The Good
Despite of what I think of Westwood (that they are simply infallible), and what I think of their game production (that everything they make must be good), and despite all that is true, I'll try to be objective and review this game as if I never heard of Westwood before. Otherwise, it could get overrated ;) Just kidding, I'm always objective, even in my review to "Myst" as much as it may seem otherwise.
Okay, it's one of those games I barely noticed on Westwood's site, never knowing much about it, thinking it'll probably get released in a couple more years or who knows when, but they'll probably place it on their site close to release date. Well, I was wrong. There was that "Command & Conquer: Renegade" game that simply was so over-anticipated for years, so that one took main place on the site, whereas "Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat" was actually released prior to "Renegade", couple of weeks earlier, actually. It was a sheer luck I ran into this game in some store and noticed it being released. That's where it all started...
Not long ago have I finally got my first console, a PlayStation 2 (and I don't think consoles have as close to quantity of good games as PC does, but those that are few are extreemely good ones), and after getting myself "MGS 2", I wanted to see how WS advanced onto new ground, with their first product for PS2. Well, it didn't take me too long to impress me, and even to think 'Is this game really much better than the famously renowned "MGS 2", or am I connecting somethign wrong?' but of course, that can't be entirely correct since both of those games are equally great at what they achieve.
Now let's see the points that did impress me...
After being disappointed by the lack of animations in "Red Alert 2" and "Renegade", I've already given up on seeing those brilliant (could be old, I don't care, I just wanted some pre-rendered 3D CG to see) animations I've seen in their earlier "C&C" series and games such as "Guardians of Destiny" or "Blade Runner". Well, I was pleasantly surprised how many cinematics does this game contains (must've been 'cos it's on DVD so they didn't have to cut a lot of 'em out). They do look a little outdated, but the atmosphere is to fit the time when pirates were, and that's couple of hundreds years back, so design they used with them is more than well suited. It's a proper mixture of 3D models and 2D backgrounds and pictures, really great looking.
The effect of graphic and lighting and all that is much more than I've encountered in any PC game, and after that "MGS 2" which used real-time cinematics look as good as pre-rendered, I'm starting to feel I either have outdated computer, or they just make crappy games when it comes to demonstrating the power of your graphic card. Either way, PS2 is fine since you don't have to think of any hardware problem, one way or the other. The way "Pirates" were made is fully 3D, and ship navigation, man, is that great or what? You can see from a first person from all sides of your ship, while firing cannon, crashing into enemy ship, speeding around opean seas, it's simply breathtaking how it all looks. Easiest way to navigate is looking from 3rd person perspective where you can zoom out to isometric-top-down mixture, or zoom it so close you can actually see your captain and some crew on it. While you're running on tha land, finding burried treasures, battling skeletons and pirates, you play it similar to "Indy V", only with a little more moves available. Mostly, this game is similar to those platform arcades you could also give title of adventureous, but is basically the same put onto 3D system, and it's handled pretty nice.
I really loved playing "Sid Meier's Pirates!" back 15 years ago on my Amiga, and it was a game which bsically gave you no story, but just a given time period to which you could play known areas, Carrebbean or such, plunder known towns, and battle spanish, english, dutch or french vessels, or against other pirates. What a great game it was. This one gives you almost everything like the classic original forementioned, but it has an exact story to play by (with many sub-quests aside, though), and you're not in the known waters, but rather in completely new created surrounding according to the story. So you can enter frozen vasts, volcanic islands, sailing over the lava and battling hellish minions that look as if they jumped by a mistake from "Diablo" game to this one. It's a variety alright, with a decent background story. I remember playing "RedGuard" once upon a time, now that was a nice game with some awesome music scores. Only not much piratery in this one, but is actually similar to this one when you're on land.
The level of details is really nice for a fully 3D game. When I first saw "Emperor: Battle for Dune" released by Westwood, only one thing came to mind, the game is 3D and that's probably why it looks kinda empty. Not the situation with "Pirates". You can see enemy crew in the middle of ship gunfights, flying around after the explosion, and seeing your sails getting holes, tearing apart and falling down, your ship wrecking apart after each shot, seeing whales swimming around, butterflies and birds, penguins, amazing effect whenever a cloud is passing over you, the land just simple gets darker or if you see the sun, your picture is too bright to know where you walk, so you direct camera from the sun, and not into thee. It's really amazing to what they all thought of.
Music is made by Frank Klepacki, a great composer who we all know from "C&C", "Dune", "Kyrandia" and "Lands of Lore" series, so you know what type of compositions to expect. It does help improving the atmosphere, as you can tell by the music if evemy ship is near or coast is clear. Some of the music in the game closely resemble to his "Nox" score, but aren't exactly the same. Sound of swordfights, cannons, towers raising, or fortresses exploading is great, and speech too, especially in the animations.
And the best part of the game is, of course, a woman :) You're acquiring a role of Katarina de Leon, governor's daughter and a pirate, depending on a given time. Set to find her mother's treasure, and to avenge her father's death, you travel many distant islands and performing quests in order to get the location of the legendary Skull Cove island (hence the working title that was to be original).
**The Bad**
Although voice acting isn't bad at all, dialogues may be simply ridiculous, and not quite well ballanced. Those of animations are fine, but ingame ones simple look too childish. "Move aside, or do you wish to die a second time?" or in even sillier fashion don't look at the level of Westwood's writing back from times of "Guardians of Destiny" or "Kyrandia" legends.
There may be too much ships out there. It's not that it's difficult to defeat them, especially if you run into them with the proper front icon attached, but they're not pirate ships or who knows which, but all are carrying exactly the same flag, and that's of Captain Hawk, your nemesis. Since he was just a pirate serving in your mother's crew, he couldn't possibly raise such a navy and build all those ships and fortresses. I lost count after 200th ship I sank. There is a great deal put into making sea battles look great, but when something is great already, updating quantity of it may become tiresome. Also, when you're battling on land, when you defeat someone, go a little forward and then return, the same enemy will be there again. that kinda weaken reason of killing them all. However, if you've plundered some island and there is no treasure on it, it may appear completely empty with no enemy reappearance at all. Still, a typical thing that 'should' make console users more happy. Not that I have something against consoles, but they are made only for playing games, so game developers probably think people to have consoles are much more childish and don't need some deeper story but just fight fight fight. That's why games such as this one, "MGS 2" or "Silent Hill 2" are rare.
**The Bottom Line**
A reliving of the original "Pirates!" with much more emphasize on action than adventure this time, and in much bigger close up than in original. Also, the captain's now a she ;) No matter how title 'Pirates' of any kind may sound as pointless game with no goal but plundering around, destroying ships and fencing until your hands can't function anymore, in this case, it's an exception. This is a worthy title, and at leat worthy for you to see it before saying anything about it. Try, can't hurt, can it?