Tortuga - Two Treasures Preview

Posted on February 1st, 2007 at 9:13pm by Pocketminx

All hands ahoy! A vast ye, me hearties! No trying to Hornswaggle me Dungbie, shiver me timbers!

That’s right we are setting sail for adventures new in the game by Ascaron.

Tortuga - Two Treasures.

Pirates. I could end the preview there. Because essentially that is what this game is, Pirates. "We know that" a lot of you may say. But you take me too literally. When I say Pirates, I mean the game by Sid Meir. It has all the same features as the Sid Meir game. The only thing to differentiate between the two is the plot.

Both have ships to sail around the Caribbean. Ships that can attack other ships steal their cargo or even be boarded and stolen.

Both have swordfights, both have a pretty easy control for the fighting, which in essence is pretty easy.

Tortuga stands apart from Pirates because it has a story. Pirates just kept popping up with the same lines over and over. Why the story in Tortuga evolves as you play.

Thomas "Hawk" Blythe is the captain of the swift pirate frigate "Hawkwind". Both he and his girlfriend, the voodoo priestess Sangua, captain ships under the high command of the notorious pirate leader "Blackbeard".

Together, Hawk and Sangua embark on a search for the legendary treasure of Henry Morgan. Morgan was an infamous pirate and Governor of Jamaica approximately fifty years earlier.

Tortuga - Two Treasures tells of Hawk's struggle against a world growing blacker by the day. Betrayal and death are but a small element of Hawk's adventures. Forged treasure maps, voodoo magic, a deadly curse and the seemingly ever-present threat of Blackbeard's wrath all appear focused on stifling Hawk as he plunges into a battle for power, romance, treasure and truth.

I really enjoyed the ship and seamanship side of this game. Not only do you have to think tactically about where to attack from. You have to think about where your opponent’s cannons are and keep a check overboard to make sure you don’t get landlocked or sink on a reef. You can use innocent ships as cover or buy different types of cannon ball to inflict specific damage. There is no better feeling than using special sail slicing ammo and watching you foe stuck with no where to go while you prepare to board them!

On the other hand there is the swordplay. I literally felt every stab of my opponent’s sword; it’s that painful to play. you have two options to start attack or block. If you click the left mouse you attack with your sword, if you click the right mouse button you block an attack. While doing this the movement controls glitch and you look like your about to have a stroke on screen. As you progress through the game and win battles Hawk will increase his skills throughout the game. Every time he wins a fight, he will receive experience, which can be used to improve his close combat abilities, special moves or combos. The only problem is it’s all too clunky. If the fighting felt more fluid I could forgive Ascaron, but its not, so I wont.

As it’s almost time for the release of this game (16/02/07) I don’t think they will have time to rectify this. If you can tolerate the weaker swordplay side of this game, the sailing and scouting missions make up for it. My only wish would be for a bypass of the fighting system.

On a final note. It uses the AGEIA physX engine, adding some nice effects throughout the game.