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A pirate's life for me
posted by JCDenton (FREEDOM, NH) Oct 6, 2008
Member since Mar 2006
1 out of 1 gamers (100%) found this review helpful
I've played a few pirate-themed games in my time. While I'd have to give top honors to Sid Meier's Pirates (the thinking man's swashbuckler tale) and Skies of Arcadia (if that counts), I'd say Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat is next on the list.
Unlike so many other games focused on the pirate's life, Black Kat knows it's audience. Instead of bogging players down with stat tracking, long stretches of running or endless waves of nameless lackeys, this game has you exploring islands for buried treasure and battling on the high seas.
You play Black Kat (Katarina), a buxom young pirate with a sword and dead parents to avenge. The perfect setting for an adventure, the game takes you on the quest to find all the chartstones, which will lead Katarina to the main villain, Hawke.
The game strikes a nice balance between depth and accessibility. You get a few collection quests and upgrades along the way, as well as a bunch of additional weapons. However, you'll usually feel satisfied just slashing away at skeletons and apes. A few boss battles and liberating forts from your ship help diversify the action.
While it evades many pitfalls of the genre, it still falls into a few. Continually slogging through islands hacking everything in your way and looking for a bunch of treasure chests becomes boring after awhile. Although there are several chains of islands, it basically boils down to some ice levels, some fire levels, etc. Also, a complete lack of towns, trading or mini quests cut into it's overall play time.
Still, this game is far more engaging than Pirates of the Caribbean, which came out around the same time, and proves far less buggy. I'd even say it's better than At World's End, a relatively recent entry in the genre. If you didn't play it back in 2002, why not try it now?
Unlike so many other games focused on the pirate's life, Black Kat knows it's audience. Instead of bogging players down with stat tracking, long stretches of running or endless waves of nameless lackeys, this game has you exploring islands for buried treasure and battling on the high seas.
You play Black Kat (Katarina), a buxom young pirate with a sword and dead parents to avenge. The perfect setting for an adventure, the game takes you on the quest to find all the chartstones, which will lead Katarina to the main villain, Hawke.
The game strikes a nice balance between depth and accessibility. You get a few collection quests and upgrades along the way, as well as a bunch of additional weapons. However, you'll usually feel satisfied just slashing away at skeletons and apes. A few boss battles and liberating forts from your ship help diversify the action.
While it evades many pitfalls of the genre, it still falls into a few. Continually slogging through islands hacking everything in your way and looking for a bunch of treasure chests becomes boring after awhile. Although there are several chains of islands, it basically boils down to some ice levels, some fire levels, etc. Also, a complete lack of towns, trading or mini quests cut into it's overall play time.
Still, this game is far more engaging than Pirates of the Caribbean, which came out around the same time, and proves far less buggy. I'd even say it's better than At World's End, a relatively recent entry in the genre. If you didn't play it back in 2002, why not try it now?
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