Game #1182: Pirates - The Legend of Black Kat

  Assassin's Creed IV before Assassin's Creed IV.

 Judging from the fact that pretty much nobody ever mentions Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat as well as the fact that the cover screams of low budget, I thought this'd be just a forgettable budget release. I was wrong. Turns out this Pirate game did a lot of things Assassin's Creed IV would eventually do. 

 The first thing I noticed was that the soundtrack, particularly the theme song, is pretty darn dope. It's piratey and upbeat, perfect for this game. The intro cutscene sets the tone too, you'll know it'll be somewhat serious, but somewhat cheesy. It's a pretty cool first impression, The in-game graphics are a bit rudimentary, and later cutscenes feel a bit stiff, but it's not a bad looking game.

 You'll spend your time either sailing the seas or exploring by foot. The game is divided into about 27 different islands, and you can travel between them after you find charts detailing their location. Sure, it's not an open world game, as you pick an Island/Zone on the chart screen, but after you 'travel' to this location, you are set out on a small map, filled with various Island to explore, so that you can search for any of the 257 chests containing loot. Much like AC IV's small dopamine chests. Most Zones also include a fort, much like ACIV, that you must liberate... by bombing it with your cannon. Once liberated, you can purchase supplies for your ship, or even get a bigger ship, if you can afford it.

 Naval combat is a big part of the game, and while it's not as interesting as the one in ACIV, it gets the job done. It's a bit of a masher, as you should be mashing X to shoot as fast as you can from your ship's sides. You can also use items, such as lumber to fix damage, or special weapons such as chained cannonballs or mines. As you sail between mini-islands you'll probably come face to face with enemy ships, and you can opt to try to avoid them if you'd rather not engage them.

 You can only disembark on the mini-islands that have a port, but once you find one and disembark... the game seamlessly, without a loading screen, transitions onto Kat, on foot, on the island. Jesus, this game was ambitious!. The only loading screens happen when traveling between zones or reloading your game. Not too shabby!

 On-foot sections are more straight forward, just you exploring, beating enemies and looting chests. Combat is fairly simple, L1 blocks most attacks, X is a fast attack, and as you land damage you can fill a 3-tiered gauge that unleashes a special attack with Square, provided you have the energy to spare. You also have battle items, such as magical tikis or throwing daggers to aid you in battle. Sadly, healing items can't be carried. Combat, while nothing remarkable, gets the job done. There's not much in the way of puzzles, as most obstacles are simply about defeating enemies. That said, there are plenty of hidden chests to find... by sliding towards the Island's edges. Don't worry, if you land on water you don't lose health!

 There's one mechanic that I absolutely hated, however, and those are the buried treasures. While walking around, if you are lucky, Kat will exclaim that she feels like treasure is nearby and/or the Dual Shock 2 will vibrate. Now you must carefully move around, as the controller vibrates harder the closer you get to the spot. Then press L2. These could be so annoying to dig up at times, and much like ACIV, most of these chests contain either battle items or money, which you'll have plenty of by the end of the game. Thankfully, HP and Sword upgrades lie in chests you don't need to dig up.

 One small issue, is that there are 27 Islands... and while the game will keep track of important quests and sidequests, such as 'find something hot for Jack' or 'Collect 5 orchids for the Mermaid'.... it won't tell you WERE Jack or the Mermaid lie waiting for you, so hopefully you took notes or remember the name of the Island/Area in which you first talked with them.

 The game features a nasty difficulty spike once you reach the frozen Islands. Here you'll start fighting annoying Yeti while dealing with small corridors, sometimes icy too. By the time I got to the lava Islands I was actively avoiding enemies. What makes it worse is that you can only save by talking to parrots... and not every mini-Island has one, so you can potentially die and lose 20 minutes of progress 'cause there wasn't a parrot nearby. Kinda annoying. The last boss is brutal too, unless you did the Mermaid's sidequest.

 I feel like this game is a true hidden gem. There's so many ambitious parts about it, and it did a great job at most of the things it does... yet pretty much nobody has ever heard about this game! I swear, I wouldn't be surprised if among those few that know about it... work at Ubisoft and used it as a blueprint for ACIV.

 8.0