Tortuga - Two Treasures Demo

Pirates gained a lot of popularity lately, ever since Johnny Depp portrayed one in the legendary Pirates of the Caribbean series. However, the genre is quite old and there are plenty of other movies and books depicting the life at sea and stories about veritable sea wolves. The Tortuga series has been around for a few years now and it evolved quite nicely from a technical point of view, even if the quality index remained rather steady.

Tortuga - Two Treasures is an action-adventure game that presents you with the opportunity to live the life at sea without actually leaving your chair, and without having to teleport back in the 19th century. Unlike the previous isometric episodes, however, this new release comes with fully three-dimensional graphics and the possibility to fight on land as well, beside the usual ship skirmishes.

The game is actually split into two modes, both of which are different from each other in almost every aspect. Hence, you get to either control the ship like you used to in the previous episodes as well, or go on land and fight using swords, from a third-person perspective. Before you get too excited, on the other hand, you must know that both of these modules are quite badly designed and there’s not a lot of fun involved in them.

The naval warfare aspect is quite bothersome and repetitive, because all you have to do is go in circles and fire your weapons whenever you are in range of the enemy ship. Sure, a bit of variety is added by the fact that you now have to pay attention to rocks and coral reefs as well, because you can seriously damage your ship if you happen to go over them.

Visually, the graphics engine has been seriously revamped, which means that it looks more than decent. The special effects are sublime, especially when it comes to reflections, lighting, and the water effects. However, the level design is lazy and barren, which means that there’s not a lot you can see while cruising around, given the fact that every island looks almost the same.

When it’s all said and done, Tortuga - Two Treasures could have been a lot more than it is right now, because some of the mistakes were quite simple to fix. However, the entire game feels rushed and pointless, especially since there’s not much of a story and everything feels like it was designed in a single afternoon by two guys who were anxious to get to the pub later that evening.