Tortuga - Pirates of the New World

Deadly storms and huge waves are not the only dangers that lurk out on the ocean, especially in the age of sea exploration, during the colonization of the New World. While trading ships and delivery convoys are a common sight, so are the pirates that plunder everything in their way, using powerful cannons and plenty of gun powder.

Tortuga – Pirates of the New World is a strategy game that features a rich, open-world that can be explored in its entirety, in order to navigate between harbors, trade goods with cities and battle the pirates that stand in your way. Alternatively, you can also choose the easy way out and become a pirate yourself, by plundering the trading convoys of the Spanish and British empires.

The story takes place in the sixteenth century and it revolves around the colonization of the New World by the powerful European empires, including Holland, Britain and Spain. Although the game is not linear and does not impose missions on you, you can take part in a variety of scenarios, by accepting to take care of some things for various town leaders scattered around the map.

Whenever you enter a town, you can resupply your ships with firepower, food and people, since they are all required in order to be safe on the sea. You can also repair your ships and accept to carry a few settles aboard, which can be used to repopulate the cities you conquer. Moreover, some cities also allow you to gamble with your gold, by playing a dice-based mini-game.

Graphically, the game uses a top-down isometric view of the map, which is quite good looking, especially since the entire archipelago has been recreated as close to reality as possible. To move your ship, all you have to do is use the right-mouse click, while the left button is used to fire the weapons during a fight. Speaking of which, the battles are slightly annoying, because the enemy can always flee and it gets very frustrating at some point, especially since there's no way to get out of the fight until one of the ships leaves the designated area, which is quite large.

While Tortuga – Pirates of the New World may have a decent number of flaws when it comes to gameplay and the combat mechanics, it does get pretty addictive after a while, especially since you can hoard ships, plunder goods and conquer cities, which really gives you a sense of achievement.