Tortuga: Pirates of the New World Review - PC

Although it's played from a birds-eye view in a Strategy game manner, Tortuga: Pirates of the New World is best described as an Adventure game played from a birds-eye view. The aim of the game is to travel the seas of the Caribbean, taking over seaside towns and forcing their inhabitants to become one with your supported nation.

The game successfully makes you feel like a newborn pirate, leaving you to fend for yourself with little supplies and a basic ship. From this point you have full control over your path through the game; do you want to support your nation's Governor or slither away to become a fearsome pirate? The game's freedom of gameplay is further elaborated upon when you realise that you're able to sail to any town you wish and take part in missions only when you feel like doing so. The Governor's missions usually have multiple objectives to them and each mission must be completed within a certain number of years (which, of course, progress quickly in gameplay time). The game's detailed Heads-Up Display gives you all the control you need over your ship and your campaign; you can view what's in your convoy, the condition of your ship and even how many people make up your crew.

The seas surrounding the islands and jetties upon which the towns are built are littered with various ships carrying out their daily duties. Most of these ships are friendly, belonging to nations and carrying out basic mercantile tasks. Others are pirates, however, who are more than willing to put up a fight. When you collide with another ship on the game screen you're given the options to attack the ship, greet the Captain or sail on. If you choose to attack the ship the camera zooms in close to yours and the other ship and you're given free control over your ships movement and firing of cannonballs. Holding down the right mouse button steers and moves your ship, and left clicking fires your selected weapon. You can buy additional types of weapons and ammo at towns, and these include the grape shot and chain shot. The grape shot fires multiple small cannonballs designed to kill the ship's crew, and the chain shot is fired at the enemy ship's sails and rips them to pieces to disable their movement. The battles in Tortuga: Pirates of the New World are actually very enjoyable, even if they do turn in to a simple matter of circling your enemy and firing when your cannons have reloaded.

Completing missions, sinking ships, discovering new towns and more earns you experience points. As you earn more and more experience points your ... (continued next page)