The company has been publishing games for several years. pirate theme, and are their latest (for now) product. I’ll make a reservation right away that veterans of the series will not find anything new for themselves, except for alchemy, a couple of additional ships and a fresher plot. Beginners will discover a whole unknown world full of exciting adventures.
The game was developed by the studio. At first it was positioned as an addon to , but still became a separate product. Unlike previous games in the series, in the new Corsairs we will not be given the opportunity to choose a nation and a character name, although it was originally planned. Characteristics (the game uses the PIRATES system) can now also not be selected independently. True, we are still given several prepared options for the distribution of points to choose from, which will still allow us to create a character with a trade or military bias.
The adventure begins
After creating the character, we will be told the backstory, and after a short dialogue, we will find ourselves in Martinique almost penniless. Here it will become clear to everyone that Corsairs is by no means a casual game. Yes, there is a training here that says where everything is, what you can find out from whom, where to find a job, etc. forum). True, there is a detailed manual in the game directory, which will not be very easy for a beginner to master either.
Suppose you have already completed the initial quests in Martinique, sailed to Guadeloupe and back... , trade, capture ships ... By the way, about the ships: there are a lot of them in the game, however, in order to manage a large ship, you will need to improve your skills well or hire a navigator, because if the “Navigation” skill of the main character is less than required, then he absolutely all skills will go down, which will greatly complicate the further game.
lugger lugger strife
All ships have characteristics that show the strength of the hull, the maximum number of crew, the capacity of the hold, maximum speed and maneuverability, etc., and they are generated randomly, so that from two absolutely identical appearance you can still choose the best ships. As I said earlier, there is a wide variety of courts in the game, that is, you can (and should) find something to your liking. One, small and fast, will prove to be an excellent solution for attacking small convoys, while the other, powerful and heavy, is great for attacking a fort or even the Spanish Golden Fleet (although this will require a good squadron of powerful ships).
The speed of the ship depends on the integrity of the sails and the wind. Unlike the previous parts, top speed is achieved not directly downwind, but at some angle to it, which adds realism to the game.
Travel between the islands takes place on a global map. It is here that you can find some kind of unprotected trade caravan or run into pirates, which are often not a problem to sail away from on the global map, since usually the player’s wind speed is much higher than that of others. But sometimes there are also Gentlemen of Fortune, who can be even faster, especially if the player has a squadron.
The Gentlemen, unlike the others, are much harder to deal with. Firstly, they pursue the player for a very long time, and secondly, that cheating method does not work with them, when the player, being at a distance of more than 1000 meters from the enemy, enters the tactical map and returns to the global one again (usually the ships simply disappear). Realism, again. True, not complete.
But in the sea you can meet not only ships, but also the places of recent battles, which on the global map look like a barrel floating on the waves. Having left in this place on the tactical map, the player can pick up cargo that has not yet managed to sink.
Combat: on land and at sea
The life of our character in any development option will take place in wanderings and battles both on land and at sea. Let's start with the marine part. I note right away that all game process(with the exception of manual aiming in a naval battle) takes place in real time from a third person.
We are free to maneuver and shoot when we want and where we want, and we have 4 types of ammunition: cannonballs, bombs, buckshot and knippels. Fire is fired from cannons or culverins, their number and maximum caliber depend on the type of ship. The cannons do a lot of damage and reload quickly, the culverins hit further, but the damage from them, of course, is less, and the reload takes a little longer. That is, here again, everyone is free to customize everything for themselves and their tactics. Accuracy of hitting and reloading speed depend on the skills of the captain and the training of the crew, so the team that has already been in battles should be protected, as the newcomers raise/lower the sails for a long time, shoot crookedly, and also fight badly when boarding. I don't know if this should be considered a plus or a minus, but now the quality of the sailors in the tavern is strongly tied to the nation: the British have good sailors, the French have gunners, the Spaniards have boarders. Only the pirates have remained the same: although their morality is not so hot, they are most often true professionals in all three areas.
Well, you exchanged volleys with the enemy and boarded (do you want to get his cargo or even a whole ship?). Now we move on to the “ground” combat. I must say right away that I have always liked combat. The character is able to inflict four types of blows, make a feint, parry and block. It would seem, what is the difference between the last three? Block gives the character the ability to parry almost all of the enemy's attacks, except for the piercing one, parry is harder to perform, but repels all blows and makes the opponent spend more energy, and the feint, in addition to the parry functions, makes it possible to deal additional damage to the enemy. All this variety fits on four buttons: three for the main blows, and the fourth is a switch between a blow or an additional one. function. And it is in this fourth button that a small problem lies: it is not always possible to perform, for example, a feint instead of a blow, which in the worst case can lead to death .. But in general, everything is framed very well.
There are three classes of weapons in the game: light (rapiers), medium (sabers) and heavy (broadswords, axes). Moreover, the damage and energy loss depend just the same on the type: the rapier is great for attacks, axes - for piercing blows, and sabers are a versatile weapon. But the damage when dealing various blows also depends on the skills of the character, the characteristics of the weapon "Damage / Balance", as well as on its length and curvature. Moreover, weapon stats are generated as randomly as ship stats, so the best blade for a particular character is revealed in battles.
But besides melee weapons, there are also firearms. Here the game also took a step forward: in addition to pistols, various muskets and shotguns appeared. In addition, weapons now need not only bullets, but also gunpowder, although pistols are best loaded with homemade cartridges - they weigh less (the character has a maximum carry weight) and reload faster.
But what to do if you are seriously wounded in battle? To save you, you can drink various potions that you can brew yourself, find in chests, or buy from merchants. It's also nice to have a few antidotes with you - what if you get hit with a poisoned blade?
Mystic…
Oh, by the way, about poisoned blades ... Most often, weapons that have a poisoning effect are considered to be charmed. And in general, here, as in other Corsairs, there are many mystical things. Take, for example, amulets. Here, almost every amulet has both useful and harmful properties, besides, it “works” only for a certain period. In the previous parts, such things mainly gave bonuses, were endless and lay in every second chest. Now the frequency of their finding has greatly decreased. However, no one bothers to order the right little thing from the lighthouse keepers for an exorbitant price.
Well, according to tradition, in the new Corsairs there is a mystical ship with black sails, filled with undead, to take possession of which you will need to go through many sorrows and hardships. True, this time the developers for some reason took out this feature gameplay in a separate DLC (apparently, they decided to join the general fashion).
We count the profits
The line has always been positioned as giving the opportunity to make money not only by piracy, but also by using completely legal methods, one of which is fair trade (there are other ways, such as escorting a merchant or transporting cargo, but we are not talking about them now). The goods of each colony are divided into 4 (previously there were three) types: contraband (bought by the player at exorbitant prices, can only be sold to smugglers), export (cheap prices for both sale and purchase), import (expensive) and those that the colony collects for export to Europe (even more expensive than imported). Moreover, prices change all the time, which is why it is useful to ask other captains for fresh reports more often.
This is how the trade in large goods is positioned. But personally, I almost never used it, since it is simply impossible to trade honestly at the initial levels. Due to the low Treasury skill, the character will still buy high and sell low. And then ... Why buy expensive flutes and try to trade if you can take a brigantine and grab some flutes along with goods on it, and then sell it? Therefore, there is no special meaning in this export / import, especially considering that by that time the player will no longer be particularly worried about the difference of 2-3 thousand from the received cargo.
It is a completely different matter with the trade in small things. Traders used to have “a little bit of everything”. Now they are separated by prices and a list of products offered. That is, you can buy a saber or sell it at a higher price only from a gunsmith, and it is better to cash in gold and diamonds to a moneylender, from whom, by the way, you can take a loan or leave money for storage. On the one hand, everything has somehow become more orderly, but on the other hand… Now it is much harder to find some exclusive item.
Game design
Summing up, let's talk about the schedule. Yes, it has remained the same at the level of approximately 2005, although you can still notice that some cosmetic improvements have been made. Firstly, new higher-poly models for characters were added, ships were improved externally, whales were added to the sea environment, and loading screens were also “decorated”. But in general, there were no significant changes .. The sound design did not change at all, but it did not need to be changed, believe me, since all the sounds are very realistic.
Conclusion
The game is perfect for fans of everything related to pirates and sailing ships, because the atmosphere of piracy or privateering, its more legal form, is perfectly conveyed. Yes, the graphics in the game are not up to par, but this is not so important, right?
Where to find big ships?
In the game "Corsairs: To Each His Own", the developers have reduced the probability of encountering huge ships of the first rank. If you want to find them, you will have to use thematic forums.
After what will the countdown for the quest "Pirate Saga" begin?
After the entry appears in the journal that Helen entered the service of you as an officer.
How to make Helen stay on the team forever?
For this to happen, you must fulfill the prophecy that the gypsy spoke of. And for this you will have to:
- Do not take a hundred doubloons from Gladys MacArthur as a reward.
- Give the found Hangman's chest to that same Gladys.
- Don't take the gun that Gladys gives you.
- Address Helen by her mother's last name - Sharpe.
How to give Mary Kasper a Narwhal blade?
In order to do this, you must ensure that two conditions are met:
- When you meet Shark Dodson, ask about his clinic, Narwhal. After that, talk to the weapons master, Jurgen, to make the appropriate blade.
- Retrieve three meteorite ore and bring them to Jurgen. You can bring these pieces with you by purchasing from some vendor or by finding buried treasure inside. You can also find a meteorite at the bottom of the OS.
Where to rent warehouse space?
To rent a warehouse, head to Isla Tesoro in Sharptown. In addition, you can visit the capitals of each state. As for Isla Tesoro, here the warehouse is run by a merchant inside the store. Chat with him and you will see a dialogue phrase corresponding to the lease.
To rent warehouses in other cities, you need to look into their shipyards and go to the back room to talk with the boss. If you contacted him for the first time, then you will need to start the dialogue again, after which the desired phrase will appear.
Why are there no useful things in the treasure?
If you bought the card from a tavern, then keep in mind that you can only get the treasure of the first level, which includes conventional weapons and amulets, as well as all sorts of jewelry. In addition, half of a card can be found in such a treasure. If you find the other half, you can create a second level map and get the corresponding treasure. In such a treasure, you can often find unique weapons that are not related to quests. And in general, much more expensive and valuable production comes across, but there is still a chance that there will still be rubbish inside.
Where can I find guns larger than 32 caliber?
To find such weapons, you must capture enemy ships that have them, then remove and transfer them to your own ship.
Is it possible to stand in the service of a certain nation?
In this modification, this is not possible. All quest chains for nations have been removed from the game, but you can enter the service of France, which happens on storyline. In this case, you will be given an officer, a whole ship and equipment. If you agree, you will have to give 10% of the production, and also avoid shooting at friendly ships. In addition, you can not get new quests.
Introduction
I must say right away: the leadership is very small. However, it is extremely useful for the player at any difficulty level. The game "Corsairs: To Each His Own" provides the player with a huge scope for earning and increasing funds, whether it be doubloons or ordinary pesos. Among them are robbery, ransoms, work, as well as reinforced loot. However, all this is extremely troublesome, and often unprofitable methods. For example, in order to make a good profit on the robbery of merchant ships, you either need to get information about it, look for it, and only then capture it. Or engage in battle with well-equipped and powerful fleets. For some reason, the most obvious and surest way to make money in the game is constantly ignored by the audience. And not only in this game of the series. It's about trade.
Trading Basics
In order to conduct competent trading, very little is needed.
Namely:
- At least 30 - 50k free money to start a trading business (i.e. minus ship and crew costs)
- More or less pumped trading skill (although you can start with any, as a result of trading it will be pumped anyway)
- A ship with a large deadweight (hold capacity)
- It is desirable to have a treasurer on the ship (this will speed up earnings)
So, each colony in the game has its own pricing policy. There are many different prices for each commodity in numerous colonies. Our job is to buy low and sell high. Not so difficult!
The classification of goods is as follows:
Colonial - supplied by this colony (having a low price here)
Imported - purchased by it (not very expensively purchased)
Smuggled - prohibited for trade. In some cases, they can be purchased in stores. But you can only sell them to smugglers. And this case is unreliable, this should be resorted to extremely rarely.
Products of aggressive demand - purchased (and already very expensive)
The essence of the process and comments
We are interested in the scheme according to which a colonial (or at least ordinary) product is purchased, and it is sold at the price of aggressive demand. There are very few cities with goods of aggressive demand in the game. However, in order to make a decent fortune, it is worth working with only two of them. Both cities are major trading centers in the Caribbean - English Port- Royal, in Jamaica and Dutch Willemstad, in Curacao. The latter is perhaps even better. Firstly, the prices there are tastier, and secondly, there are almost twice as many goods of aggressive demand than in Port Royal.
It is worth considering that:
1) Every month prices change in different directions. However, the general pricing policy does not change; the same product is always a stable source of income.
2) The buy and sell price summary doesn't take into account your trade skill, nor the influence of the treasurer officer with his corresponding skill and perks like "basic trade".
3) Trade is better, if only because the looted goods are bought up by shops at half the price. And even less. And although some craftsmen claim that there is a way to "launder" goods, such manipulations are easy to avoid, just honestly earning money through trade. It's even more profitable.
4) Reputation with the powers you trade with and with specific shop owners affects the benefits of your trade in general.
Action algorithm
1) We collect as much as possible full list prices of colonial stores. To do this, you need to stop at the store of each colony you visit, look at the list of local prices, and also ask merchants for news. In response to such questions, merchants usually share other lists.
2) We look at the price lists of Port Royal and Willemstad and stop at the graphs with goods of aggressive demand.
3) We select one of these goods and start searching through the lists of other colonies where a particular product is colonial (i.e. cheap). However, do not forget that in this case, the purchase - sale can turn out to be negative for you, so subtract the cost of the purchase from the profit from the sale and see what happens.
4) We go to the chosen city.
5) We buy the selected product.
6) We head to the city where it can be profitably sold (i.e. where it is a product of aggressive demand).
7) We sell
8) Enjoy profit
9) Repeat
Tips for new traders
1) You need to trade whenever possible. That is, you need to trade not only ship goods, but also trinkets from the inventory. In any case, the trading skill will be pumped over, and the wallet will get fat. Therefore, at first, you need to grab and sell everything that does not hold well, with time you become more selective, but still loot and loot.
2) You need to select a ship with a good ratio of speed and deadweight. Firepower and strength are not so important. A good choice in such a case - polakr, xebek and privatir ketch. In a word - heavy galleons and flutes are not needed. You need to stay fast and agile to get away from annoying pirates and quickly cruise from colony to colony. It turns out much more profitable.
3) The treasurer will not only give you additional benefit in transactions and pluses in the skill of trade, but also can be engaged in shipbuilding - calculate the cost of provisions and control damage to goods (at least a little).
4) Do not fill the holds with ammunition to the eyeballs. The best option is two hundred pieces of all ammunition except buckshot (a hundred more), five hundred pieces. gunpowder for firing and setting mines to break away from the robbers. There will be more space in the hold for really valuable goods.
5) Taking slaves is not an option. They do not cost as much as they cost in the GPC, and the consumption of provisions that they add by themselves is an unpleasant thing. And yes, they are hard to sell.
6) It is highly recommended to get hold of an amulet that enhances the trading skill.
7) Collecting your flotilla is not an option. This is a troublesome and expensive matter, besides, a computer companion will behave extremely inadequately in battle. You wouldn't trust this fool with a huge amount of valuable goods, would you?
8) There should be a lot of provisions on the ship. You never know where and at what price you will need to buy it in case of an acute shortage.
9) Avoid sea battles, being loaded with goods, at all costs. There will be almost no gain from this (unless you practice fencing and pick up trinkets), but there will be decent expenses: repairing the ship, recruiting new sailors, and all that.
10) Learn not only to defeat enemy ships in battle, but also to get away from them. This is an extremely useful skill.
11) Trading gold and silver is not a good option. The transportation of such goods is very troublesome. And besides, only one colony puts up a really good price for sale - the pirate Sharptown.
12) Trading licenses are not an option. The best income can be obtained from the English and Dutch colonies. In addition, licenses are very unreliable. And roads.
13) Keep your savings with moneylenders. And preferably in those cities in which you most often visit. Carrying huge funds with you does not make sense, 300k of active capital will be enough for the purchase of goods and ship needs. The rest of the fortune will be very quickly recruited from usurers.
Best routes
Martinique: Coffee from St. Pierre to Willemstad, Coffee from Le Francois to Willemstad
Guadeloupe: Cocoa from Bas - Thera to Willemstad, Cotton from Bas-Terre to Port-Royal
Maine: Cotton from Belize to Port Royal, Mahogany from Blueveld to Capsterville, Havana and Willemstad, Ebony from Blueveld to Capsterville, Havana and Willemstad, Leather from Cartagena to Port Royal and Willemstad, Vanilla from Cartagena to Capsterville, Port Royal and Willemstad,Copra from Cartagena to Willemstad
Barbados: Cocoa from Bridgetown to Willemstad, Paprika from Bridgetown to Willemstad
Sint - Maarten: Cotton from Phillipsburg to Port Royal
Cuba: Leather from Puerto Principe to Port Royal and Willemstad, Leather from Santiago to Port Royal and Willemstad
Hispaniola: Leather from Santo Domingo to Port Royal and Willemstad,Leather from Port au Prince to Willemstad
Providencia: Leather from San Andreas to Willemstad, Cotton and San Andreas in Port Royal
These routes are the safest and most profitable for beginner traders. Starting with them, you can earn good money. And then move on to bigger and riskier trades.
Recently, Mikhail Naritsa and Maxim Kulakov hosted two streams of Corsairs: City of Lost Ships, the penultimate part of the cult pirate series of games. In this blog, I will tell you about the latest installation of the saga - "Corsairs: To each his own!".
For the sake of atmosphere
To begin with, let's take a short historical digression, for those who are unfamiliar with the series. Corsairs is an Action/RPG with open world strategy elements. The series has five official games, as well as a number of additions.
The first game of the franchise, developed by Akella, was released in 2000 and became a commercially successful project for the Russian company. Moreover, in North America the game was published by Bethesda, and in Europe by UbiSoft, which is very, very commendable. The second game was linked to the first Pirates movie. caribbean and was released in 2003 to lukewarm reviews and comments. The third part was released in 2005 and was almost universally denounced by both critics and players for its buggy nature and weak storyline.
Further, the series passed under the development of Seaward, which previously dealt with fan mods for the second and third games. And oddly enough, but two worthy games came out of the hands of amateurs - "Return of the Legend" and "City of Lost Ships" (both 2007). The latter became a global refinement of the previous part and brought the game mechanics to mind. The fourth Corsairs, according to the promises of the developers, were supposed to be a revolution, but the financial crisis and lack of budget buried the project, and it never came out.
In 2012, Corsairs: To Each His Own! (KKS for short) developed by BlackMark Studio, formerly fan-made add-ons. And, in fact, this is the patient of our review-analysis. KKS is a light attempt to rethink the "City of the Lost Ships" (CPC for short), introducing a number of new features to the basic game mechanics, which will be discussed now.
Gameplay "Corsairs"
Gameplay consists of three modes. The first is land. In it, the hero, under the control of the player, runs through cities, jungles and caves, fights during boarding and plundering colonies. In this mode, the hero explores the land, communicates and fights NPCs.
The combat system is interesting and complex. The player can inflict different types of melee attacks depending on the situation. Surrounded by opponents - circular strike, the enemy sat in the block - punching. In addition, the hero can equip firearms - both muskets and pistols. The former are more powerful, but take longer to recharge and are useless in close combat, while the latter recharge faster but are weaker. Reloading is automatic. In addition, the hero can equip amulets that will give an increase in skills.
The second stage is tactical. In this mode, the hero controls the ship, participating in naval battles with other ships and forts.
Vessels are divided into 7 classes: from a tiny tartan to a giant manowar. Ships have three "health" scales: plating, sails, crew. Damage to the hull will sink faster, slow it down to the sails, and on command will make it slower to reload guns, control sails, and also reduce the number of fighters during boarding.
The third allied ship is not visible, because he knows where the hell is due to a bug
Ships of even the same type are not of the same type and may have different characteristics. Among them are guns that differ in appearance and caliber. The larger the caliber, the greater the damage and weight of the guns, the type affects the range and reload.
The movement of the ship is affected by the wind, some ships go better with the wind, others perpendicular to it. In calm, of course, everyone swims slowly.
The third mode is strategic, in which the hero travels on a global map, which is the Caribbean archipelago with part of mainland America. The player encounters encounters that are pirates or ships from one of the four nations; in addition, the player can get caught in a storm. In the event that a player enters into a confrontation (both with NPCs and with the elements), he is transferred to tactical mode, which, in turn, in the event of boarding, goes into land mode.
Character leveling
Characteristics presented PIRATES system: Strength, Perception, Reaction, Leadership, Learnability, Endurance, Luck. They affect the character's skills, giving an increase to certain points. A strong hero hits harder and carries more things, the leader has a better team and officers.
In this part, the characteristics only affect the initial stages of the game, since it has an extensive plot and is not focused on freeplay. And this means that the developers are forcing you to be a terminator, both land and sea. Which, in turn, gives little space for acting out, since the plot is set on rails, which, however, sometimes offer the player a very serious choice.
Abilities are divided into land and sea. The former are responsible for all sorts of increases in stamina and health, are responsible for the ability to handle pistols, and so on. Pumping ship abilities allows you to open up new opportunities in sea battle. Boarding will allow you to capture ships from a long distance, inflict preliminary damage to the team with a musket salvo, carpenter skills will allow you to effectively repair a ship in battle, and so on down the list.
However, before using ship skills, you need to hire the appropriate officer with the same skill. Pumped bonuses to damage from guns? Kindly appoint a gunner with the appropriate ability. In addition to the gunner, the ship has the following officers: navigator (speed, maneuvering), boatswain (boarding), doctor (protects the team in battle), treasurer (trade), carpenter (repair) and three boarders who accompany the hero on sea and land. Officers can combine up to three positions on a ship with the appropriate skill. In addition, passengers and prisoners can be transported on the ship.
And finally, the skills of the hero. They are also divided into personal and ship. Individuals are responsible for handling different types melee and firearms, and also represented by stealth (responsible for successful sorties to an enemy fort under a false flag), charisma (reputation and leadership) and luck.
Even with 100 luck, the game trolls you like the first Witcher
Ships are responsible for: navigation (management of ships of various ranks and the ship as a whole), accuracy and weapons, boarding, repair, trade and defense. Skills are pumped as in the TES series - by practice.
Hard? Enough. But, like contour maps not as incomprehensible as it seems at first glance.
The player can complete quests, most of which are repeatable quests. They can be issued by prominent figures of the colony: a merchant, a usurer, a shipbuilder, a port manager, a priest, a governor. In the city, NPCs may ask you to transport or escort somewhere, to find someone. As a reward, the player receives pesos or doubloons, an increase in skills during the course of the task. Quests also affect the reputation of the character: failed quests will lower it, which in turn will not allow you to do some things in the game (playing cards with governors, for example), and may also cause officers to rebel if they have the opposite reputation to the player.
So, with a very large introductory part, it’s finally over and you can go directly to “To each his own!” where this blog started.
I must say that I played the game back in the year it was released, in 2012, and then it was, to put it mildly, a disaster. The developers obviously overdid it with hardcore, and as usual for the KKS series, they had a bunch of bugs at the start. Now it’s 2018, and it would be nice to check not only the presence of qualitative changes in the game (fortunately, it is still supported), its durability, but also the compliance of the series with the realities of current game design standards.
KKS is almost no different from the GPC in terms of the basic part of the gameplay. All the same three modes, the engine is still the same Storm Engine, which overclocked the very first part. However, there are still changes.
Kraft appeared. The player can make potions and other useful items such as amulets, paper cartridges, and a means of determining latitude and longitude. Craft is simple and rather useless, it does not affect the balance in any way and is used, often just because of the periodic need to determine the location.
And then there are grenades, probably
By the way, this is a new mechanic after all. According to quests, sometimes it is necessary to find an island hidden on the global map, or some specific meeting point, which is helped by an astrolabe, a compass and a chronometer. Such an innovation fit in well, it does not cause any particular rage because of the crookedness and, most importantly, it looks appropriate and authentic.
We shoveled the concept of amulets. In their current form, they do not work together from the hero's inventory, but only when they are directly equipped on the character. Moreover, their action is limited in time. Again, this is not a serious innovation and does not have a significant impact on the gameplay, because you can do without them. They are rather a small bonus, which is not essential for a pumped hero.
But a more or less significant innovation is a new currency in the game - doubloons. They are more expensive than pesos and, unlike them, have weight, so carrying them in thousands will not work. A new currency is used, mainly in quests and there is not much sense in freeplay from it, since the peso pours generously for both quests and boarding. Doubloons, it seems to me, were introduced only for the sake of extra sticks in the player's wheels. Like so many things in this game.
Compared to the GPC, the ship fleet has slightly expanded in the KKS. New items were added, some colonies were taken over by another power, a little more random events and quests appeared. Slightly changed the F2 window. In short, the developers have touched a little of everything, without hitting any vital organs. Nearly.
KKS after the second "Corsairs" (those that are "Pirates of the Caribbean") made a big story campaign. And it is the main innovation of this part. The main advantage and the main disadvantage at the same time.
Main quest and game problems
Passage of the plot "To each his own!" takes 70 hours including additions. Not counting saves/loads.
The second half of the 17th century, the heyday of piracy in the Caribbean, the era of a collision with the unknown and not yet known, the struggle of the powers of the Old World for the redistribution of the New. A young nobleman, Charles de Maur, arrives from Paris in the French colony of Martinique, a typical rake who senselessly spent his life in high society up to 25 years old. He was called to America by a family debt - it is necessary to rescue his half-brother Michel de Monpe from a French prison, in which he was imprisoned for a debt of one million pesos, Governor-General Philippe de Poinsy.
Naturally, everything will not be so simple, even after the protagonist's brother is free. But before that, you still have to go. The game starts with a fairly detailed introduction in which you complete simple quests and get acquainted with the game mechanics. As a result of the starting tasks, you will have a ship, a crew, possibly the first officers and, most importantly, experience in doing business in the Caribbean under control.
Then the macroquest begins, during which the hero earns the coveted million pesos in one way or another. This is one of the few tasks in the game that offers you to choose a side of the conflict. In this case, it is: Holland, as well as two different options for England. And here both the advantages and disadvantages of the fact that the plot is at the forefront begin to emerge.
As already mentioned, the plot is very large, sometimes it even seems to be endless. The plot itself does not shine with some kind of genius, it is rather more interesting for the player to participate in local battles, get from one adventure to another, which is why a crowd of characters flickers in the narrative, whose names (if not existence) you will forget when passing the next quest. Assignments, though elaborated, are quite similar. But, it seems to me, this will not stop the Corsair lover, since the gameplay itself is all the same beloved and unique Corsairs.
Sometimes the game wants to fuck you
But what is the problem is the saves/loads mentioned above. I can’t even imagine how many times I reloaded in this game, according to the statistics at the end of the game - 419, and that’s not counting the fact that I had to replay some moments.
If earlier in the game there were troll encounters and troll storms, then troll wind and troll time were added to them. No, they were also present in the CPC, but here they are driven to utter exhaustion.
The game became indecent big number quests that require completion in the allotted time. And everything would be fine, but the wind troll puts sticks in the sails every time, so quest failures due to being late due to a bad wind are a common thing. It’s not uncommon for you to seemingly go through a quest and find out that it has failed for like a month (in my case it was “ pirate saga') because you're late. And no one tells you that there was any time limit - load an early save, start a few hours of the game again.
And after all, no one bothers the developers to increase the time to complete the quest or one of its stages by several days. Nobody bothers to add more notes to the ship's log in the spirit of "you need to hurry." And in the end, instead of hardcore, this results in nothing more than a crooked game design. Something like a light version of troll games.
We are not talking about directly passing quests. The game has an indecently vulgar number of situations by type: the hero is left face to face with a crowd of enemies - fight with them. And in the end it's not interesting, but again it's crooked and even funny from time to time, especially if you play shoot-and-run tactics. The only thing missing is the music from "Benny Hill" or I Got You Babe in case of repeated replays of this episode. Or something more authentic, like cutting Chuvash anger.
And you think that's it? Hell yes, the game can throw some surprises, like forcing you to collect some amulets or dueling pistols all over the archipelago. And if the latter is even more or less excusable (no), then the former is a facepalm. And then they will force you to look for all sorts of plates, large pearls and candles. And yes, all this is not something impossible and hardcore, it rather infuriates with its absolutely dull and unoriginal routine.
No, I'm serious, these sweeps of locations alone are complete bullshit.
Let's get back to the plot, which I will now mercilessly spoil. The fact is that it was interesting for me to go through the main quest as a lover of this series, but as a person who is interested in all sorts of cinemas and other plots, the game began to disappoint me from the second half.
Why? Because there is no problem or idea in history. In fact, it's just another game on the theme "the kid went to success", and that's it. Unless the change of the protagonist and the disclosure of his inner qualities are shown well. And that's it. And the story does not have a core around which the game is built. The hero spends more than half of the plot in subplots, solving other people's problems over and over again. Therefore, it turns out that the story is not about two brothers, but about how one of them wandered around the Caribbean for months, so that the second one would send him on another voyage with one dialogue.
And besides, after crossing the equator of history, the paranormal begins to actively invade the plot. First we have a terrible curse that keeps the pirate on the ground. The woman herself, of course, died a long time ago, and now exists in the form of an almost indestructible corpse that revives other skeletons. Is this not enough for you?
And how do you like a whole Indian island of the dead. Cool? And how do you like the fact that the plot rolls into Indian game associated with the rebirth of the gods and time travel? Wonderful? Of course, because this is so in line with the spirit of pirate adventures, which are quite realistically made, and most importantly, served with a serious tone.
And as a result of the passage of the plot, I have a double feeling. It seemed to be not bad, and it was quite exciting to go through all this, I was pleased with the rare opportunity for a different option for completing the quest. But the crookedness of the game design and the periodic game in the plot make the gameplay sometimes almost unbearable. home distinguishing feature The game turns out to be its weakest feature.
What else besides the plot? Yes, all the same endless "corsair" freeplay, in which the player entertains himself, and about which I have already written in sufficient detail above. By the way, the developers decided to get rid of the lines of national quests because of the vastness of the plot.
DLCs for the game cannot offer anything essentially new - they are macro quests for several hours of passage with both all the minuses and all the pluses of the main game. It is pointless to talk about them in more detail, and it seems to me unnecessary.
Results
These are the well-developed, contradictory, complex, crooked and unique Corsairs. What about "to each his own"? We can say that the mechanics of the game in 2018, although they still look fresh and interesting, smell like a budget game dev from the early 2000s. By the standards of the series, the gameplay was, in general, the same as in 2003 and 2007, it remained the same. And for a modern gamer, this is by and large a sentence, because the KKS does not forgive the player from the word at all. And some old people or even those who have played before may just get tired of playing the same thing.
The immortal Storm Engine produces graphics that are, by and large, ten years old (at the time the game was released), periodically bugs in such a way that it can ruin the save or crash, and is also not friendly with folding; and I'm not even talking about the periodic appearance of crooked scripts, when something didn't happen as it should, and as a result, you can't leave the location, because everything is locked. And, of course, we should not forget that the dialogues are not voiced, and the gameplay, sometimes, comes to ten minutes of reading the text at the bottom of the screen, and even if there is no voice acting, then what can we say about the production.
The plot, which began for health with realism, slid into a paranormal body, which, to be honest, was not very fun to pass in the final because of the hackneyed tricks in the spirit of the same crowd of enemies per player. However, this is still a good adventure that will entice a fan of such games for more than a dozen hours.
"To each his own!" can offer the same unique pirate experience that no other game has been able to give so far. "Pirates" by Sid Meier and AC IV: Black Flag are light arcade errands, in comparison with which any part of the "Corsairs" seems like a real simulator of the life of a sea wolf.
Therefore, I would advise you to do so. For beginners and those unfamiliar with the series, I advise you to generally forget about the plot in the first passage and engage exclusively in freeplay. And only then, having gained experience, start the plot. I would not advise the old people to hope for some kind of revelation, but I would recommend passing it in view of the fact that there is nothing corny like this on the market - and this game, for all its ambiguity, is able to satisfy the feeling of nostalgia and give at least something new.
And the best Corsairs are still the City of Lost Ships.
