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Awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 33 / 34
Date: August 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

You have to get this game. That's all there is to it. Sea Dogs is a great free-form pirating game. You start, naturally enough, as a would-be buccaneer with a wimpy little ship and no idea what's going on. Never fear, that changes rapidly. You can roam towns in a 3-D third person view, talking to inhabitants, recruiting crewmembers in bars, collecting orders and quests from local governors, and generally having a great time. You can align with the British, the French, the Spanish, or be a rogue Pirate (Pirates are effectively a 4th country). The pirate lands are sort of neutral territory for all, and there you can buy letters of marque from agents of the other countries to fight one another. This is necessary because, for example, if you're allied with the British, you can collect quests and information from the British, but if you go to a Spanish town you tend to get blasted out of the water by coastal batteries. Yet often the bigger quests require you to visit the islands and towns of several different nations.

But what is it, really, that we all want from a good seafaring game? Ocean battles.. and you get them here in spades. Beautiful graphics, highly detailed ships and combat effects, and even the ability to switch between steering your ship from afar like a racecar, or walking the deck and using a spyglass to view your enemies make this game totally amazing. The graphics are so good that I was shocked to learn that this game came out years ago. Holes appear in sails as chain kippels fly, waterspouts ring your ship from missed shots, planking flies in the air and badly damaged ships smoulder, masts blow completely off from critical hits, and cannons explode off the walls of fortresses as you engage them with explosive rounds. The weather effects are amazing..fight a running battle with spanish frigates in 20 knot winds and waves so high your ship nearly flounders, or hound your foes through fog so thick the first warning of contact comes from the creak of timbers as you run into their beam. Sinking ships go down with great fanfare and often leave a floating debris trail of cargo you can salvage, although if you want the big hauls, grapple your foe and go hand-to-hand on the quarterdeck to take the cargo and even the ship intact.

Other great aspects:

1) RPG EXP system allows rewards for everything from sinking or boarding ships, persuading governors to give you new quests, recovering items, or even just hang out in bars and chatting. As your level increases, you are able to spend points on everything from improving your sailing skills and sword skills to learning how to duck incoming cannon fire. Hire unique NPCs like a First Mate or a Surgeon to augment your skills, although it will increase your crew costs (don't pay and suffer a mutiny or two). The higher a level you are, the better the ship you can command, although this is not as restrictive as it sounds; each class of ship has a half dozen to experiment with. Build your own fleet by hiring NPCs with their own vessels, and placing your First Mate aboard a captured war ship.. command them in battle by telling them to sink specific targets, board others, or follow you and provide covering fire. Complete quests to gain rank and esteem from your allied country, such as a Barony from the British, replete with a fancy new coat and breeches.

2) Great graphics, can't emphasize this enough. Occasional cutscenes add to the flair, such as when you and your mates invade a town with bloodied swords held high.

3) Merchandising. You don't even have to be a pirate or a naval officer, you can just run goods from town to town, taking advantage of local prices and preferences. Most folks will do some of this anyway to pay for repairs, upgrades, new ships, and crew, but you can make it your job and it's still fun. You can even sell captured ships for huge profit.

A few other things that I've found helpful in playing the game:

1) The default difficulty is 'Hard'. You can change this in Options at the main screen. A lot of folks seem to have missed this, and get discouraged when they get blasted from the start. It also seems to cut down on the number of times you get attacked in general.

2) High wire act. There aren't a lot of do-overs in this game.{Anger} a governor once, chances are you won't win him back. So save a lot, and really pay attention to your dialogue choices because if you just say the wrong thing you might miss a quest permanently. For example, one quest was to destroy a fort and pillage a town. I destroyed the fort, but accidentally agreed to be paid off by the mayor after running amok, rather than claiming the island for Britain. This effectively 'broke' the quest, since whenever I returned to that town, it was already pillaged, yet I was not able to officially claim it or pillage it again. Also, occasionally things will get buggy with the letters of marque; at one point I was operating under a British letter of marque, yet the British were hostile to me, and the British agent in the pirate town was willing to sell me another. Yet at the same time the Spanish reacted as if I already had one.

3) You sail between islands on a world map, and interact with encounters in the 3-D sailing setting. Time compression options let you zip into friendly towns if you want instead of tacking around the island, or chase down slow fat merchantmen that tried to sail off while you destroyed their escorts. Learning how to use the time compression menu will shave hours of relatively tedious chasing off your fights, and occasionally even let you sneak up on enemy forts and ships without taking damage.

In short, get this game.

Not perfect, but nothing else like it.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 20
Date: December 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I've been waiting for a game to do justice to the Pirate's genre for years. Sea dogs makes a valiant effort, though not succeeding on every point. For those who enjoyed Sid Meyer's Pirates, like myself, you may find a few things lacking in Sea Dogs. The setting is an imaginary group of islands, not the Caribbean as I had hoped. The number of visitable islands is also fairly limited. The towns you can visit are pretty, but limited in their scope. Gameplay is limited to one character so I don't believe this is a true RPG, but the game does deal in experience points, hit points and skill points in your character's progression. This game does have a steep learning curve, with novices getting blasted out of the water on a regular basis. So why did I give this game 5 stars? The sailing sequences are breathtaking with beautiful waves, ships, and environmental effects. Battling other ships and forts is also great 3d fun and the gameplay in between is solid enough to keep me playing again and again (much to the irritation of my wife). The makers are developing patches as I write this, so hopefully the game will only get better. Until then, there's still nothing else out there like it.

Wow...what a game.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 15
Date: December 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Despite the fact that it is the buggiest game I have ever played, I can't stop playing it. Despite the fact that the patch recently released for it did nothing to reduce that bugginess, I can't stop playing it. Despite that fact that there are certainly some important features missing altogether (meaning things I wish had been included in the game), I can't stop playing it.

The graphics when on the ocean, whether firing cannons at enemy ships or trying to avoid a storm, are simply breathtaking. Make sure you have a GOOD video card, because a decent one just won't do.

I had been looking for a good pirate game since Pirates! Gold. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, come one, come all, for this is it. Yes...yes...I bashed it good on the bug issue. And yes it does have bugs, but bugs can be patched. What patches do: They cover a pirate's eye (stereotypically). What patches don't do: Add playability, eye-popping graphics, and overall interest. No sir, the game must already come with that. This one does.

P.S. Despite the fact I am very tired, I can't stop playing it.

Patience a must

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: August 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Sit down, get comfortable and turn on your thinking cap. this game will take you to the limits of your creativity. I strongly suggest a notebook just for information of your travels and missions in action. This game is very difficult and I am pretty sure that it is a "smart game" because it seems to catch on to my strategies and correct itself to increase the challenge!!
You must be patient and try many strategies to overcome the challenges. Overall this game is fun and good for hundreds of hours of fun!!

This is Great!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: January 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I just got this game a week ago, and I can't stop playing it. I had some trouble in the beggining because you start out with a really small ship. I learned that if a big ship attacks you, it will probably be slower, so just run away. Make sure to get a lot of money and talk to everyone in a town to get experience points.
This game is a lot of fun once you get a bigger ship, so work your way up and you'll love it!

Surprisingly good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: April 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Sea dogs is a very underestimated game in my opinion...
To start with on the box it says ýAn Epic Adventure At Seaý and it really is, you get drawn into a very atmospheric sea warfare game where your reputation means everything and your ability to choose the right crew from strange and piratey characters makes all the difference ý thereýs even a blind gunner if you want one, dire, but dirt cheap!

There are loads of towns and ports you can sail to at anytime you want providing you have a ship capable of defending herself over the hazardous seas looming with pirates.
Every ship out of the 20 there are can be customised and fitted out with you own crew and selected cannons. You can then once purchased stroll around the deck at your discretion, a must when in combat is standing on the deck and ordering your gunners to fire.
You will find however after a few fights that half of your crew have been killed and that your rigging has more holes in it then your ship has port and cannon holes. And so in the even of a beating up, you can either tell your men to fix it themselves providing you have a carpenter on board or take her to a ship yard to be repaired.
The music is fab, with a really atmospheric tune in the background whilst in any of the 30 odd ports. Youýll slowly get better ships and sell yours on. Mine is a class 3 48 cannon beast. Easy for picking off merchant ships (I play as a pirate). And that brings about another feature. You can play as the English, French, Spanish or pirate teams. Itýs not as simple as an option mind you, no, you have to show the team you choose that your on their side, I unfortunately blew one of them up by mistake and so Iým now a pirate, and Iým loviný it.
There is also the feature of realistic day times and really cool weather, and the battles on a stormy sea really make you think youýll fall overboard when you hit the crest of the very well designed waves.
You of course canýt just go up to any port you like. Each team holds itýs own, and you can go to yours and ask for jobs to carry out and then you get paid if you accomplish it. But if you canýt be bothered, just blow em out of the sea, or on the other hand, bored the ship and steal the loot!
Yes thatýs right, you can also on top of all this plundering, you can grapple a ship and then sword fight your way to victory. You fight as the captain and your hits count for crewmembers dieing, so if youýre outnumbered 5 to 1, donýt expect to live very long.
If you have a true battleship which I havenýt yet afforded then you can attack forts and take them over for the country you support, the loot is good, because in a mission of the Spanish, we invaded a French port and even though my team were all wiped out, my final order to fire the remnants of my guns won the battle and I got a fortune which bought me a new ship.
All in all, if youýre looking for a game that is totally non-linear and you can do just about anything within the limits of you crew and ship, youýll love it and Itýs well worth the [money] youýll have to pay.
Good game.

Great Pirates Game!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: June 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game on a whim and love it! The graphics are good for a 3 year old game. The ships rock and creak in the wavy sea and seagulls fly around. The key to starting the game is to avoid combat until you do some trading (BTW: Coffee sales for high price at Dead Island). Once I did this and amased enough money to hire a crew, I was able to fight pirates. Just dont take on more than you can chew. The gun battles are fun and you must use srategy to win, especially when you are outgunned (Buy Bombs!!). The NPC's give you information and quests. The voice overs are pretty good too. The game gives you the freedom to fight for Spanish, French, or English, but you will have to find where to get the letter needed to fight for them! I have dueled several times now and won over half of them! The key is to read the manual and talk to a local about sword fighting. The controls are simple and easy to learn. My only suggestion is to download the patch from Bethsoft.com before starting a new game, so that you have all the patches in! I have played for 15 hrs now and found no bugs yet!!

Sweet!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: December 24, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game rocks. It's graphics are excellent, the story is fun and engaging, and the combat is exciting without being totally simplistic. I'm sure it's full of historical inaccuracies and lacks the perfect ship sailing model but if I wanted a history lesson I would watch the History Channel, right? The playability is pretty good. I think I could play this game for quite a while before I would even consider it repetative. The only complaint I have manuvering my character while in towns. The controls seem a little sluggish, but aside from that, I have yet to run into any other bugs. Awesome game, buy it, or you'll be sorry you missed out on it!

Would be more fun if it was easier

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: November 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Even with the patch (v1.06) which lets you select Easy difficulty level, the game is still pretty hard. The ship you start off with is absolutely pathetic! You have the weakest cannons, so the range is shorter requiring you to get super close to the enemy ships who then just pound you because they have more, better cannons. Then if you try to board, you die. I haven't successfully boarded a ship yet. One swipe from the enemy captain and I die. Isn't that a bit silly? So to build up your ship and cannons, you have to travel back and forth between the same two islands trading goods. Very frustrating. Yet somehow despite these frustrations, I feel like if I can just get better there is fun to be had. Will give it a couple more games and see...

What were these other reviewer's thinking?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 13
Date: January 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game based on the enthusiastic reviews below, and now I have to wonder what these people were thinking. "Sea Dogs" is indeed 3 games in one. However, none of them is particularly complelling. They consist of:

1. A roleplaying game, which consists of walking around and asking people things. However you generally ask each person one thing, and they give you one response, so there's not much room for thinking.

2. A naval simulator, which is mildly interesting for the first couple of fights. However, since every fight is basically the same, this quickly becomes boring-- endlessly sailing in circles and lining up broadsides against your opponents.

3. A video game style fencing sequence that is simply annoying. It's ridiculously primitive compared to the martial arts style games on the market, and one has to wonder why it's even in here.

Over all, there was nothing particularly compelling about the game play. The graphics are pretty, but how long can you stare at the waves and the storm clouds when the game itself is dry as toast? Also, the game is SERIOUSLY buggy, even with the new 1.4 patch installed and running. The game is completely incompatible with a number of video cards. So if you do buy the game, there's a modest chance that it simply won't run on your machine.

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