Pirates of the Burning Sea (PC)

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk
The year is 1720 and the New World is on fire

England, France and Spain have unleashed their forces on the Caribbean. Naval officers captain massive warships through bloody engagements at sea. Freetraders charge through blockades and smuggle the war material needed to conquer the enemy’s ports. Privateers raid enemy shipping, looting ships of their treasure and rival nations of their glory

Through it all sail the pirates. Bloody, bold and resolute, they serve no flag and need no king. They live free, fight hard and obey only fate

In Pirates of the Burning Sea you choose your destiny

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Customer reviews

review by: The Baver date: 2008-04-09 rating:
What?!
I dont understand all teh criticism for this game. Alright i was reluctant to buy it given the bad press but an overwhelming sense of Arrrr drove me to get it. This was not a mistake. I love this game more than I ever loved wow and I played that for two years. This game is freer, lighter and more fun. The graphics as you've probably heard are amazing. Learning the game is fine, you soon pick up everything you need to know. There are a number of tutorials. Seriously if you've been looking for a pirate mmorpg this delivers o so well.

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review by: Balock date: 2008-03-27 rating:
Gankers paradise
Well i grew up watching movies like the 'Crimson pirate' and loved the flair and swashbuckling atmosphere they had when i watched them in the early 80's and so i was looking forward to this game with eager anticipation, but unfortunately the game,although i did find parts enjoyable, isnt in way shape or form worth a subscription of any amount , it would be a lot easier and cheaper to purchase sid meirs 'pirates' which this is basically a clone of albeit with better looking and nicer naval battles and other players to interact with. And of course playing sid's game you wont be griefed or ganked by the high level players roaming around near your starting/quest area, a victim of this several times in 4 weeks and a witness to it virtually everyday , eg 4+ level 40+ players attacking 1 lvl 8 player repeatedly isnt fun, i've got no problem with pvp but that sort of inbalance shouldnt be allowed in a game.
Graphically the naval combat is superb and this part of the game i truly did enjoy either on my own or in groups, but the hand to hand / swashbuckling action was dreary and drab and felt like playing a 10yr old console port that still hadn't been finished. Also as stated in other reviews the server populations are completely out of kilter and can result in laggy and poor performance. So i suggest if you want naval combat /pirates and fun buy sid's game , if you want a mmo experience try something else , Guildwars, Eve online, Lord of the Rings online, Age of Conan{in a few months},warhammer online or shudder World of warcraft if your desperate.

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review by: JS date: 2008-03-26 rating:
Be Careful!
I bought this by mistake, not realising it is on line only, this is not obvious in the description and it should be!

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review by: date: 2008-02-21 rating:
Nice graphics but...
Firts things first - I am sailing in this game for 3 weeks now, and must say that I don't like what I have found so far.
First of all - why the hell I have to wait for loading on almost every step? I go to shop - load, I go to magistrate - load etc, etc.
Secondly - AI of all the computer opponents is not very challenging - I can blast to pieces every single NPC at sea in the game. The bigger the ship - the better target (I use Locust corvette atm).
Personally I have lvl 22 Naval Officer and got bored. Here we have the same "class division" kind of MMO. Maybe we do not have priests, mages etc, however you still have ppl who will be boosting your skills etc. Examples? In NO class you can choose skills that improve speed of ALL the ships in the group you joined (sic!). The only question is HOW IT CAN BE????? They prolly cast "speed" or sth.
There are skills that boost armour (once again - don't ask HOW), cannons loading speed (it does not depend on the number of crew or at least not heavily - how 3 sailors can reload a heavy gun - don't ask me). Mass Cure in a barrel of rum (it helps your crew to stand up and fight again - so it's rather a liquid resurrect or something).
The best however is MEND SHIP - you can sail the most heavily battered ship, leaking through the multiple holes, no masts (not to mention sails). Looks bad eh? No worries - use a magic plaster of Cure Ship and after a few seconds you are as good as new. No matter that you have cannonballs raining down on your ship. This magic patch will HEAL your ship. To add insult to injury you dont need to come back to port after a battle. Not only you can repair all the damages while on sea but also your ship will mend miraculously by itself after the end of the battle in less than aa second, after you pass "loading" screen (yes - yet another one). No materials needed. No need to go to the dry dock...

And one more thing - the range of the cannons is ENORMOUS - my 7 lbs cannon can penetrate a frigate hull at the distance of 400 yards...

Fighting on land... best tactics is to... avoid it. Swordplay is simply rubbish. Good idea got wasted by poor animation etc.

One more thing - all fights (both on sea and land) are sort of instance dungeons known since the time of Dark Age of Camelot. You have to endure yet another "loading" screen just to start a fight.

I gave it 2 stars just becouse of the graphics - it looks good, however sometimes it is a bit... strange. For example - storm. When you are on open sea you cannot see any clouds etc - its just nice and clean. When you enter a battle out of a sudden you can read a message about a severe storm in the area. Funny thing is that only sky gets darker. The sea is still surprisingly calm...
I must say that sea battles during the night are fantastic picture. However there are problems - you cannot see that it is a night before you start to fight - I think it is random, as several times I had 2 battles in short sequence and one was a day battle whereas the other was a night one.
All in all - great potential wasted. Steer clear. Thankt to games like PotBS, LOTRO-on line etc I am considering to come back to my old game - Dark Age of Camelot. There is nothing like this one on the market :/


review by: date: 2008-02-20 rating:
OK - But you've played it before!
Lets cut to the chase - if you've ever played a game called "Seadogs" then you've played the land based bit of POTBS (including all the interminable clumping round towns to see people in different shops etc) - and if you've ever played a game called "Age of Sail" - then you've played the sea based bits as well! OK, there's probably more depth to this game ('scuse the pun!) but is it really worth £10 a month? I'm not going to carry on after the "free" 30 day sub runs out. It's inexcusable these days to have so many loading screens etc to get past before you can actually do anything - Sea combat is good (though not particularly challenging - you either beat them or thay beat you - not much room for taking matters into your own hands) The land based missions are awful - the sword fighting is clunky and at least early on, the baddies can kill you very easily - just thru weight of numbers. I'm not that impressed - hoped for much more - now realise how good "Eve Online" is!

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