Caribbean Legend

me like

I had few attempts to review this game, but with my last approach cup of bitterness overflowed. I like the idea of sandbox, but it somehow makes you stuck rather than free, sometimes less is more. Game does not run smoothly on low specs pc.

I will begin with the positives as it is important to start with that: This game will provide HOURS and I do mean HOURS of gameplay, allowing you to while the hours down in a fun but challenging setting. There is a Sandbox Mode which allows for infinite replayability and exploring, just like Sid Meier's Pirates and Sea Dogs (Of which this game was inspired), and a story mode which is also fairly well made. The game has many mechanics that may seem complicated on the surface, but are actually quite simple once you get the hang of them. Things such as sailor upkeep, captain's shares, maintaining your ship, keeping your men fed and healthy, wind, point of sail, these are all things that aren't completely out of the norm for games like this. Ship to Ship combat is fun, rewarding, and the new aiming system that they recently updated is quite intuitive and fun to do. The trading aspect is great as well, you can learn the best sales and quite literally build an empire of money in game by simply visiting colonies and learning their imports and exports. The Devs have done a great job making it feel like a real, breathing world, with a new seasons mechanic that changes how you play, not only that but the Nations within the game (Spain, Netherlands, England, France, Pirates) will start and stop wars on their own, and these nations can conquer and take other colonies from one another aside from Pirates, they just raid. Ship Models are beautiful. The World Map is very easy to read and understand, once you've got it memorized, you can get anywhere without much issue. The RPG aspects of building a crew of specialists and upgrading your skills in fighting and ship management is incredibly in-depth and satisfying once you get the right crew going. You can build an entire fleet if you desire and go plundering as you want, or you can be a lone ship in an ocean of possibilities. Now for the Negatives. There are times where this game will crash for no reason, a lot of these have been hammered out by the Devs but they are still there. I have discovered that most times it's because of mods. Crew Boarding and Land Combat is extremely janky, if you have less crew even if you're well trained and high level, you aren't going to survive even if you are skilled and have mastered the combat. In the days of Sea Dogs, your crew functioned as a health bar as you fought the enemy captain, and I wish it would go back to that, it was a great and unique mechanic. Ship Ramming is not a thing in this game and you will nuke your ship's health trying to do it, or even if you do it accidentally. Many playthroughs of mine have been ruined because I forgot to save and then the enemy AI rammed it's ship to mine and I wasn't fast or maneuverable enough to avoid it, especially trying to get in close enough to board the enemy ship. Plenty of ships specialized in ramming in other games but you're not going to find it here. The wind mechanic can be frustrating at times trying to get your ship to move in situations where you need to escape a bigger ship who has better guns and faster movement than you. Land exploration is just a mess. It's so easy to get lost in the jungle and caves because they all use the same exact tileset and it's just difficult to figure out where you need to go. I know this is somewhat deliberate design but I do not like it. If they do add some landmarks unique to the areas around the colonies, that would improve it immensely. When you get into the late game, everyone wants gold doubloons instead of the regular peso currency, which ends up leaving you with literal millions of pesos but scraping to get any doubloons you can get your hands on. I really wish there was a way to convert the pesos to doubloons in a much easier way, you CAN purchase doubloons for pesos but they are limited at each bank you go to. Gameplay of raiding, selling plunder, and then raiding again can get a bit repetitive, but I find that more of a neutral issue than an outright negative. All in all, this game is an excellent time-sink that's a lot of fun to play, even if it can be a bit difficult at times. A lot of my own gripes are personal issues with the game, but overall the experience is by and large a fun experience. Lots of legendary ships in the DLC, lots to do on the world map, you'll rarely find yourself doing nothing. Building a crew, and then building a fleet to become an unstoppable force on the open sea is a fun and rewarding experience, one that you won't find in other pirate games.