Parents' Guide to Pirates of the Burning Sea

Overall, the game sparkles like a freshly opened treasure chest. With a huge map of the Caribbean before them, the game offers a nearly endless supply of well-designed quests. Missions are diverse, ranging from crossing swords with local pirate gangs, to running rum into a blockaded city. An overarching goal has players working together as a nation to conquer other nation's ports for control of important resources. The game really shines when players take to the sea. The game goes far beyond simply having the biggest ship/most guns to win. In fact, through the skillful use of sailing techniques and strategy, lower-level players can play and compete with higher-level players -- a unique opportunity in a game of this genre.

The game isn't all diamonds and rubies though -- a few flaws tarnish an otherwise well-done game. The sword fights are far inferior to the action at sea. Fewer options for strategy, and a lot of similarity between one battle to the next makes the land sequences far less interesting. Boarding an opponent's ship is particularly frustrating, since targeting a particular enemy such as the captain is a real challenge. Another major fault of the game is the lack of instruction for the more challenging aspects of the game. In particular, players are left to figure out the fairly complex economic system of manufacturing and trading goods after only a very brief tutorial. Players short on patience may grow tired of trying to figure out the game before they start to uncover some of its true treasures.