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What I do not like in the majority of 'modern' games set in the 'age of sale' or 'age of exploration' are the lack of scale and over-populating their game worlds! I mean, you as a player do not get to feel the vastness and loneliness of sailing to the seas. However, its gameplay loop gets repetitive and boring rather quickly, especially in the 2004 remake, since it simplyfies a lot of aspects and rehashes too much assets-hunting treasures and infamous pirate captains becomes quite trivial in the remake.Īnd, it seems that I am belonging to the minority who actually misses the original's implementation of sextant and sun position reading for determining ones location (longitude) on the map. 'Sid Meier's Pirates!' is a really iconic game, nonetheless, I learnt to appreciate the highly improved sailing map with other ships and storms moving visibly on it in his own remake from 2004. And the intro sequence of 'Colonization' is unforgetable: welcome to the new world!

For me, their skillful use of the lower pixelated graphics, subtle animations, great musical melodies and sound effects stirr much more my imagination. Regarding both 'Colonization' and the merchant-oriented 'Patrician 1' it is hard to explain why, but I still prefer the original DOS versions instead of their newer versions or sequels. Unfortunately, technical issues can render the game almost unplayable on certain modern hardware combinations. It also incorporates a convincing enough 'simulation' of sailing with wind direction and strength influencing the ships. The atmosphere and design of the top-down sailing map view is outstanding mimicking an old paper map that you uncover piece by piece. 'Corsairs Gold' ('Der Korsar' in German) is an intriguing mix of 'Sid Meiers Pirates' on the sailing map view with a realtime strategy mode for boarding action and fort conquering.

Sooner than later the player always have to rely on capturing other vessels!

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My biggest disappointment in the whole Sea Dogs series is the fact that trading is implemented like an afterthought and not really a viable option.

Although, it features less islands and settlements, each one of those are more detailed, distinct and interesting, giving incentive as well as providing actual rewards for exploration!

However, only 'Pirates of the Caribbean' (Sea Dogs 2) left a more 'romantic' impression with its composition of the water shade and reflections together with the color choices (and lighting of the sky(boxes) both at day- and nighttime) and background music. My favorite 'age of sail' game propably is ' Pirates of the Caribbean' (aka 'Sea Dogs 2' from 2003), closely followed by ' Corsairs Gold' and then by ' Sid Meier's Colonization' (original DOS version) and the first ' Patrician'.Įach of the other Sea Dogs iterations that were released in th West had some likeable aspects, incorporating more realism, details and more roleplaying elements, but none could replicate both the 'simplicity', the handcrafted and the 'adventurous feel' of the second game in the series, which got Disney's licence slapped on only late in development.įor instance, newer versions did improve technical details of the water simulation or ship models in the StormEngine, and improved on the not so common control scheme.

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