Pirates of the Caribbean (computer game)
| pirates of the Caribbean | |||
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| Studio |
 Akella
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| Publisher |
 Bethesda Softworks Ubisoft
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
Windows: July 1, 2003 August 28, 2003 Xbox: June 30, 2003 September 5, 2003 |
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| platform | Microsoft Windows , Xbox , mobile phone | ||
| Game engine | Storm Engine 2 | ||
| genre | Action RPG | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse , Xbox controller | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
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| medium | 1 DVD-ROM | ||
| language | German, English, Russian | ||
| Current version | v1.03 | ||
| Age rating |
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Pirates of the Caribbean is an action role-playing game developed by Akella , which was published in August 2003 for Windows PCs and shortly afterwards for the Xbox by Bethesda Softworks and Ubisoft . A version for mobile phones followed in July 2003.
action
Nathaniel Hawk, the player character, lands with his ship around the year 1630 in the port of Oxbay, the name of the city and the island. His ship was badly damaged by a storm. Oxbay is a quintessentially English Caribbean colony, bustling, thriving and peaceful. Until a squadron flying the French flag appeared out of nowhere. The French surprised the fort's crew in their sleep. In less than half an hour, Oxbay was in French hands. Hawk manages to escape with his ship. He then travels to Redmond to the seat of the English governor Silehard. Silehard then acquires Hawks' ship and you work for Silehard. Through some tasks that Silehard Hawk entrusts, the reconquest of Oxbay succeeds.
On these assignments, Hawk meets Daniele Green, an old rival, and they work together from now on. They learn that Silehard is after an old treasure and has already tried to kill Green. Green found stone tablets in a mine near Oxbay that contain the location of the treasure and clues to traps. To decipher it, you must rescue an old inventor from Greenford Prison on Oxbay. Without further ado, the two decide to take the entire city of Greenford. From the sea side by cannon balls and on land by a landing party. You conquer the city and free the inventor. Finding out about the attack, Silehard sends a fleet of warships to Greenford, which are sunk by Hawk and Daniele. The name of the island on which the treasure is located is Khael Roa. Hawk and Green sail to the island, where Silehard is already waiting with a fleet. She is sunk by Hawk.
On the island you will find the temple that is supposed to house the treasure. They find a small round artifact, a kind of marble, which Green takes. The temple collapses and the Black Pearl appears in front of the island. As in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, she is manned by cursed people. In normal sunlight they look like normal people, but in the moonlight they become skeletons. Hawk and the Pearl fight a sea battle. Once the Pearl has fallen to half its health, Green activates the artifact. The pearl explodes and sinks to the bottom of the sea. The crew of the Pearl is not dead, however. They are walking around on the ocean floor. Hawk and Green then sail away, unsuspecting, hugging.
Gameplay
General
On land, you control your character exclusively from a third-person perspective . At sea you only control your ship either in a kind of third-person perspective or you switch to the deck of the ship and fire your volleys manually.
In addition to completing the quests, the player has several activities available to increase his experience and gold level. Shopkeepers offer the player, depending on the size of their own ship or fleet, orders to transport goods from one island to the next. However, via the trading book, the player can also see which goods are in demand on an island and which are exported or smuggled. The player can procure the goods that are officially traded from another island and sell them to the shopkeeper on the required island at a fixed price. Smuggling is similar. Here the player has to get the goods that are fixed that the smugglers want. You usually meet at a remote stand and sell the goods to him. If the talent for luck is low, soldiers can appear on land. They want to kill the smugglers and the player character. Ships are also waiting at sea, the number and size of which vary. In taverns it is possible to ask for ship captains who need escort to another island. However, the gain in experience and the gold yield are far below the value offered by the above options. However, this increases the character's reputation.
The game has a good-and-bad system called popular reputation. This can be increased, for example, by escorting ships, fulfilling a positive quest or by donating gold to the church. You get a bad reputation if you attack the ship to be protected, which you should give escort, or kill the population of the cities on land. Certain quests can only be started with a good or bad reputation.
The journey between the islands takes place on an overview map. On it, friendly and hostile ships cross the player's route. Both parties have the opportunity to start a sea battle. Storm fields appear on the overview map. If the player does not avoid this, he will get caught in the storm and his fleet will be severely damaged up to and including the loss of entire ships.
Character talents and officers
Ten different talents are available to the player. Each talent in turn can be raised to a maximum of ten.
- Leadership: Indicates how much wages you have to pay your team. The higher the leadership, the better officers one can recruit.
- Melee combat: The higher the talent, the more damage you cause in close combat.
- Sailing: Better maneuverability and faster ship speed
- Precision: Increases the accuracy of the cannons
- Cannons: Shorter reload times for cannons
- Boarding: Increases the boarding range
- Repairs: Determines how much you can repair the ship yourself without going to a shipyard.
- Trade: Reduces the prices when purchasing goods and increases the sales value of your own goods.
- Defense: Determines how many crew members are killed by enemy cannon fire
- Luck: gambling and smuggling of goods
In addition to talents, skills are also available to the player. To suffer less damage or to cause more damage, on land as well as on water.
In taverns officers can be recruited for a fee. These have different talent combinations depending on the type of officer, for example a gunner has better talent values in precision than in trade. The talents and skills complement the main character so talents can be brought higher than the maximum level 10.
Officers are also required to set up a fleet. The maximum number of ships in your own fleet is four, including your own. These officers are then promoted to captains and can no longer be taken ashore. Each ship can accommodate a maximum of four officers. Since the officers have distributed their talents differently, the maximum value of a talent is determined by all officers. This means if, for example, the captain has the talent sailing at level four, but one of his officers has the talent at level eight, the talent of the captain is upgraded to eight.
As the story progresses, the player character encounters special officers. These are involved in quests, for example. Especially at the start of the game, they have higher talent values than officers who can be bought. If the player makes the decision to include them in his crew, they can no longer be fired, unlike normal officers.
Naval battles
A total of up to twelve ships can collide in a battle. You steer the player's ship independently from the third-person view. The own fleet can only be given orders to attack a certain ship or to withdraw from battle. Various types of ammunition are available to the ships. Regular cannon balls, grape balls , chain balls and bomb balls. Each type of ammunition has different effects on the enemy ship. Chain balls especially tear apart the sails, while bomb balls damage the hull in particular.
If you are close enough to an enemy ship, it can be boarded. The game switches to the decks of the ships. If you have hired officers, they fight with the player character against a handful of opposing soldiers. If not just normal sailors. The fewer sailors the enemy ship has, the fewer sailors oppose the player on the deck. If the enemy ship still has a particularly large number of sailors, the battles can extend over several decks of the ship. The more sailors you have of your own, the more sailors are at your side when boarding and the higher their health.
If all opposing sailors have been killed on the decks, it is possible to loot the ship's cargo, assign an officer to the ship and take over his fleet if there is still space, or swap the ship with his own, and then sink your own ship becomes. Boarding a ship brings more experience points than sinking it, but it is more dangerous.
Land fights
Various sabers and pistols are available to players and officers on land. For example, officers can be bought and assigned a specific pistol. The fights are usually the same on land. A block system prevents the character from taking major damage unless attacked in the back. During the blows of the opponent, blows of the player character are possible, which put the opponent out of action for a short time and inflict a lot of damage in this phase. Health potions can be used to regenerate health during combat.
Game world
The flora is modeled on the Caribbean, but there is hardly any fauna. You play in the Caribbean, but no island really exists. There are a total of 8 islands with respective cities that have the same name:
- Conceicao
- Isla Muelle
- Falaise de Fleur
- Douwesen
- Redmond
- Oxbay (The towns of Oxbay and Greenford)
- Quebrados Costillas
- Khael Roa (only accessible at the end of the game)
The islands, except for Khael Roa, are under the control of a governor or pirate chief. The governor of the island belongs to a colonial power of the time: England, France, Holland, Spain or Portugal. Some of the colonies are at war with one another. The cities all have the same infrastructure: a tavern, a shipyard, a shop and a seat of the governor. In the cities, some of the houses can be entered and they usually contain smaller items such as healing potions that the player can take.
The area around the cities is also accessible. There are mostly caves or quest locations. During the day there can be bandits on the paths who want to rob the player. He can kill them or give them all of his gold. Skeleton warriors can join in at night. These only have the intention of killing the player character.
Development details
The game was first announced in March 2003. Originally the game was called Sea Dogs 2 and was planned as a successor to the game Sea Dogs developed by Akella. The entire game was almost finished and Disney and Bethesda agreed that the game should be released with the appropriate license under the name Pirates of the Caribbean. Ultimately, it was released for Windows on August 28, 2003 and for the Xbox on September 5, 2003 for the Xbox in German-speaking countries, while in North America it was released in July 2003.
Keira Knightley , who embodies the character Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean, lent her voice to the narrator in the English version.
A version of the game was released for mobile phones on July 25, 2003. It was developed by Flying Tiger Development and published by Disney Interactive.
Relation to the film
The game is similar to the movie. The Black Pearl is also controlled by skeletons, which look like normal people by day but become skeletons by moonlight. As in the film, they cannot be killed with sword blows. The search for coins that brought them this fate is what drives the crew in the game as in the film. The ship is sunk at the end of the game. However, the crew is not dead, but walks around on the ocean floor as the crew in the film can. In the second part of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the character Davy Jones says that he brought the Black Pearl from the ocean floor.
The captain of the Black Pearl with Hector Barbossa is specified in the game files. The character Will Turner is also present in the files. However, both characters may not have lived in 1630, the year the game started, as the film series takes place around 100 years later.
reception
Reviews
| German-speaking area | ||
|---|---|---|
| publication | Rating | |
| 4players | 80% (Win) | |
| GameStar | 57% (Win) | |
| Games world | 77% (Xbox) | |
| Looki | 80% (Xbox) | |
| PC Games | 72% (Win) | |
| Game tips | 75% | |
| International | ||
| GameSpot | 7.6 / 10 (Win) | |
| IGN US | 7.2 / 10 (Win) | |
| Meta-ratings | ||
| GameRankings | 66.63% (Win) 68.99% (X360) |
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| Metacritic | 64% (Win) | |
The game received mixed ratings ( Metacritic : 64% (Win), GameRankings : 66.63% / 68.99%).
The trade magazine GameStar says that the game world exudes irresistible charm both on the sea and on land. The sailing mode also looks and plays a lot. It was criticized, for example, that normal citizens would always say the same when asked about rumors. Overall, GameStar believes that those who keep up the game will be richly rewarded.
At the time, PC Games said that no other game could deliver such impressive ships, such beautiful water and such realistic weather effects. The intelligence of the computer captains was criticized.
The side 4Players thinks that the sea battles are sometimes spectacular. The change of day and weather are also very nice to look at and dynamic. It was criticized, for example, that memory statuses seem to be disappearing.
The Looki portal praised the particularly lively game world when, for example, the sailors run back and forth on ships or climb the rigging, while at night flies orbit light sources such as torches. The controls, which are said to be cruel, were criticized.
The game tips page says that the licensed cow was not milked here, as is usual. The graphics and mood allow you to overlook the little adversities, such as the controls.
Modifications
Numerous modifications appeared for the game. One of the most extensive is the Build 13 Mod. Among other things, it introduces a new game world and new quests.
Web links
- Pirates of the Caribbean at MobyGames (English)
- Pirates of the Caribbean , extensive wiki about the game
Individual evidence
- ↑ 4players News
- ↑ Imdb Trivia
- ↑ looki News
- ↑ 4players News
- ↑ mobygames release dates
- ↑ imdb voice actor
- ↑ a b 4players.de
- ↑ a b gamestar.de
- ↑ gameswelt test of the Xbox version
- ↑ a b test looki.de
- ↑ pcgames test of the Xbox version
- ↑ a b Test game tips
- ↑ gamespot test of the PC version
- ↑ a b GameRankings : Average Windows rating , based on 49 articles. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
- ↑ a b GameRankings : Average Xbox rating , based on 34 articles. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- ↑ a b Metacritic : Average rating of the Windows version , based on 25 articles. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
- ↑ pcgames.de
- ↑ Gamestar news about the mod