Macintosh

Sid Meier's Pirates!

Sid Meier’s Pirates be rich in gaming bounty for ye to plunder, from strategy to role-playing to combat to adventure. Don’t miss out.

Sid Meier’s Pirates does feel dated at this point, which is not surprising considering the core gameplay hasn’t changed much since the 1980s. Hard core sim players will be put off by its simplicity, while hard core action gamers will grow bored with all the sailing and dancing. But for all of us in the middle, Pirates is a fantastic blend of genres, requiring just enough strategy and skill to keep it challenging while providing just enough adventure to keep the game moving. Yes, it’s old, but there’s a reason a game like Pirates continues to be updated 20 years after its initial release; because it deserves to be.

Firaxis/Feral have done a very good job with taking modest-budget graphics and investing them with class and humor, adding that to a collection of rather simple but still engaging mini-games, and placing the whole thing in a large and vital world that you will want to keep exploring for many many hours. This game is very much more than the sum of its parts, and I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone looking for a great value in an immersive game, and who isn't too hung up on bleeding-edge graphics.