Pirates of the Caribbean: Legend of the Black Buccaneer is
an adventure horror game set in the Caribbean in the sixteenth century.
when
The Da Vinci Code hit theaters, there was suddenly an abundance of books like
Cracking Da Vinci’s Code? Or how just as the 2005 Steven Spielberg Tom
Cruise summer blockbuster War of the Worlds was hitting theaters, we were also
treated to the David Michael Latt C. Thomas Howell direct-to-video shelf-filler
H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds? Well, just in time to capitalize on the
piratical fervor over Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,
budget publisher Valcon Games arrives with Pirates: Legend of the Black
Buccaneer, rewarding those looking for another fun-filled summer romp with an
action adventure game that teems with awkward platforming mechanics,
one-note combat, confusing level designs, and simplistic puzzles.
Legend
of the Black Buccaneer is the Bolex watch of pirate games.
Through
some needlessly longwinded opening narration, you’re told the tale of a
slave-turned-demon-goddess who lures greedy sailors to her island lair with the
promise of cursed treasure, which is how the game’s protagonist, Francis Blade,
finds himself shipwrecked at the start of the game, on an island populated by
antagonistic monkeys, pirates, and other dastardly enemies. Almost immediately
upon his arrival, Blade discovers a fancy amulet that magically turns this
skinny European into some kind of hulking undead hoodoo spirit version of the
old WWE wrestler Papa Shango. This creature is known as the Black Buccaneer,
and with the ability to transform into this powerful, top hat wearing
behemoth at will, Blade works his way across the island, fighting monkeys,
plundering treasure, and collecting ship parts in order to get off this rotten
island. Once the premise is set, the game doesn’t spend much time elaborating
any further.
The
action in Pirates: Legend of the Black Buccaneer is a mish-mash of other
recent, memorable action adventure games like Tomb Raider and Prince
of Persia, just not anywhere near as good as in any of them. There’s lots of
leaping around jungles, caverns, and ancient tombs. You’ll encounter your fair
share of puzzles that put the focus on box-pushing and switch-flipping. The
levels are liberally peppered with enemies that you can take on with either
your Francis Blade or Black Buccaneer personas, both of whom wield a pair of
swords that can be put into deadly use by tapping at random on the square and
triangle buttons. Playing as the Black Buccaneer gives you added strength and
the ability to restore your own health by slaying enemies, but you can only
play as him for a short while before reverting back to Francis Blade. If your
enemies threaten to overwhelm you, you can summon a zombie at special zombie
fountains to help turn the tide. In the hands of a competent developer, all
this could’ve made for a decent knock-off, but WideScreen Games botches the job
pretty thoroughly.
The
platforming elements are the most immediately frustrating, because they make up
such a large portion of the action. Simply jumping looks and feels incredibly
awkward, as if your character is weighed down with lead boots. However, when
you’re able to wrangle the camera in order to line up with another platform,
your character suddenly springs to life, leaping much farther than he seems
capable of. Damage taken from falling off platforms seems arbitrary. Fall down
one floor and you’ll keep on truckin’ like nothing happened; fall down two
floors and you’ll be scraping your mangled corpse off the floor. When simply
moving your character around feels like a chore, it doesn’t bode well for the
rest of the game.
System=
Pentium III CPU 1.0 GHz
RAM=256 MB
Video Memory= 32 MB
OS= Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8
RAM=256 MB
Video Memory= 32 MB
OS= Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8
