Pirates of Black Cove

Arrrr, ye landlubbers don't know what it is to sail the majestic ocean! I've always been a fan of Pirate games. Sailing the seas, firing cannons, swashbuckling, buccaneering, pirate..eering?

Pirates of Black Cove, released early this month, is an open world game focusing on three main factions. The Corsairs, the Buccaneers or the Pirates. These three factions seem to share a similar issue, they all want to kill each other. Enter stage right, the hero of the game, attempting to bring the factions together to become the King of pirates.

The game begins with character creation, which is just the choice between three possible heroes. The stock standard male, the stock standard female and some old guy. From these characters you get the same old decision to make, do you go the male Walker de Planc the all rounder, the female Jolie Walker, quick but slightly weaker, or the old guy Longshot Jack, the slower but more powerful one. With a name like Walker de Planc how could I not choose the all rounder. After a quick introduction about how successful the mutiny, which I didn't get to play or even see, went I get out into the world view. After some more talking and being shot at, where I still didn't have control, I finally get to sail my ship.

Travel across the ocean is quick compared to some other Pirate games.

First thing I do is see what happens if I run ashore. Some smashing wood sounds later and I'm sailing away unharmed. Small hiccup just there, not that I'm complaining. So I finally manage to reach the Pirate Cove where I take control of my character on foot. I do a little running around and collecting random eye patches that are just lying around the town before finally going to the mansion to get my first mission. Intercept a letter and deliver a fake one. My life as a yarrr-ing and parrot-shouldering Pirate has begun!

Please don't shoot me, please don't shoot me, please don't shoot me, please don't shoot me.

On my way to my first mission I see a shiny thing floating in the water. As I sail over it I pick it up, I can only assume my character jumped off the ship with a rope attached and Mission Impossibled the item out of the water. Turns out it's a joke, "What's a Pirate's favourite movie?......Starrrrrrrr Warrrrrrrs".....think I might just go walk the plank now. The mission, right, so I go off and blow this messenger ship out of the water, not too hard considering it never fired back. I take the letter and deliver the fake one, and whatever was on it the British really didn't like, they declared war. Off I go giggling mischievously at their expense.

If only I had a moustache like this

Mission 2 and I am in need of some foot soldiers to assist me. After constructing a place for them to be built I max out my little group of soldiers so I have a very small army of guys who all look scarily similar. Are they all brothers? If so then....I mean it's a small island and I just wonder....actually...I think I'm better off not asking. So off I go with my group of clones to kidnap some governor. Upon arrival to the port I get attacked. No problem though, my army of clones step forward and cut the men down.

Their names from left to right are Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob,
Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob and Steve.

Land combat happens in a manner similar to real-time strategies where you command the small groups of soldiers as well as your main character. This isn't exactly a bad thing but I do enjoy actually being a part of the fight and relying more on my skill to win rather than just clicking on the enemy and watching as my character does everything for me. After a few minutes of fighting my way through a town and getting my men to destroy a building by cutting it with swords I finally reach the governor. Silly man has his goons attack me. A few seconds of sword flashes and he surrenders.

He never stood a chance really.

Pirates of Black Cove is a nice little pirate game with puns, entertaining music (when it plays) and a nice crushing sound when your cannonballs hit another ship. It's introductory levels are simple enough to allow the player to learn the controls without ever putting them in any serious danger (I didn't lose a single man capturing the governor). It also has a collectibles side thing which I disdain, if the items don't help me in any way then why would I even bother searching for them. If the collectibles actually made the character better in some way (see Crackdown's jumping orbs for a good example) then I could live with it and even go searching for them perhaps, instead I find myself wondering if there is any point to them, and if so, why not tell the player when they first pick them up. With no evidence that they will help me then I tend to just glaze over them in my goal to sink that other ship that has just started attacking me.