Hello everyone. I’ll warn you right away: I’m not a professional game reviewer, but what to hide – I’ve never done this at all, my computer is old and weak, and modern games are of little interest, and even for them there’s a regular Xbox One. Therefore, consideration of the story of Nicholas Sharp presented to us back in 2000 will be my first, so to speak, try of the pen (or rather, the keyboard).

It makes no sense to tell the entire background of the appearance and history of the creation of the game, indicating the persons involved in all this, dtf website.ru at one time outlined everything in great detail. Therefore, let’s go straight to the review, which I will start with the banal story of my acquaintance with this game and the subsequent series of the same name.

At the beginning of 2001, my family, or rather my parents, got their first computer. Within the first few months of owning it, things like Colin McRae Rally 2 appeared in my “collection” of games.0 and Age of Empires, one of which was a gift from my parents, and the other was borrowed from a friend and simply copied.

Around June, as a reward for doing well in school, I finally went with my parents to a store that sold games. And I, as the son of a naval sailor, immediately liked the disc with the image of a fort, a pirate flag and a battleship, with the proud name “Corsairs”. Curse of the Far Seas" and gameplay images of the sea and ships on the back cover. The second game I bought that day turned out to be “Heroes of Might and Magic IV”, but my PC on Windows 98 refused to be friends with it, constantly crashing.

So, after a moment of nostalgia, it’s time to talk about the game itself. First of all, after two advertising screensavers, we are greeted by the main menu, designed in the same style as the disc cover. However, before you look at the image, you pay attention to the musical composition, which begins to play with a second delay from its appearance. It was written, like all the music in the game, by the fairly famous Russian composer Yuri Poteenko, and recorded by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra (I may have made a mistake in the name of the orchestra – correct if necessary). I’ll describe it briefly – cool symphonic flows with no less cool short choral parts.

On a relatively modern screen, with the resolution set to 1366×768 and the SeaWolf font missing from the system, we can say that the menu looks relatively similar to what it was then.

In the settings menu, everything is spartanly simple:

In addition to the items “Gamma”, “Smoothing” and “On”. sound\music" and resolution settings; any noticeable influence of other buttons (except for changing control buttons, of course) is not particularly noticeable.

However, let’s move directly to the gameplay. “New Game” greets us with the first seconds of the screensaver, which I will remember for the rest of my life, accompanied by the composition Sea.mp3, the cries of seagulls and the very phrase “As a boy I lived with my mother in Porstmouth, a few miles from the port…”

Nicholas is going on his first voyage and his mother gives him a medallion with a portrait of his father, whom he has never seen, because he left them on the shore and went to sea.

After a brief summary of https://nongamstopcasinosites.co.uk/international-casinos/ the political situation – that war between England and Spain was approaching, and that the government was hiring merchant ships to transport war supplies – we learn that Nicholas’s maiden voyage ended with him being captured by the Spanish. Despite the fact that, according to the hero, he was stunned by the first bomb, most likely he went into a state of shock after he heard the cry “IS-PAN-TSYYY. ", recorded, according to one version, by Peter Glantz and much later became a legendary meme

Our hero spent a couple of months in captivity, after which he went on a journey to a certain Archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic as a slave on a plantation. From there, a year later and with a dozen brave comrades, he escaped on a small ship (classified in the game as a pink, although it doesn’t look like one). After which he decided to go to the nearest English island to obtain a corsair patent and take revenge.

After this, control of the hero finally passes to us (naturally, the entire screensaver can be skipped with the good old “space”).

I’ll tell you briefly about the plot. From this moment on, the same component of the story for different players ends. The rest of the plot is entirely up to the player. There are four lines in the game: English, Spanish, French and pirate. The shortest and simplest, in my subjective opinion, is the English ruler. It is quite straightforward, requires the least expenditure of in-game currency (which here has a simple, but so pleasant name to the pirate’s heart – “gold”). The most complex and costly is the pirate line, which is both costly and takes the longest. In addition, it is, in fact, canonical (based on the plot of the subsequent parts of the series) and tells us how Nicholas Sharp first finds out the fate of his father, takes revenge on his killer, and then founds a pirate republic of people free from national strife, Libertalia. It is worth noting that only the English, pirate (both are required) and French (only under certain conditions) lines are “equipped” with additional cutscenes. The Spanish line itself does not contain cutscenes, and in general, only one quest in the game on the Spanish islands, not related to the line, has a unique cutscene. The plot of the “national” lines differs only in details. In general, the essence of all lines ultimately boils down to the capture of several islands of the archipelago by the player in the name of the chosen nation (with the appointment at the end of the governorship by the corresponding king) or in the name of freedom. And the hero will even have the opportunity to get married, although this will not affect the gameplay in any way.

Now, perhaps, let’s move on directly to the gameplay. And there is something to talk about here.

So, the gameplay consists of land and sea components. On land, we can walk through a fairly small area of ​​cities, visiting such establishments as the governor’s palace, a tavern, a shop and a shipyard. It is worth noting that not all of these buildings are available on all islands, and on one of them there is no one at all except for a lonely half-crazed resident.

In the tavern we can communicate with the owner of the tavern, as well as with the characters sitting and standing there. With the exception of a few characters, communication with them outside of quests does not make much sense and comes down to a few phrases that lead to looping dialogue. Also in the tavern we can hire a crew, this is done by opening the character menu (F1 key), but I will talk about this menu later.

At the shipyard we can talk with its owner, and also sell him our ship, install on it (if possible) larger caliber guns, or even buy a new ship. About ships and their classes – also a little later.

In the store we can chat with its owner, but first of all we can buy or sell goods. I note that the game has an economic model, albeit a primitive one. On different islands, the cost of various goods is different, and the difference between the prices for buying and selling goods depends on the character’s “Trade” skill.

In the governor’s palace (which replaces a ship in one of the two pirate ports), we can take a quest from the governor (if there is one), or report on the completion of the last quest taken from him.

In general, this is where the land gameplay is limited. You can still talk to the characters walking along the street, but most of them are “dummy” with one stock phrase.

At any time during the game we can open the character menu (as I indicated above – by pressing F1). It has the following sections: Staff, Magazine, Ship, Hold and Chest. On the first of them we see the character’s characteristics, such as rank, experience, experience up to the next rank, the amount of gold available and reputation. Rank affects which of the six classes of ships we can control, about gold, I think, it’s not worth explaining, and reputation only affects the opening for completing some quests. On the left are the characteristics of the officers that we can hire from among some characters encountered in the tavern or on the street, as well as a description of their functions. On the right is a list of the character’s skills and their descriptions. Below in the middle – information about the size of the team and its monthly salary.

The journal displays Nicholas’s entries about the quests he has completed and other significant events, as well as his relationships with the nations represented in the game.

The “Ship” menu displays such characteristics of the ship as its class, speed, maneuverability, minimum and maximum number of crew members, its displacement, the condition of its hull and equipment and information about its weapons, as well as a typical image of this type of ship.

In the hold menu you can see the amount of cargo on board and its brief description.

In the chest menu we see all quest items and their descriptions.

Naval gameplay can be divided into three parts: artillery battles with ships, boarding and battles with the fort. A separate mode is the “Map”, which displays the islands of the Archipelago that we have discovered, and also random events occur (discovery of other ships, attacks on our ship, discovery of land on the horizon and getting caught in a storm), which are displayed in the form of corresponding dialog boxes. You can set the direction of movement by clicking on the name of the island on the right, or by clicking the mouse in the desired place. You can also “drop anchor”, which is essentially just rewinding time.

Sea battles can be called the main “highlight” of the game. Of course, the physics of water, ships and projectile flight are far from real, but for that time it was the best of all possible implementations. Third-person and first-person views are available on the ship. The second of them is especially needed only when shelling a fort (according to one of the methods) and for attacking an allied object. For all other tasks, a third-person view is sufficient.

For shooting, we have access to such shells as cannonballs (the longest range), buckshot (shoots close, but effectively destroys the team), nipples (for causing damage to sailing equipment) and bombs (deal the greatest damage, but the range is slightly lower than that of cannonballs). Switching according to the standard is carried out using numeric keys. Aiming is carried out in the first person view – through a sight, in the third person view – automatically, and its accuracy in this case depends on the value of the skills “accuracy” and “coordination”. The hits appear as red-yellow clouds on the body that quickly disappear. Also, with moderate and severe damage, white or black smoke begins to come from the ship. The strength of a ship’s hull is essentially its hit points, and each type of projectile takes away a certain number of them. A colorful “critical shot” is also possible, in which the masts of the ship fall and it begins to sink. Sometimes it happens that he simply has few hit points left, but this happens less often. When a ship sinks, there may be boxes left on the water, which you can pick up simply by walking over them on your ship, and the phrase “Loot” will sound!».

You can board a ship by approaching it almost closely and pressing the corresponding function key (the distance from which you can board it depends on the corresponding skill). If the enemy has a significant superiority in the number of crew, he himself can board us. After a short cutscene, we will find ourselves in a cabin, where we will fight the captain of the enemy ship. In this case, the hit points are the number of crew members in each team. Strikes are applied with the WASD keys, blocks – with the left and right arrows. You can make a feint by holding down Shift and the strike key at the same time (or however you set the controls for yourself). The first one to run out of commands dies. The level of the fencing skill affects the amount of damage dealt to the enemy. If the hero has very little crew left, the “Fury” mode may turn on, in which for a short time the strength, which is essentially endurance, becomes infinite. Upon completion of the boarding, we find ourselves in the boarding menu, where you can exchange the ship, attach it to your squadron (if you have a first mate) and move cargo.