Sea Dogs Review

The action element has been greatly improved with the introduction of a very addictive naval combat, which really captures the spirit of the great seafaring adventures. You're probably wondering: "how the hell do you know how it felt to be a pirate in the 17th century?!" My grandmother told me, you ass! She knows about that stuff, she was a pirate in the 17th century; I think she was 18 at the time. The naval combat in Akella's Sea Dogs adds a new twist to the original Pirates gameplay in a sense that it manages to successfully fuse the simulation and RPG elements and milk it for some seriously addictive and fun gameplay. I'd even go so far as to say that I consider the naval battles stand-alone mini-games. Fighting on the sea takes some skill, and I'm not just referring to experience points. It may take you a while to get proficient (handling the winds, angles), but when you do, you'll find that sinking ships is just as addictive as shooting Kilrathis and the likes. And that's not surprising considering that Akella is currently working on Age of Sail 2, the sequel to Talon Soft's very successful Doom-like FPS ... no, I'm just screwing with ya. Of course it's a naval sim.

The sword fighting sequences are pretty much determined by the level of experience of the characters (i.e. the pirates or the officers you'll be fighting against), and can be considered a semi-real-time, points-based combat system. Very similar, in fact almost identical to the original game.

Finally, the strongest point I have to make regarding gameplay (and you always save this stuff for the 'wrap it all up' gameplay sentence) is that it has been meticulously designed and balanced! Ergo, the addictiveness. It's like Akella had a great gaming concepts on their hands, and then they play tested it and turned it into something even better by using the right level to experience points ratio, correctly balancing out ship's faults and strong points, and adding a whole slew of cool little features, which weren't available in the original. How can I be sure of this? Just ask my girlfriend. She only waited 30 minutes in the cold when I recently played American McGee's Alice.

Looks and Sounds of the New Pirates!

We've come a long way, baby - says Fat Boy Slim. Sea Dogs brings a drop of Caribbean to your desktop, with its sunshine rays and beautiful emerald sea. Something I could only imagine while playing Pirates in my younger days. I was actually pleasantly surprised with the Sea Dogs' 3D code. It boast some great weather effects (storms, huge waves, misty mornings) and crisp textures -- just take a closer look at some of the Baroque ornaments on the ships and interiors, and swanky-looking sea textures -- you can even see the skillfully designed bottom when you're sailing in shallow waters, and little sharks swimming around (in case you decide some of your crewmen need to 'walk the plank'). It also draws some round and rich in polygons models, although not as well animated as in other action adventure games, but that's because its main function is to handle the naval battles. This actually makes it a bit sluggish when used as a classic third-person adventure engine, but it makes it just perfect for ship fighting. Boats react realistically to winds, and their handling seems, and at least appears to accurately represent these huge beasts floating on salty water. Or so my grandma tells me. And I've played with paper boats in the tub once.

The voiceovers are very well done (professional, imagine that), although it appears that the developers were rationalizing CD space (or resources?) by including only a one-liner for each character in the game. You'll have to put your reading glasses on if you feel like going through the rest of the dialogue in Sea Dogs. Still, the amazingly atmospheric compositions performed by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra more than make up for this little drawback. And to tell you the truth, I thought it was rather nice to read most of the dialogue. Sure felt like a nostalgic trip down the memory lane...

C'mon, I need to go on my lunch break!

So, before I go on my lunch break, I'd just like to wrap this sucker up with some everlasting words of wisdom. Liked Pirates? Buy Sea Dogs and make your girlfriend jealous! Or homicidal, depending on her personality. I mean, if you do get hooked just don't let her near your little thing with a pair of tweezers, that's all. Sea Dogs is addictive as hell, it's perfectly balanced (just like Pirates was), and it adds more than just flashy graphics. Take it from an old Pirates fan.

Oh, and one more thing. Our editor Dex just reminded me that the map in Sea Dogs is based on fictional locations, unlike in the original game (this fact totally slipped my mind). Hmm... should we consider this a downside? I did wish for a larger map a couple of times, and I miss giving them naughty Panama citizens a taste of my blade, and using an Atlas to navigate... Other than that, I wasn't really phased by this fact much. Nothing is perfect as you know, but nothing was ever intended to be so. It all comes down to the "did I have loads of fun playing it" question, and the answer here is: my girlfriend's butt! You know, frozen and waiting for a good hour in the cold.