geoffrey o'roark @sigundo

Cutthroats: Terror on the High Seas (Windows)

Pirates! it aint....

The Good
The graphics are not bad.. especially the ship battles. Nothing spectacular, but not bad.

The Bad
The interface is a bit clumsy, especially when buying cargo. You would think if you are buying cannons, food, etc.. that you would want the stuff on your ship. Now if you buy more than you can carry, I could see leaving it on the docks so you could prioritize what you take and what you don't. Occasionally, trying to remove a ton of items off your ship automatically sends your officers running to the docks for some unknown reason, and if you don't catch it, forget about taking command of that nice ship you just captured as you abandoned him on the docks with the rest of the cargo. Also, when I give a command, I expect it to be carried out.. at least to a reasonable level, when I order a ship to concentrate fire on the decks, I certainly do NOT mean, spin in a circle and draw fire away from the ship I'm currently commanding, I'll worry about the incoming cannon fire myself. If they can't contribute to the battle, at least they can stay out of range. (You can insure this at the beginning of the battle by telling every additional ship you have to just spin in place, well out of range of the enemy, and do all the fighting with your flagship, but then why have a fleet at all except to carry cargo if you have to do that)?

The Bottom Line
If you really liked Pirates! Gold, well just make it work with your Pentium using a slowdown program.. but if you find this title in the bargain bin, its nice to add to your collection, but Pirates! Gold is a lot more playable. Sure, the land battles dont have the fancy graphics, but the interface is so easy (Pirates! Gold) you can just concentrate on being piratey and such, and not worry about the men carrying out your orders (unless you are starving them, naturally).

By geoffrey o'roark on May 19, 2001