If you stop to think about it, there really isn't a lot to Pirates! Most of the game revolves around attacking ships on the high seas, stealing their gold and booty and maybe fighting their captain if you want to keep his ship for yourself. Repeat the process with towns. There's a little more to it, of course. You can find buried treasure, rescue long-lost family members or even woo a governor's hottie daughter. Still, all of those things revolve around the basics of 1) fighting with cannons on the high seas and then 2) very VERY basic sword fighting. In the case of wooing the governor's hottie daughter, sword fighting is replaced with dancing, which can actually be more challenging that the sword fights, but not by much. Yes, Pirates! doesn't have a lot of depth when it comes to actual gameplay, but it's just plain fun. It's fun, and HIGHLY addictive. It isn't one of those games that consumes all of your time. Sure, you may play it for hours at a time at first, but eventually it becomes that game you go to when you need a break from those other games. Eventually you'll stop playing it for a few months, but then out of the blue you'll have the urge to return to the high seas, and you'll be back playing it again. You may repeat that process for years. I mean that--years. My first exposure to Pirates! came on the Commodore 64. When I moved on to the Amiga, it was one of the first games I bought for that. Later, when I got my first PC, I ran across an updated 90's version in a CompUSA (remember those?) and bought it. When the remake came out in 2004, I bought the boxed version right away and I bought it again when GOG first started selling it. Even at its regular GOG price, where else are you going to find that much entertainment for $10?
