We get a in-depth look at this quirky pirate game from Paradox

It's common practice in videogames development that you have to take on projects out of nessecity, but not quite what you wan to do, to help build up funds for what you really want to create. TimeGate, for example, did a lot of contract work so they could build up the funds to do Section 8, hell, even Creative Assembly started off doing ports of EA sport titles.
 

Whilst you mainly view the land elements from a 'top-down' view, this is an in-game render of what the environments will be like

That's not to say that Nitro's previous games - East India Company and Commanders: Conquest of the Americas - were means to an end, but their newest title, Pirates of Black Cove, definitely has one of those 'passion project' feel to it. Gone is the historical setting, the complex naval battle engine, the trading and the strategy, and in goes an open world map, pirates, more pirates, and some over-the-top fun.

There's no set genre that you can fit this game into - it's got adventure elements, it's very action based as well, but there's also RPG and even a dabble of RTS as well. You, as one of several unique captains that you can choose from, roam the high seas in your ship. Your goal is to unite the three main pirate factions against the dreaded Pirates of Black Cove faction, and to do this you essentially need to go to them and do stuff for them until they like you.

The factions are well thought out and really stand out from each other, and each are based on particular themes - you have the Pirates, which are your typical pirate stereotype with hooks, blades and... a massive cannoneer. You have the Buccaneers, who revolve around fire arms, from pistols, to rifles to... rockets? And then you have the corsairs, who are more melee based, so knives, clubs... severed heads. You get the idea.
 

Fortresses like these will be your home for a lot of the game.

This is a remarkably fully featured game. Along with exploration on the main campaign map, there's light management options in the form of building up your various fortresses with key buildings, finding blue-prints to deck out your ship, and then of course the basic questing elements. A first for Nitro, this game actually has land combat, which has a very old school RTS feel. Quests that involve you going on land are usually too difficult for you to do by yourself, so you need to hire crew and soldiers to help you. Depending on which faction you get them from will define their abilities and attributes, and you simple select and click to move and attack. Some units, and your avatar, will have abilities that can help them as well.



Nitro's experience with naval combat really does show though. Whilst it's a completely different experience in this game - there's no separate battle map or anything, it’s still one of the better portions of the game. There’s a real arcade feel to it, it’s well made, it can be challenging if there’s more than one enemy... as interesting as the land combat is, it seems a little clunky compared to the naval combat at the moment.

The quirkiness of the game really shines through here as well. Not only do your ships have the standard cannons, but later on in the game you can find and build special 'black market' weapons... like homing rockets. They had homing rockets back then, right? This tongue-in-cheek approach is apparent all throughout the game, from the game design, the quests... even the dialogue, which is full of double entendres. At the time of writing, there was a serious discussion about how to shoehorn the word 'blowjob' into the game, as a metaphor for getting extra wind in your sales. Yeah, the ESRB is going to love that one...

Nitro have put a lot of work into this - the engine is brand new (and decent, from what we can see), there's a ton of content here... even the game world, reportedly it takes around half an hour to sail from one 'end' to another, and with three general 'zones' (one for each faction, we imagine) plus an extra zone for the end game Black Cove content. On top of that, we're told there's some randomisation as well between playthroughs in terms of the side-quests and locations of collectables.
 

AI "wingmen" in naval combat is gone, so it's just you vs the world. You'll need every trick in the book to survive...

Whilst we liked Nitro's previous games, we can't begrudged them wanting to do something different. Pirates of Black Cove is shaping up to be a really great game, with all of the humour and tongue and cheek of Magicka (although, not all the launch-day bugs, we hope), and yet with all of the polish and content of any AAA title. The way the game is designed as well suggests that is incredibly open to DLC as well, so this one could definitely be a keeper. Pirates of Black Cove is due out for PC in May, 2011.

Most anticipated feature: Seeing what weird and wonderful weapons you can put on your ship.