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Graphics

Remember that PiratesOnline is engineered to work on just about any computer? Yeah, here's how that happens. The graphics in PiratesOnline do little to inspire enthusiasm. Character models are angular, and their movements are a little clunky. On the whole, I found that the female models were better than the males, which tend to be almost like caricatures with torsos disproportionate to their legs. The environments make good use of the color palette but certainly skimp on details. Overall, I rate the graphics as being a little bit better than those in Dark Age of Camelot--and most people who will play PiratesOnline are too young to know what that means.

The graphics make good use of color.

An interesting thing to note is that PiratesOnline uses a few instances and zones to reduce the work for your graphics card. This works out very well for players, as the game loads the area you need then puts you in it. The process creates a small wait for loading up front but results in virtually no delaying or hitching later during game play.

Sound

Sound in PiratesOnline is terrific. The voice acting is solid, and the sound effects better than average. You'll hear samples of the movie scores as you roam through the beaches and sail the seas. Overall, this area of the game shines. The sound in PiratesOnline does nothing to take you out of the swashbuckling mood.

Fun Factor

The first thing I want to make clear is that PiratesOnline is fun. It's a carefree romp through the pirate world that you can share with the whole family. But it is important to point out a few problems that stop the game from being fantastic.

Players who only try the free version may be left with a less favorable impression of PiratesOnline than the game deserves. Disney was nice enough to give me an Unlimited account (the paid one) to review the game, so I would have missed out on some of these tidbits if my wife and Shayalyn had not volunteered to play with me.

My wife runs a Celeron 2.9GHz machine with 1GB RAM and a GeForce FX 5200 graphics card with 128MB video RAM. While her machine far exceeds the minimum system requirements, the game was barely more than a slide show on her computer. The extra delay in loading the ads for the free client made combat an exercise in clicking now and watching events play out later. She tried to play for 15 minutes and then was done for good.

Meanwhile, Shayalyn was running her Pentium 4 machine with 3GB RAM and a GeForce 7950 GT graphics card with 512MB RAM. She also reported considerable lag in places because of loading the ads. Had the reports just come from my wife with her bargain basement pc, I might have ignored them. But Shay's computer should be a beast capable of running this game. On my end, the game performed almost flawlessly on my Pentium 4 with 1.7GB RAM and a GeForce 7600 GT with 256MB RAM. I only experienced slowdown when a lot of characters were on-screen at one time in a small area. The rest of the time, the game played like a dream. The video sequences played well for all three of us.

Another oddity to note is that the game does a lot to make grouping undesirable. When my wife made it through the queue to log in with her pirate, I waited for her to get out of jail and through the next instance with her sword. Once she reached the starting area with me, I tried to get her into a group. I'm accustomed to being able to type "/invite Jade," but that doesn't work in PiratesOnline. I tried forming a party with her through the social screen but failed. We guessed that maybe I needed her to be on my friends list, but I found I could not add her. Finally I ran to where she was with the intention of following her around and helping her kill until she had caught up to me, thinking that we had to be the same level or something. I right-clicked her avatar and found a wealth of options now. I could form a party with her or put her on my friends list. It just seemed very odd that I had to be right in front of her and right-click her to make any of it work.

Once we formed a party, we found other flaws in the multiplayer aspect of the game. I saw an on-screen indication that I was in a party but no real indication who was in the party with me. Jade's name did not

Watching a few ads can make your PiratesOnline experience 100% free.

change colors to reflect she was in my party either, so it was very possible to lose sight of her on a crowded beach. To make matters worse, we were trying to blow through the early quests to get her caught up to me and found that was a no-go, too. She needed to kill 5 or 6 skeletons. While she killed one, I killed a different one. She got credit for her kill but not mine. Then I tried to kill one while she watched. Though we were in a party together, she did not get credit. There's hardly any incentive to group for kill quests if each member has to kill his or her own mobs to get credit.

The final impediment to grouping came when Jade was just one quest away from being caught up to me. She had turned in her quest, so I thought I would share the current one to save some time. I thought wrong. I could not find a way to share the quest at all. By then, my wife was fed up with the slide show she was watching anyway.

Now if all of that sounds negative, keep in mind that the two of us had met Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Tia Dalma, and Elizabeth Swann in a span of roughly 10 minutes. The wow factor is really there in PiratesOnline, but I highly recommend the Unlimited account if you're going to commit.

Parting Thoughts

Pirates of the Caribbean Online delivers what it advertises. It's a family-friendly introduction to MMOGs. It's pretty good fun for a whole family, and you can have 4 character slots for only $9.95 per month. The grind started to kick in for me when I reached 14 notoriety, but the mix of action keeps things pretty fresh; players can fight on land (with swords and guns), at sea (as the captain or the gunnery crew), or at the card table. With the forgiving system requirements, you don't need a brand new computer to play this game, but you may find the free version runs with quite a bit of lag even on a beefy machine.

Family-friendly, action-packed game play Easy to learn Low system requirements	Low graphical quality Does not support group play very well Free vrsion has significant drawbacks

Difficulty:  Low Stability: Very High Graphics: Fun Factor:

Learning Curve:  1 hour Gameplay: Sound: Tilt:

(3 / 5 Hammers)

Ten Ton Recommendation:

Pirates of the Caribbean Online is a great way to introduce a young person to MMOGs. Try it for a month or two for free, but really consider the paid subscription to see how good the game can be.

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