Good
The game starts off with your character as a young boy. His family is tragically kidnapped by the evil Marquis de la Montalban but somehow, you manage to dodge the abduction. Fast forward ten years, and we find the boy is now an adult -- looking for a ship heading to the new world to start life on the high seas. From here, you choose what your character's specialty is (be it an expert swordsman, or navigator, or a charming ladies man). You also choose which time era you play in, including the start of the new world's colonization, the heyday of the buccaneers, or the peak of a military presence in the colonies. Then, you choose between the English, French, Dutch, or the Spanish to decide where your loyalties lie.
The beauty of Pirates! is that it is incredibly open-ended. If you don't want to save your family, well then don't! If you'd rather attack every ship that comes across your path, go for it! If you only want to go from city to city marrying every daughter of every governor, that's not something that's out of bounds.
As far as the actual gameplay goes, it is largely surrounded by sea-based warfare. To make money, get new ships, receive supplies and see new recruits, you need to attack other ships at sea. When passing by any number of ships on the world map, you have the option to enter attack mode and from there, you can choose which target to attack. Now you enter ship vs. ship combat where you fire cannons and circle each other. When firing cannons, you select which shot you want, point the broad side of your boat at your target, then fire. You also must strategize how you want to go about taking out your adversary -- using the three types of shots, you can: use the standard shot to beat the hell out of the ship and eventually sink it; use the chain shot to disable a ships sails, taking away its capacity to flee; or use the grape shot, which targets the actual crew, and can reduce the number of crew members on the ship.
If you don't take out the ship entirely, you and your band of pirates will have to board the ship to plunder. Before the ship is yours, you'll have to duel with the ship's captain as your crew battles the rest of the opposition. Before dueling, you choose which type of sword to use -- the broadsword, which is a good overall weapon; the rapier, which is good for those who wish to have a quick offense but doesn't do much for you defensively; and the cutlass, which is defense-oriented, but has extremely slow attacks. When battling the captain, players only use the A and B buttons with the left analog stick. You basically take your cues from your adversary and counter accordingly. If you see him swing high, use the appropriate block and you follow up with an attack of your own. Once defeated, the ship is yours to keep or sink, with all the booty up for grabs.
Another nice touch on thr console is that if you are greatly outnumbered, you are given a chance to even the odds by entering a Simon Says type of mini-game where everything slows down during the initial siege of the boat as you are prompted to press a combination of buttons. If you are successful, your crew can hold off the staggering numbers as you duel the captain. If you fail, you still face the captain, but the time limit you are given to defeat him is severely reduced.
