I'll keep it simple. Watch any let's play of this game on youtube. Just the first 15 minutes of someone who's playing this game for the first time. If you don't see a problem, watch 15 minutes more. If you still don't see a problem, you will probably enjoy this game. The massive deal breaker for me, within the first 30 minutes, was if you mess up, you start from a pre-determined checkpoint that is sometimes 3-4 screens away. Meaning you have to do the same 3-4 screens before you get to the part where you died. Every time you die. Examples? How about going up two screens to trigger a cutscene, then going back down three screens to kill a person and then going up one floor to the puzzle that got you killed. Or fire-charge-shoot down a shielded door, go to a reloading station, shoot door, reload, shoot door, reload, then reach the platform from where you have to do a precise jump. And if you mess up? Why, you get to do it all over again! Oh joy!!! In my opinion, these repetitive sections are worse than unskippable cutscenes because the cutscene plays itself while here you have to do the same thing over and over again. The fear of reloading prevented me from truly experimenting with solutions (you really don't want to try any "leap of faith" moves because then you'll have to redo that-thing-you've-already-redone-50-times). This game may have had cutting edge graphics when it was released but those are no longer impressive. The gameplay is clunky and shoddy and the restart-from-5-screens-away "feature" should have been dealt with in the remastered version. I couldn't last even one hour in this game before I got tired of it so I don't know if things improve later on (they likely don't). Apart from nostalgia (and having finished the game before so you don't get stuck on puzzles), I really don't see a reason to get this title. If none of the above bothers you, you might want to give it a shot. Otherwise, there are far better options on GOG in the same price range.
I played this game many years ago and found the story and the general atmosphere to be amazing. It was much later when I found out that this was based on a book so I went and read those and found them to be even more so. So for those who have read the books first, try to judge this game based on its own merit and not fall into the trap of comparing it to the books at every turn. This game has many interesting puzzles (one in particular being extremely diabolical and clever) and it manages very easily to get you to empathize with various characters in the game. There are a fair number of "OH MY GOD!" moments and the thrill and pace of the game picks up immensely in the later portions. Highly recommended!
Be me Start life as a crew member on a ship Captain is kind of a jerk Can't take it anymore Mutiny with crewbros, become new captain Arrrrgh Matey! Sail around for a while, kicking ass and taking ships Hear from a barmaid that Spanish treasure bullion is headed for Rio de la Hacha disgonnabegood.jpg Land in le Hacha, no treasure ship in sight Chill out with governor, his daughter comes in hottie/10 wherehaveyoubeenmywholelife.htm Barely able to put two words together as she asks me to the ball Find out my mad standing-upright-in-a-ship-during-storm skillz really help with dancing QT is impressed, gives me a fancy dueling sword Governor tells me to escort a ship with ultimatum to some French town gonnastartawar.doc Escort ship, killing two pirate raiders War starts, take down a couple of french ships, one of them is loaded Crew very happy with incoming gold Go back to RioHacha, spend all the gold for diamond necklace for bae Crew threatening to mutiny itsallgoodbros.exe Bae goes nuts over bling-bling, shows it to her fiance dudewtf? Fiance challenges me to a duel Take my shiny new sword, hop on a fountain edge and yell "come at me bro" Fiance is Captain of the guard, has been dueling for longer than I've had chest hair Kicks my ass, takes my fancy dueling sword and spanks me with it Bae is not impressed Tells me to look up her younger sister She's an only child Go back to port Ship is missing Find out crew had mutinied I've got 12 gold with me Spend rest of my life hauling cargo from incoming ships Bae gets married to Captain of the guard next month I'm not invited 11/10 Would lose life savings and get friendzoned again
