Puzzle Pirates
Puzzle Pirates is a puzzle-based RPG produced by Three Rings Design and aimed at a younger age-group, but still playable if you’re no longer a kid.
The game is free to play but, like most of its kind, there is always an option to fast-track your development by parting with real cash.
Gameplay
The game experience is vast. The aim is to become the most powerful pirate in the land. You do this by completing missions and earning gold, and improving over time.
Yar! How ye be wanting to look, matey?
You start by designing your pirate, then you can head off to explore the island you’re washed up on and start off on the training missions. Over time you’ll be able to get furnishing for your house, acquire pets, get a job and so forth. If you get powerful enough you can even own and rule islands and captain ships and explore Atlantis.
There are twenty puzzles in all, most of them revolving around arranging objects in rows or patterns. Seven of these are multiplayer, and four of the multiplayer activities are card-games, which provide a nice change from putting things in rows. After a while the similarity of the puzzles might get tedious for an older gamer, but they’re sure to keep young ‘uns entertained.
Technical
The graphics are good, the musical score isn’t too bad, and the size of the world is impressive. In 2004 and 2005 Puzzle Pirates won several awards for playability.
And the game is definitely playable.
There are shortcuts to getting around the island so you don’t have to walk everywhere, a host of different activities you can try and a lot of different things you can buy.
A hefty download is required to begin. People on slower internet connections may find this takes a while. Also, it’s best to launch the game from Internet Explorer or Firefox, as some of the lesser used browsers (Chrome being an example) have trouble with validating passwords.
Multiplayer
The game quickly becomes boring just doing puzzles by yourself, as do most RPGs. But the games offers a lot of multiplayer activities. As well as puzzling against other people, you can also buy from and sell to them, join their crew, or get them to join yours, create alliances, have huge sea and land battles. All in all, a very solid MMORPG experience, and one parents might like to recommend to their younger kids.
This is a game that you can easily spend an hour or two playing and not realize the time has passed. However, that being said, adult gamers may find themselves bored after a while. Unless you’ve really got a thing for puzzles, that is.
Arr! This be a swordfight of sorts, with blocks. Puzzling.
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Ahoy, mateys. Be the most powerful piratical nuisance of the seas. But ye need to use your head more than your sword. Puzzle away, lads and lasses. | ||||||
Game: Puzzle Pirates | Developer: Three Rings Design