"Sid Meier's Pirates!" is a modernized 2004 update of the classic PC "Pirates!" game originally released in 1987, which was a quasi-historic (yet very fun) simulation/adventure game based on the lifestyles of either pirates, privateers, or pirate-hunters in the 16th to 18th centuries.
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| A dashing high-seas pacifist run trader prepares to bolt like a rabbit before incurring any kills... |
It sounds like some crucial pacifist-friendly improvements have been made to the 2004 remake, in addition to the new high-resolution graphics: The Wikipedia article states that, unlike in the original Pirates!
games, "...enemy ships cannot force the player to fight, although they
can bombard the player's ships en route to a destination and even sink
some (but not all) of the player's ships if they bombard them long
enough."
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| Nostalgic 1990s screenshot of the captain's cabin from the DOS/PC "Pirates! Gold" |
The game also has some other promising features, such as the ability to sneak into port town's where the character is unpopular without fighting, and (far better still) the ability to dig up and steal buried pirate treasure hoards of numerous historic pirates, including Blackbeard, Jack Rackham, Henry Morgan, and others...
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| A scenic (even if desolate) pirate haven town from "Sid Meier's Pirates!" |
Digging up the buried treasure hoards of pirates who are still alive will apparently cause each of these legendary piratic personalities to chase
the player around trying to kill them to reclaim the treasure, but that's
nothing new in the life of the profit-motivated pacifist challenge
campaigner...
Optimistically, it sounds like the game might be open-ended enough to avoid ever being forced to bump anyone off or use violence, and focus on trading and stealing buried treasure from pirates.
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| My opponent looks like he's off balance... time to run away as fast as possible and go dig up some more buried treasure... |
