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sea was really fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: December 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

sea dogs is great, the graphics are amazing and it is the best pirate game i've played so far. their are a few quarks about it but a patch will be coming soon. it is diffenetly worth your hard earned (cash) i love it

Great Graphics! Very tough to master-

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: March 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I love games of this nature and I was very excited and anxious to play it. The graphics are wonderful but...the game could be better. First of all, the makers must have left half the instruction book on the drawing board. The book does a good job describing the different ships and characteristics of the weapons but as far as tips on winning and playing- forget it, pal- you're on your own. My first time out on a ship..a very small ship because that's all you can afford in the beginning, I was ambushed by two huge pirate vessels! They easily caught my little boat and I was faced with dueling the pirate captain. I think he sneezed on me and I was dead. I later found out that if you speak to different townspeople, they will give tips on playing but I'm impatient and don't want to walk up to every Tom, Dick and Harry on the virtual streets of 'SeaDogs' to find out how to play the game! After hours/days of practice I was able to make enough to get a bigger ship- then the fun begins as you can turn around and pick on little boats. Towns are virtually impossible to take over and after you've visited all of them, it gets a little boring. Since it takes a tremendous amount of cash to do almost anything you find yourself raiding merchant ships and constantly selling off plundered goods just to keep enough people on the boat to sail it! I played the original 'Pirates!' years ago- and although this game looks great..I'd take the (10 year old?) 'Pirates!' game over this one-

Slap on an eyepatch! Board'em in smoke!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is a worthy successor to Sid Meier's classic, Pirates! An entertaining, almost-great game which takes a "Hornblower-Bolitho lite" approach to the genre.

GOOD + Enjoyable ship-to-ship combat; + Lovely 3D modeled ships and environments (great sunsets and storms); + Interesting onshore RPG interactions with NPCs; + A good variety of quests, missions and career paths (running errands for the English, French or Spanish, or full-bore pirating, capturing ships or forts, etc.); + The pleasure of developing step-by-step into a rich and successful pirate commanding an armored 90-gun man o'war. Yar!

BAD OR UGLY - Relatively steep learning curve (stick with it!); - Rrather unrealistic sailing model (wind effects minimal); - Buggy (first patch is out, though); - An odd ahistorical gloss to late 17th century/early 18th century adventuring (O'Brian fans, you are warned!).

cons and PROS

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

There are some downsides to this game:

A bit buggy, fencing interface is ridiculously simplistic, sailing model is pretty unrealistic (square-rigged ships DON'T actually sail into the wind) and some general UI frustrations.

HOWEVER

If you've ever wanted to get a feel for what it was like to chase a fat merchantman on the run through gale force winds with rain pouring down, lightning flashing on the horizon and ocean swells tall enough to eclipse your view of the opponent not more than 50 feet away, there is no better game.

Or to hear the call from the masthead of your merchant galleon, "Sail two points off the starboard beam," while running a load of rum and linen from one friendly port to the next through the calm, cloudless skies of the Caribbean-like archipelago. A quick upward glance to check your sails causes you to think, "If this proves to be a Spaniard, I shall have trouble out-running her in these light `aires." Anticipation mounts as you pull out your `glass and focus on the vessel in question.

Lastly, seeing the smoke erupt from the balustrades of the English fort you've been ordered to take is breathtaking - until the round shot begins raining down upon your sleek corvette. Through the hail of splinters you exclaim, "Fire at the top of the roll ya landlubbers!" (And you've got to! Although the sailing model is sub-par, the firing physics are quite advanced.)

Visually stunning graphics bring the period to life while an incredibly rich and free form storyline brings it action. Sailing under a French, Spanish or English letter of marque grants access to three plots that can be completed in any amount of time you wish. Alternatively, a life of piracy might be more to your liking. Hoisting your Jolly Roger for The Brotherhood leads to an additional, rich story.

Finally, and perhaps most appealing, is the RPG component of the game and the dynamic economy of the islands. The RPG component allows you to improve your characters stats in multiple skills as you gain experience in your exploits (scripted or otherwise.) Each captain can augment their skills by hiring a crew of officers that bring, along with salary requirements, their own strengths and weaknesses. Add to this a wide selection of vessels to command and the ability to build a small squadron of vessels and no two captains will look, nor fight, alike.

The dynamic economy actually lends itself well to what has been affectionately named "The 5th Campaign" in which one purchases a suitable merchantman and a skeleton crew then sets off to make it rich in legitimate trade while shunning and, if yer smart, avoidin' rapscallions such as myself.

Patrick O'Brian and C.S. Forester fans take note: for a truly realistic age-of-sail simulation, you'll have to wait for a hybrid of "Age of Sail II" and "Man `O War". But if the romanticism of the period is your bag - "Sea Dogs" is da `knippel'!

Entertaining, but you have to love the Genre.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Overall, not too bad but this game could have used some more proofing. First off, for those who seek realism in the art and science of tallship handling or for those who demand historical accuracy...dont expect too much. Like many of us who hoped this game would finally master the realism and fascination that the pirate game genre should have by now been able to be techniaclly achieved, I was somewhat disappointed. This game, while initialy challenging when moving up in levels and hiring good officers, soon becomes an exercise in gain through protracted attrition. Capture ships-sell them off, capture ships-sell them off, for hours and then days. The enemy AI isnt very sharp and the game rewards conquest with skill points too slowly.

The biggest frustraton was the storyline. No one would be able, given the slow progression of abilities, to effectively follow the plot. By the time you attain the level one status and amass sufficient funds to operate for extended periods without the need to plunder, it becomes impossible to track down all the characters needed to solve the main mystery of the plot. They seem to vanish or repeat themselves and you are left with little else to do but the less and less challenging process of plunder and errand running. And forget it if you plan on playing the game as (can you belive it) a "pirate", you can only really get around as a privateer.

On the plus side, the graphics were generally good and crew building process was pretty accurate. In the end, however, after a lot of monotonous work, you are left feeling that there wasnt much you could really do in the game and that your adventure was disjointed by miscued timing. I wouldnt buy this game again if I had the chance but if you really love these naval history games then keep a weather eye out for it in the "last chance before the land-fill" bargain bins.

"Officer join to you?" Oh well...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Yes, the grammatical writing in this game is THAT bad. Yes, that is sadly typical of the writing. Does that mean you shouldn't get this game? No. Well, if you were a fan of Pirates!, anyway. If you are a buccaneer at heart this game is for you. The graphics are stunning, the gameplay both realistic and fun, the RPG elements great. Most of all, the piratical atmosphere is fantastic, even though it is set in a fantasy world rather than the historical Caribbean.

I've been up for pretty much four days straight playing this game... The last game to do that to me was CivII. 'Nuff said.

P.S. Oh... for you couch-pirates out there... LEARN HOW TO USE YOUR SAILS in this game. Battle sails are no joke.

Wow, this is cool.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: January 26, 2001
Author: Amazon User

At first it seems a little odd. A seemingly light storyline, a bit tricky to play at first. Two things make it worth playing: the graphics and sound. The music is good, very clear, good sound effects. The graphics are friggin' awesome. On my little Voodoo 2 the display is wonderful, the movement of, well, everything is very realistic. But for those I stuck with the game, and it turned out to be incredibly entertaining. Each and every NPC has a distinctive attitude (though you don't get to interact with them as much as I'd like), the ships are quite detailed, the battles are captivating (though you really have to hold down the R key, you'll understand why if you play). I recommend it.

Great Concept - Very Poor Execution

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: June 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game looks like a lot of fun - but it will fade very quickly. You get killed thousands of times. The merchant system is infantile. You will be boarded and killed over and over. Don't waste your time or money. Try something else.

Amazing!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 31, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have to admit some surprise after reading all the poor comments about this game I was stunned at how good it really is!! I am a fanatic fan of the age of sail (the era not the game), so I was more then willing to put up with the difficulty of the begining of the game. Yes it is hard to use such a small ship, but more often then not you can avoid larger ships by ignoring them. The absolut must is to invcrease your boarding skill upfront and that eliviates allot of frustration as you can defeat the captains of much larger ships. This is just as addictive as other classics. I can't wait to see the next installment. PS the patch I installed fixed everything from graphics to the ability to change to difficulty, available on the seadog web site.

Sea Dogs A epic story of a pirates life

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I think this is one of the best rgp/pirates games i have ever played. The rich 3d graphics make you feel like you are a true sea dog. Plenty of action, and you can pick a country to fight for, french,english, or spainish. Or fight for yourself as a pirate.Take over ships you board,or storm into a port after you destroy it. I love to plunder and there is plenty of that in this game. Dont wait for Seadogs 2 buy this one. I have played Seadogs 2 and it wasnt as good as the first one.......

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