Tortuga -- Two Treasures: Argh
Tortuga -- Two Treasures' sea battles are the high point of the game.
(Ascaron Entertainment)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
When Ascaron Entertainment announced it was working on a pirate game, I thought the developers of the non-linear DarkStar One would create a free-roaming Caribbean experience akin to Sid Meier's Pirates! game. Instead the developers took a different approach in Tortuga -- Two Treasures.
You play Thomas "Hawk" Blythe, a pirate serving under Blackbeard until you and your girlfriend are betrayed. You spend the rest of the game seeking revenge and a fabled treasure. Just about every pirate cliche makes it into the game, including voodoo priestesses, stolen royal navy ships, cursed treasures, a ghost ship hunting souls, the beautiful governor's daughter and rogues with biting wit and good hearts.
But unlike games in which you are free to roam, Tortuga leads you on a series of missions, some lasting only a few minutes. When you solve one, you generally view a story update and advance to the next. The format fosters a real "just one more mission before bed" attitude; one mission turns into nine or 10.
There are two types of missions. The first is a sea battle in which you must maneuver your ship to fire at enemy vessels. Graphically it's amazing, with realistic damage models that show individual cannons disabled when hit or sails being ripped open. The water is clear, so you can see your defeated opponents as their wreckage settles on the bottom. If the artificial intelligence were a little smarter, this part of the game would be more of a challenge. But the bad guys are pretty stupid, or at least poor sailors, and can be tricked into really brainless maneuvers, such as repeatedly running their vessels over reefs and shoals or taking massive damage in an attempt to get close to you instead of just sailing around. They watch you sail around the reef but never do it themselves.
Land missions, or knife work, as Hawk calls it, are pretty lame. You basically mash the attack button repeatedly while cutting through other pirates, British army officers and even zombies. There is not a lot of strategy to it, but at least it's easy, so you will be back on your ship, where the real fun happens, in no time.
The game is extremely short. I solved Tortuga in about six hours. It was enjoyable, but not up to the quality one expects.
-- John Breeden II
Tortuga -- Two Treasures Everyone; PC ($30) Ascaron Entertainment
