Pirates of the Caribbean / Hebrew
Today, almost nothing is heard about the Akella company, but it was once a rather iconic publisher and developer of games in the CIS. Having started with “pirated” content, she very soon moved into the direction of purely legal business. True, many believe that Akella did not say goodbye to the dark side of the force, as she created the well-known Fargus company as a cover for her illegal activities, whose “pirate” publications are fondly remembered by most oldfags.
But today I’d like to talk about their attempt at independent game development, and admittedly quite successful! After all, in 2000, the first part of the series “Corsairs: The Curse of the High Seas” was released, where you, taking control of Nicholas Sharpe, will be able to immerse yourself in the romance of life at sea and be both a free privateer in the service of the crown and a pirate who robs any -what vessels are indiscriminate. In addition, no one forbids you to be an honest merchant traveling between the islands of the Caribbean basin, wanting to sell goods more profitably. The game was highly praised by both casual players and the professional press, and the sale made it possible to talk about a sequel without any doubt.
The second part of the series, which I will talk about, was originally planned as a continuation of the first game. But at a fairly late stage of development, the company received an offer to slightly rework the game and change the name – Akella agreed. As you might have guessed, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was slated to launch at the time, and the release of a theme game should have fueled interest in the project.
According to the initial idea, two characters were offered to choose from, who were each other’s brother and sister, but after signing the contract with Disney, it was necessary to stop at one hero (this idea was implemented in the later parts of the series). “Corsairs 2: Pirates of the Caribbean” is a rather strange product. On the one hand, it was decided to abandon the full-fledged continuation of the first part, leaving only references to the original source in the project, on the other – not to say that the game is strongly related to the film, having only a small number of ideas and famous moments like the “Black Pearl” itself “. And the events of the game begin in 1630, unlike the movie, where the action unfolds in the first half of the 18th century. It all looks like a hastily organized rework of the project, which I think it is. However, this does not negate the fact that the game is really good!
What does she take? Interesting gameplay, atmosphere of the golden age of piracy, pleasant music and beautiful (at the time of 2003) graphics. The engine written by Akella, called Storm Engine, was responsible for it, which was refined with each subsequent part of the franchise, growing with new improvements and opportunities. And if the way the characters or cities look was not particularly surprising, the view of the sea was truly mesmerizing! It was one of the best visuals of water (if not the best) in gaming at the time!
There’s something about Corsairs 2 that grabbed me and made it stand out from the rest of the series. For some reason, as a person who first played the first part, I liked it much more than the progenitor. Probably due to a more developed role system and the ability to collect items of equipment that enhance the combat properties of the hero.
In addition to the romance of sea battles, the constant desire for development is important. Starting the game on a small ship, you can get better and better ships in different ways, which will accommodate an increased crew of sailors, have an increased cargo capacity, and also carry more guns on board. Ah, how wonderful it was to fight on some huge galleon during a strong storm, when your enemy becomes not only enemy ships, but also the elements themselves (which at certain moments can transform into an ally, causing damage to enemy ships)!
For all its advantages, my main memory of the game: at the very end, just before the fight with the “Black Pearl”, my saves break, which is why I never passed this project, although I played it far from once. Would you know how unfortunate it was! But I don’t hold a grudge against the game, because it gave me dozens of hours of traveling through the Caribbean, sea battles, boardings, as well as interesting tasks and adventures on land.
Corsair 2: Pirates of the Caribbean was one of those rare games that didn’t tire of me even after a long immersion and kept me coming back to it years later. And after the global modification “Return of the Sea Legend”, which, if I’m not mistaken, I found on the “Igromania” disc – I fell in love with this product even more! And how could you not fall in love with her, because she refined and filled the game with content, taking it to another level! Which installed mod was waiting for a new system of pumping the main character, as well as a dozen of these heroes to choose from; flexible setting of game difficulty; quest generators; new weapons and other items, and even building and managing your own colony!
By the way, about pumping. In its essence, it resembles a cross between Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, because at the start it is suggested not only to choose a class, but also to distribute the points of the characteristics of the local SPECIAL system. The skills themselves are pumped in the process of their use! For me, the game with this modification is associated with a munchkin’s dream: a cool system of character development with various skills and abilities, multiplied by a large number of items and types of ships. Ideally!
Sailing between the islands of the Caribbean, you can choose your side, becoming a privateer serving in England, France, Holland or Spain. If you like a free life and you don’t want to listen to the orders of various governors who only want to use you for their own purposes – you can always join the ranks of pirates and stop choosing targets for robbery by boarding a ship under any flag! But don’t think that playing as a pirate is all about mindless looting and pumping. On the contrary, as in the colonial states, a line of tasks of the main plot awaits you.
It should not be assumed that the lives of ship captains were spent exclusively at sea! As shown in various films and books, they regularly hung out in taverns, searched for treasures and went to audiences with governors! And the game does not lag behind the given vector! Although the exploration of various abandoned temples and the battle with skeletons are hardly written off from reality, it still created a certain romance of the life of a pirate and diluted your sea adventures quite well. You are free to explore the islands not only from the sea, but also to take a walk on your own. Very often you will have to do it because of some task, sometimes – to find some treasures or just to level up. For this variety and quite a lot of freedom of action, the game is valuable and loved by many!
If the article awakened a bit of nostalgia, and you have a desire to go back in time and play your favorite game, in the Telegram channel “Old-fashioned Gamer” you can download both the installer and the already installed version of the game with the “Return of the Sea Legend” mod. For those who want to play pure “Pirates of the Caribbean”, I posted an archive with them as well. Choose what is convenient for you!