Tortuga – A Pirate’s Tale gives a huge nearly overwhelming way to customize a pirate convoy.
Tortuga – A Pirate’s Tale allows players to set sail across the Caribbean while warding off four imperial nations. It shares many elements with Gaming Minds Studios’ existing Port Royale series – enough that, oddly, Tortuga is a new IP instead. The one possibility is that Tortuga – A Pirate’s Tale is a sequel in disguise to be a technical exclusive on Epic Game Store.
Players select from one of four allegiances: France, England, Spain, or the Netherlands. Each controls a portion of the Caribbean Sea, including port towns and other locations like New Orleans, Seville, and Port Royle. When inside one’s territory, enemy ships will be non-hostile but can be attacked by moving in close. In unfriendly waters, stray enemy ships can initiate battles without warning. And this risk may be needed as quests and treasures are all over the Caribbean.
After joining a nation and designing a custom pirate flag, one will have the option of going into two and recruiting captains, listening to folks at the bar, and talking to local governors. Once a crew is selected, it can be customized further with skills and a ship sail in the fleet. Finally, items can be stored in the hold of each ship, allowing key supplies like food, treasure, and tools.
The Caribbean Sea is fully open to navigation. Only the player’s ship travels on the overworld map, and all other fleet ships will only appear if combat is initiated. Ship movement uses real motion and rules for movement: Ships can only go forward and turn slightly – there is no reverse, making it deadly if one crashes into land. Players will want to get used to piloting and steering before heading out on actual adventures.
The Caribbean map is massive, allowing lots of exploration quickly or at a leisurely pace. However, that can also sometimes work against it, as it could take dozens of minutes – or an entire in-game day – to reach certain destinations. Traveling at certain hours of the day could make things riskier. If the journey is taking too long, players can fast forward, slow down, or even pause time.
In Tortuga – A Pirate’s Tale, battle and raiding can be initiated by raising the black pirate flag of the main ship, highlighting other ships, and approaching them. First, a dialogue choice will come up where players can choose to intimidate the enemy for a chance at free loot without a fight or push to fully attack. At this point, the game will enter a new hex grid battle mode. While it is turn-based, it still uses speed and motion to determine movement and attacks.
Ships all have a minimum and maximum speed, and there is no means of staying in the same spot each turn. Additionally, cannons are typically only on the port and starboard sides. All combatants have armor values on the port, starboard, bow, and stern. Once an armor section is depleted, the actual hull can be attacked to destroy enemy vessels (note that allied ones that sink will also be permanently destroyed).
The strategic dance comes from needing to both move in attack position with cannons, but also defend the vulnerable damaged sides of each ship. For example, one ship with full armor could move to a tank and defend an already damaged craft. Another ship could instead be built to simply hit and run.
Another option is even to simply harrier with no true intention of destroying the ship alone. There are so many possible tactics that it can be easy to simply pause and fully assess the situation. This is especially important as there is no means of undoing a decision or canceling an order.
After a battle, conquered ships can be looted, storing any sort of useful goods in the hull. Any excess items can be offloaded and traded at port towns. If players need more focus, quests gained in town will take them all over the coast. Objectives could include destroying multiple ships, hunting down specific targets, or looking for items. By completing missions, the fleet will become larger and more powerful.
However, the crew can also become restless if they don’t also get a fair share of the money, favored foods, and supplies of their own. On the flip side, if players are provided with too generous rewards, they will start to expect that same amount after every mission and could mutiny if they don’t receive it. It all becomes a careful balance of diplomacy, intimidation, and giving in at times.
Tortuga – A Pirate’s Tale’s user interface is extremely bloated and rather overwhelming. There are menus everywhere, often with the next interface on the other side of the screen. For example, one might move to a position with the mouse but then attack with menus at the bottom of the screen, while then confirming at the very top. Many pop-ups are explaining just what each element of the UI does, but it can still be vague about where to look in the first place.
The game is very hard and often difficult to understand, but that seems to be exactly what Gaming Minds Studios’ intention is. There is an element of survival as players may never know if they truly have the right amount of food, a big enough crew, and enough firepower to take out enemies. There could be enemy pirates and imperial armadas in every region, bringing danger and death at every corner. However, the auto-save and quick reload are very generous, so it can often be fast to retry a battle.
Tortuga – A Pirate’s Tale is not at all graphically impressive. Even at ultra-high settings, cities, ships, and land can look grainy and blurred at even the default zoom, becoming even worse once zoomed in. Things clear up once zoomed out as far as possible, which is typically also a strategic view.
On the bright side, the water effects are very impressive with convincing reflections and animation. One should highly consider Tortuga – A Pirate’s Tale if they want a mix of high adventure, tough combat, exploration, and logistical management. Its presentation is rather confusing and nearly recycled from the older version of Port Royal. Still, it can be a very fun experience once learning the ropes.
