure though.

[Philippe]

Just sailed around in AoP2 and Sea Dogs 2 To Each His Own for a couple of minutes each, and Sea Dogs 2 looks a lot better than AoP 2, and it's not just the aspect ratio.

It's a shame the English translation was done by babelfish with a hangover.

[Toonces]

(.)(.)   

No need for all that text...I'm sold!   O0