Pirates of Black Cove PC Review

Single PlayerBefore I talk about the game, I would like to point out that I had some technical issues that I had to resolve before I could even begin playing, and after some research I discovered I was not the first. Be very careful when changing the resolution in settings menu, you will not only have to select your resolution but also your refresh rate. It will be in the form of 1920×1080@60 (60 being the refresh rate). If you select one that is not compatible with your monitor you will not be able to go back into the game to change it. If this happens to you, please feel free to post in the comments or send me a message and I will be more than happy to help you.

When you start a new campaign on Pirates you will be given the choice of three characters to play as; Walker de Planc, Jolie Roger and Longshot Jack. Each of the characters has a special ability which you can choose to activate in game as well as three attributes (damage, speed and toughness) and a back story. While this is a nice addition and pushes the RPG elements of the game it is not a game changing mechanic so there’s no need to think too hard over which character you want to play as, but if you’re really that stuck you can always resort to the coolest looking one (which I would say has to be Longshot Jack, who is going for the pirate-style Solid Snake look).

The story is told through a mixture of in-game dialogue and cut scenes which consist of still images and a voice over. Right from the get go you will notice the quality of the voice acting, to be more specific the lack of quality of the voice acting. As you may have guessed from the names of the main characters, this game is half tongue in cheek and can be humorous at times, but the voice acting sounds more like your granddads impression of a pirate rather than the real thing. Couple this with a poor script and the story goes out the window, you never feel convinced that this game is even trying sometimes. However I have to admit I did catch myself chuckling on a few occasions, mainly when one of the characters randomly started to sing mid-sentence.

When the game starts you are immediately put in the control of a ship, the controls are very easy to pick up, as they follow most games on the PC by using the ‘w,s,a,d’ keys to control the movement of the ship and ‘q’ and ‘e’ to fire your cannons. The only other buttons you need to remember is the ‘M’ key which shows your map and the ‘Alt’ key which shows the current state of your ship, everything else is displayed on screen and can be controlled with the mouse. The sea-based is surprisingly satisfying as you can out manoeuvre AI and take on much larger ships (even with the first ship you receive), your boats damage is shown by a simple health bar as well as graphical indicators that your ship is damaged (such as smoke and holes in the sails). Your ship will also slow down when it is damaged (which can be extremely frustrating as you have to crawl back your island). Your ship will not get damaged from collisions. Sea based missions will mainly include sinking messenger or rival ships and can sometimes even be just getting from A to B. However, you man engage with any ships you pass by, if you manage to sink them before they sink you, you may loot the wreck of the ship and collect useful items. This may be a small addition but it can help break up the tedious journeys across the map.

When you join one of the three factions, you will have access to that island and the safe-house, this is where you will get given missions. Missions are given out in text form and you may choose which ones you would like to complete. Completing missions for the factions increases your ‘Pirate Clan Reputation’ (which is shown in the form of a progress bar), by gaining clan reputation you step closer to becoming the leader of that clan. To control your character on land you simply select your units you wish to move and then right click on where you would like them to go or what you would like them to interact with. Land based missions are entirely controlled with the mouse and can be very long and repetitive as characters move very slowly. There isn’t much variety in the land combat either, most missions involve you walking up the island to the main building killing all the bad guys one at a time and maybe looting the odd house on the way. On your factions island you can build building in certain pre-determined spots, this again is a nice addition to the game, but feels unnecessary and like the game is trying too hard to involve RPG components.

At a first glance at the game the visuals looks stunning, with a unique cartoon-style and beautiful looking water. On a closer inspection however, the game reveals it’s not so flattering side. The sea in the game is no doubt the best looking aspect, but when you take a second glance at jagged islands with flat textures and palm trees that look like paper, you realise the game isn’t a pretty as it seems. Land based missions look like they belong on the Playstation 1, and do not do the rest of the visuals justice.