Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships - PC

awesome game, truly a "do whatever you want game", sail up and down the costs trading, while pirates try to pick you off. worth the money for the amount of time you can pass while playing it. i did have some issues at first playing it but follow online help and ya'll be sinking and plundering in no time! if it had better graphics it would be a $60 game not a $10 but the ships are still beautiful and the ship combat is intense and very long. i like, my dad likes and my friends like it. time to get back to the seas!

Comments on the basic features: Character - There is no character customization. I believe the original game gives you only 3 characters to choose from. Download and install the Combined Mod. You will have over 2 dozen characters to select from including about 8 females. You have 7 attributes, personal and ship skills (which increase with use as in Elder Scrolls games), and special abilities (personal and ship) which you can select as points are earned. Officers that you hire have the same detail as your own character (attributes, skills and abilities). They also have a loyalty rating toward you which changes depending on their personality and your actions. Up to 3 of them can be assigned to accompany you on land. Other generic crewman are grouped together and have changing skill levels in 3 areas plus a morale rating. World - When in your ship you sail on a global map showing the Caribbean, Central America and the northern shore of South America. Encounters switch to 3D ship to ship battles. You can have up to 5 ships in your fleet. When moving on land you are in 3D from a 3rd Person Perspective. The cities can be fully explored but a "fast travel" option is available to get to the main areas. The jungle outside the cities is not fully explorable (as in Elder Scrolls) but consists mainly of paths. (there is enough room to move around in combat though) There are beaches, caves, lighthouses and forts to visit. Inventory system - Items are weighted but it is very generous (not realistic). There is also a chest on your ship where you can store extra items. There are "magic" items which give bonuses to certain skills. (too many for my taste - they don't seem special since you end up with so many) Economics - Good at first (hard) but after playing awhile money usually isn't much of a concern. It really needs to be balanced better. There is a large variety of trade goods. Each port has its own prices which change over time. Also each port has certains goods which are illegal to trade. (you can deal with smugglers for those) Combat on Land - Generally works good. There is a nice degree of complexity. You have the 3 mouse keys for 3 different attacks. Holding Shift while clicking gives you 3 more moves. You have the Spacebar to block, a key to shoot your pistol and another hot key to drink a healing potion. Besides the usual health bar you have an energy bar which depletes rapidly if swinging a heavy sword. The system is much better than simpler games which just require you to click as fast as you can. Combat at Sea - Fun. 4 types of ammo for your cannons. Can speed up time if desired. If you get close enough you can board the enemy ship. Combat then is similar to that on land. Quests - Most are generic - transport goods, escort someone, hunt down smugglers, etc. Some involve sneaking into enemy ports. There are some bigger, multiple step quests but I can't say that I ever completed one. It doesn't "hold your hand" like some games. You have to sail around and talk to people. Stealth - You can run up a different flag on your ship and try to fool other ships and ports. Diversions - Two gambling games, one with cards (similar to blackjack) and one with dice (like poker) - well done. Prostitutes: close encounters are blacked out but they do have some funny dialog and exaggerated sound effects. Stability - Generally good but occasionally crashes to desktop. Bookkeeping - Can get to be a bit tedious, especially when you have multiple ships. You need to keep a supply of food, rum, medicine, and weapons for your crew. The cannons need ammo (4 kinds) plus powder. Also, if you want to make minor repairs at sea you need to have a supply of sailcloth and planks. Your companion fighters need to be kept supplied with healing potions and bullets. Overall - Highly recommended for rpg fans. Get the mod though so you have a better choice of characters. The game is truly a sandbox type game. If you want, just ignore the quests and concentrate on building up your stats and making money. Play as a pirate, make war against a selected country, become a merchant or a smuggler. You can even fail quests and keep playing, although with consequences. I once accepted a delivery mission, then quit. When starting the next day I forgot about the open quest. When I finally remembered I went to the port but was too late and they had labeled me a "swindler" and started shooting at me! A bounty was put on my head and I had to find a diplomat to pay off to get it lifted. The wealth of detail and options make it a fun rpg experience. Wish list - What I'd like to see if they ever make a sequel: * A fully customizable character * Bigger, fully explorable land areas. How about some plantations, mines, distilleries, fishing villages, native villages? * It would fun if you could buy or build your own estate/house.

I have "Steelkeys 6G" the mistype years series. the only reason i menton it is it is a horrible key board for typing and gaming, it is well, just a horrible keyboard, durible but badly registered keys. However, I have six other keyboards and all of them don't register on this game. Much. A command either goes through or not. You can usually execute mouse keys but you can't always go into "combat mode" even when someone is attacking you. In additon, firing cannons is horrendous and I just let the crew do it. thier is no clear reload progress meter as in "Cid Meyer's Pirates!". the graphcis and imersion are better in this game, for it is a first person(heads up third person) perspective, unlike Cid Meyres which was more a point and click graphic adventure on land and did not have the true persepctive on you on your ship, two pluses to get you emersed in the game, Cid Meyres did not. Also, this is not generic as CId Meyer's version but it is hard to issue key commands. If you start a new game, thier is a chance(in ship, not captain blood) your "cut scene" will not play out and you will be stuck on the boat with no insident to get the plot out of the way. If your crew(hand-to-hand sparring instructors) don't show up, you must not only restart the game, but reboot your PC, that is the only way I found to solve the problem, and sometimes it doesn't. If you play either the dutch guy or the spanyard this happens, not with Captain Blood as you begin on dry land. One important thing of note, do not pick fights unarmed, your "pirate" can't fight unarmed. He just stands there with his arms down(the moron yetusz) taking it. If the police take your sword and then you try to, for example, plan a riot to escape enslavement, you won't succed you will have every soldier, slave, woman, and her freggen dog and all the world attacking you and you will not be able to do anything, it maybe a glitch as it is truely a 'showstopper" when it happens to "Captain" BLood in the beginning town. You can 'sneak" a wheapon past the home where you rescue the provisioner but you will ALWAYS get caught, you cannot open the gate you cannot sneak past and you ABS-o-LUte-ly will not get past the gards in the slave plantaton and the slaves will attack you too! How nice to be appreciated!

I played this game with an avid fervor when I was a teenager, loved it and lost it when I moved. Imagine my overwhelming excitement as I open the brand new box in all the original packaging, install the game, only to have it tell me that I must insert the original disk. I just bought the original disk. The solution recommended to me was to download a no-disc pirated version. What.

A great game just as I remember. Except that the company never fixed the many bugs and crash-to-desktop problems. If they had fixed them, this game would have been a lot of fun.

This is one of the best Pirate and Age of Sail RPGs/games/simulators available anywhere. It has everything! With the super expansive new content from the Historical Eras add-on found at buccaneersreef.com it is the best Golden Age of Piracy simulator on the planet taking the 4 RPGs from the original game and expanding it to 75 historical characters to choose from. More weapons and items than you can imagine and over 400 ships. Incredible game!