Lemme just say that I’ve loved Bethesda ever since Daggerfall. Battlespire was a disappointment, but they more than redeemed themselves with Morrowind. So now they put out Pirates of the Caribbean (originally Sea Dogs 2). I’ll admit right off the bat that I’ve only played this for around half an hour… and so far, I’m disappointed.
Whereas I understand that the focus of this game is sea combat 'tween pirate ships (I haven’t gotten into that aspect of the game yet, so I’ll have a separate review for that), the game also claims to have huge, lush environments, just ripe for exploring. I thought, “Hell, it’s Bethesda… I’m expecting Morrowind with boats! Probably not as in-depth a world, but still… it’s Bethesda!”
I was terribly, terribly wrong. The islands are like glorified Hexen II levels, with a set area where you can walk, and no free-roaming of the island. You can see tall, verdant mountains and underbrush off in the distance, taunting you, tempting you, MOCKING you for being unable to go over there and see what’s going on. No, you can only follow small paths of the island, one small area at a time, each one loaded into memory (to be fair, the load times are REALLY short) in sequence. If you see enemies in a new area you go to, just go back to the previous area, and then turn around again… when the area re-loads, the enemies will be gone.
I’m sorry, that’s a game mechanic limitation that we got rid of way back in '99. Even Ultima Ascension managed to have a seemless world, fer Christ’s sake.
Controls are TERRIBLY awkward. Why go against all gaming conventions? To be different? There’s a reason the WASD control setup evolved… because it does everything that people want it to do (nevermind that I, myself, prefer a really odd control setup, with CTRL as forward and ALT as reverse… and I HATE games that don’t let me use the ALT key. C&C Renegade was the same way). Instead, it uses the two mouse buttons for Forward and Reverse. No strafe keys. No looking around as you walk somewhere (the character always heads in the direction the mouse is pointing… a convention that got abandoned years ago).
Character creation? You could do just about ANYTHING in Morrowind. Pirates? Nada. They give you a character, and that’s that. Experience isn’t a TENTH as complex and in-depth as the Morrowind system. It looks like character growth is next to nonexistent. Ten skills, and most of them deal with boating? C’mon, if you wanna tack on an exploration game in addition to the boating, go all the way… don’t mock the player with this half-assed attempt. It’s just barely a step above Freelancer in that regard.
This wouldn’t be so disappointing if it were some rinky-dink company that put this game out (but then, I wouldn’t have bought it if that were the case). But Bethesda… c’mon, you guys are the KINGS of in-depth gameplay and complex world creation. What happened? You guys made this game on a whim, in your spare time, during your toilet breaks? So far, the game feels very half-assed… I hope to be pleasantly surprised with the sea battles.
Oh yeah, and the music sounds like crappy mid-'90s MIDI, a stark contrast to the beautiful and wonderful orchestral score of Morrowind.