Corsairs are each their own main heroes. Corsairs: Creating a new hero for K:GPK. What's new

The topic of piracy has become quite popular. Its spread was facilitated by the appearance of such paintings and works as “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Treasure Island”. The modern video game industry has spawned a sufficient number of products based on this topic. Among them are:

Assassin's creed IV: Black Flag;
not yet released Skull
fairly new Sea of Thieves;
Raven's Cry;
Tortuga: Pirates of the New World;
never released, but managed to show itself Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned;
Lego game series: Pirates of the Caribbean;
various games based on the films "Pirates of the Caribbean";
Sea Dogs game series.

Of course, this includes FarCry-3. But it demonstrates the modern face of piracy. Or rather, what was left of it. And in this material we will talk about a representative of the Sea dogs series of games. More precisely, a review of the game “Corsairs-3: To Each His Own” will be presented below.

About the game itself

The product was released on December 7, 2012. In Russia, he met under the name "Corsairs: To each his own." And abroad it was called Sea dogs: To each his own. The developer is BlackMark Studio. The publisher was the Akella company. The game was created based on the Storm 2.8-2.9 game engine. From the further review of the game "Corsairs" it will become clear why this is not the best choice for creating a gaming product.

The problem is that because of the old system, a lot of things don't work correctly. And we're not just talking about outdated 2012 graphics. For example, the market in the city is cleared at night, which is a definite plus. But in the morning he will not appear until you leave the location.

The voice acting also suffered. A striking example is leaving prison. You approach the guard so that he opens the door. A dialogue starts. The inscription reads: "You can be free." And at this time you can hear: “Don’t bother me!” Or a conversation with a friend who talks about the area. When discussing any topic with you, he most often yells: “Do you need something? If not, leave!” And all this despite the fact that he approached you himself. By the way, due to outdated graphics, “Corsairs” is absolutely not demanding.

Now it is important to note another detail - the greed of the publisher. The fact is that the game was not conceived as a full-fledged product. It was developed as an unofficial addition to the full-fledged "Corsairs 3: City of Lost Ships" and is based on its mechanics. Nevertheless, the publisher decided to convert the addon into a commercial product. And, starting the review of “Corsairs: To Each His Own,” one cannot help but notice how badly this decision affected the product. But first, a few words about the plot.

Story

It is quite banal, but at the same time it is one of the best parts of the entire game, unlike some others. It is worth noting that three characters were planned here, each with their own storyline. The first we will discuss in “Corsairs: To Each His Own” is character 1. Photos and review are presented below.

So, you have to get used to the role of an aristocratic native of France, Charles de Maura. Its features are quite banal and are often found in plots (the same Infamous: Second son). He is an artist who loves to wander around various exhibitions and ladies, their husbands, in general - a good-for-nothing son, unlike his brother Michel de Montpey, a member of the Order of the Knights of Malta and (SPOILER!) also a deceiver. But that's not the point.

Charles comes to the Caribbean at the call of his brother, who failed a secret operation and is now in prison with the same knights. Michel tells the hero that the family owes the Governor General of the island of Saint-Pierre all the money spent on the business. And this is no less than 1 million pesos.

And now you - “the family’s shame” - must pull out its “pride”. That's what the character briefs for Corsairs: To Each His Own are all about. However, not all so simple. First, you will need a ship, which must be redeemed in three days. Its cost makes the task a little easier - 22,000 pesos, 5,000 of which have already been paid as a deposit. However, another 17,000 pesos must be found. And here you will have to run around, finding out who you can help and how.

It’s worth giving one small hint to help you complete the task without haste. As soon as your brother tells you that he has a ship, start collecting money. And only after that go after the ship. By the way, in addition to these 17 thousand, you will need at least 15 more. After all, recruiting a crew will cost 8,000 (in the tavern you will be offered to hire 40 sailors written off ashore), and they, in turn, will not go on board until the necessary supplies appear there .

But let’s not spoil the plot and just move on to the review of the passage of “Corsairs: To Each His Own.” Or rather, to an analysis of the gameplay features, important details, elements and, of course. defects.

What's new?

New elements include:

Alchemy. You have the opportunity to create various useful belongings yourself. Among them: talismans, potions, cartridges and others.
Changing the characteristics of weapons of the same type. Now the same object can differ in weight, length and curvature. Differences are also observed in such elements as the weight of the handle and the sharpness of the blade. At the same time, the appearance remains unchanged. It is worth noting that now the principle “I use what has the highest attack” does not work. Weapons must be selected depending on preferences and situations.

In the review of Corsairs: To Each His Own, it is worth noting the changes in fencing mechanics. Constant blocking is not as effective as it used to be. Your defenses can be penetrated by both slashing and piercing blows. Therefore, it is necessary to use dodges, parries and feints to successfully finish the fight. Although, who are we trying to fool? Already in one of the first missions you need to fight cannibals in a cave. You just need to stand in the passage and take out enemies one by one using slashing blows. The fencing system may have been improved, but the NPC's intelligence level remained the same.
However, there is a really important thing that should definitely be mentioned when reviewing Corsairs: To Each His Own. This is the ship's control system. In other words, spam the island until the right wind blows. The problem is that now not only the speed and direction of the wind is controlled, but also the level of fullness of the sails. Moreover, their structure plays an extremely important role.

I would also like to give a description of one important situation in the review of “Corsairs: To Each His Own.” Now oblique or straight sails work differently. You can experience all the trouble from this system the first time you go to sea - on a mission about smugglers. Your task is to swim to the beach in the north of the island from 7 pm to 5 am, disembark there and, returning to the ship, cross over to the smugglers' ship. However, the author's first experience showed that the system is merciless. It would seem that from 19.00 to 5.00 there is a carriage. But no.

With a wind of 13 knots, the sails filled only 0.3, which is why the ship practically did not move. As a result, the author swam to the island just at 5 in the morning, observing on the horizon the same “Ghost” (the name of the ship in question), to which it was necessary to moor while the entry in the diary about the failed mission rang. It is worth noting that if you catch the right direction, you can swim to the point by 3 o’clock in the morning. At the same time, without teleporting to the pirate bay and sailing for an hour from it. And since we’re talking about the sea, it’s worth moving on to the review in “Corsairs: To Each His Own.”

Types of water transport in the game

The first thing worth noting is classes. There are six of them in total, and each includes several types of means of transportation on the sea. However, what do these classes mean? Before we begin the review of the ships "Corsairs: To Each His Own", you need to understand this. So, the class of a ship is its ability to work in conjunction with your level of navigation. Each will be listed below:

for 6th grade, level 1 is enough;
5th grade - 25;
4th grade requires 40;
3rd grade - 65;
2nd grade - 80;
and to control a first-class ship, you must have navigation level 95.

We continue our review of “Corsairs: To Each His Own” and tell you in detail about each of them.

Class 1. Meet Such ships are quite difficult. They are also not sold at the shipyard. This includes:

Warship.
Battleships of ranks 1, 2, 3 and standard.

Class 2. Ships also quite rare and not available for sale. Among them:

Merchant ship "Navio". It has a fairly powerful hull and a spacious hold. The sail set is also quite well designed. About 30 large guns are installed on board such a ship, capable of providing protection against attacks by pirates.
A merchant ship of the East India Company. Makes long voyages with a guarded convoy. Some varieties may have many weapons and a large enough hull to be able to swim independently.
Heavy galleon. A military vessel that is used to protect caravans, as well as transport various valuable cargo. Quite slow, but well armed and fortified.
Frigate. Fast, with good weapons. Used for long-range reconnaissance and capture of enemy merchant ships. It can also take part in combat operations with other ships.
Heavy frigate. Used to guard convoys. Also fast and well armed.

Class 3. Here includes simple medium-sized vessels. Among them:

Caravel. It has a rather outdated design. Has a good set of weapons, but is not fast enough to be used in combat.
Pinnace. Common among traders. A fairly large and strong hull allows you to make long voyages and transport a large amount of cargo.
Karakka. A fairly slow ship, equipped with superstructures like towers. The only advantage is the large hold and strong hull.
Galleon. A warship that appeared at the beginning of the 16th century. The basis was karakka. At the moment (the game period is 1645) it continues to be used in combat.
Corvette. A vessel for reconnaissance and cruising operations. Also used for messenger service. Develops high speed and can maneuver extremely well under enemy fire.
Xebec. A ship with a narrow hull and slanting sails. Can reach high speeds (except for tailwinds). Popular among corsairs.
Half acre Somewhat similar to the previous one, but has a different sail set. The mainmast has straight sails. But because of this, maneuverability decreases.

Class 4. Presented the following models:

Trading schooner. A ship with good speed, a spacious hold and a shallow draft. Popular among novice traders.
Military schooner. Fast, well armed and able to maneuver in battle. Can be used for military purposes.
Barquentine. A simplified version of a merchant ship with a mixed sailing system for crews with little experience.
Brigantine. A legendary fast and maneuverable vessel. Popular among pirates and adventurers.
Brig. Actively used in the navy for reconnaissance. Fast and maneuverable.
Shnyava. Like the brigantine, it is the basis for creating a brig, which is practically not inferior in all respects. Popular among traders and smugglers.
Flute ship. An excellent merchant ship (in its class). Nevertheless, it has a modest set of weapons for the sake of spaciousness.

Class 5. Here includes:

Barque. An ideal vessel for long voyages. It has a large hold and good weapons. However, the structural features of the hull do not allow it to develop high speeds.
Sloop. Has the ability to develop high speeds and maneuver. There is a fairly powerful set of weapons on board. Actively used during patrols.
Lugger. A fast, small-sized vessel. Popular among smugglers.
Courier lugger. It has a durable body, strong weapons and is capable of high speed. Used for messenger service.

Class 6. Includes:

Tartan. Used for fishing. The armed vessel is used to patrol the coast.
Longboat. A small boat for traveling between islands.

Types of weapons

Now it’s worth talking about what the player needs to protect himself on land. Weapons are divided into two types: cold steel and firearms. The rarest of them, as well as the frequency of their occurrence in the game, will be discussed below.

Steel arms

Among the rare ones are:

Saxon sword Saxenfeder - when completing the task "Dutch Gambit";
saber Wrath of the Prophet - found when completing the quest "Pirate Saga";
Smallsword shortened sword - from the body of Chad Capper, during the mission "Dutch Gambit";
Mariner's naval rapier - rare, can be found in treasures and chests;
Morgan's flamberge sword - in the quest "Shadows of the Past";
Brett's rapier - from the body of Mary Casper and in the treasures;
Pappenheimer cavalry sword - Thibault's body, Brother Jackman's body, treasures, characters from quests;
dagger Leader's Claw - a gift from Thaddeus;
one-handed spear Naab-Te - from the bodies of the Itza Indians;
Asoled's dueling foil - a prize for finishing first in the "Sailing Regatta";
officer's klewang - the last lesson and quest "Dutch Gambit" (for an English privateer);
sea saber - treasures and quests;
saber Madonna - treasures, lighthouse keepers;
Scimitar blade - chests of ships of classes 1-3;
Storta - quest "Ancient Mayan City" (not always);
tlacomacan - similar to the butt of a musket, from the bodies of the Indians;
katana - captain's chest in the quest "Kaleuche";
ax - treasure, captain Van Berg, Crab Island.

Firearms

Double-shot pistol - quest "Kaleuche".
Blunderbooz - can be obtained for the quest "Turtle Soup".
Arquebus - treasures, chests of captains on quests, from the bodies of musketeers.
Matchlock musket - treasure, chest in the Puebla cabin and on the Santa Lucia galleon.
Naval carbine - quest "Dutch Gambit".
Tower blunderbuss - quest "Shark Hunt".
Screw fitting - quest "Shark Hunt".
Hunting fitting - quest "In search of the guardian of truth."
Sklopetta - quest "Return of the Baron", bodies of musketeers.
Colt revolver - exchanged with a Miskito shaman for a shaman's tambourine.

In the review of the game it is also worth mentioning one interesting quest. Therefore, below will be a brief overview of the “Sailing Regatta” in Corsairs 3: To Each His Own.

Regatta

The essence of the quest is that you need to travel from several islands on a lugger-type ship. The starting and ending point is Port Royal.

The race passes through the following points:

Port Royal;
Belize;
Port-au-Prince;
St. John's;
Bridgetown;
Port Royal.

At each point you must register with the port authority. There will also be various mini-quests in each city. In addition to the main prize, you can win 250,000 pesos. It is possible to bet on the winner.

Awards

First place:

Asoleda blade;
Milanese shell;
compass.

Second place:

blade "Madonna";
sklopetta;
compass.

Third place:

blade "Saxenfeder";
brigant;
compass.

Results

So, you have been presented with an overview of the characteristics of the game "Corsairs: To Each His Own". We hope that after reading it you will not have any problems completing it. Have a good game!

Hello everyone, you are on a blog about fantasy and science fiction! Sometimes there are issues here that are not related to science fiction, but this is not the case. There is plenty of devilry in these “Corsairs”. In all senses.

The game turned out to be made on the engine of the previous corsairs, that is, from the same bearded year. Even then, they were squeezing out of him everything that his senile powers were capable of, so the picture cannot boast of anything new. Except that some splash screens, character models and icons were redrawn. A couple more videos have been added.

However, I’m comfortable enough to play like that.

So, the game. We don't have a choice of characters, you can only play one - a Frenchman named Charles de More. Next, we select parameters, focusing on fencing, handling heavy weapons, pistols and muskets, or trade and oratory. In my opinion, it is better to choose one of the first two options. I settled on rapiers and swords.

Attention! Under no circumstances set the difficulty higher than Level 2! For all but the most hardcore nerds, play on the lowest difficulty setting. Masochists who are confident in their chosenness of God can choose the second difficulty. In different versions of the game, this is either the Boatswain or the Brave Privateer.

The game is incredibly difficult, and if you felt confident on the “Captain” difficulty in “City of Lost Ships,” then set the difficulty to minimum here and put all possible concessions in the menu next to it.

If you played on “Admiral” and it was more or less tolerable for you, then you can risk setting the second difficulty.

If you choose a higher difficulty level, you will quit the game after a few hours, cursing the developers and the whole wide world. I'm serious.

No, you will swear and scream in any case, even on the minimum difficulty, but then at least there will be a chance that you will not quit the game, but will go to the Internet for tips and a manual.

Important! This game must be played exclusively with a detailed manual! This is due not only to the prohibitive complexity of the game, but also to bugs - without knowing where the catch is, you will not have a chance to avoid a fatal bug. I will give a link to one of these at the end of the article.

Okay, difficulty has been selected, everything is set, let's go!

I did this: Z – shot, Q – active action key, C – power strike and parry (instead of the wheel). It's quite convenient to play this way.

First impressions

They're great. We are introduced to the game in detail, led by the hand a little, talking about the buildings and gaming capabilities. It seems that the game is also designed for new players unfamiliar with the previous parts of the franchise. Don't be fooled by this!

The first difficulty is that over the past time I’ve pretty much forgotten the controls in battle, and here no one is in a hurry to explain which keys to press. Therefore, to understand the types of strikes, feints and parries, go either to YouTube or to thematic sites. For those who are familiar with the earlier parts, I will briefly explain the innovations:

1) A new parameter for melee weapons is balance. It is very important, and is closely related to two factors: the type of weapon (rapiers, sabers or broadswords), weight, type of blow.

For a rapier, the ideal balance is 0.0. In this case, lunges (by default, right mouse button) deal maximum damage. Chopping and power strikes are not for light weapons.

Sabers perform well with a balance closer to 1.0. They can chop, stab, and carry out power strikes. The problem is that the saber doesn't do any of this very well. In Corsairs: City of Lost Ships, the saber was the most convenient weapon for me. They're kind of clueless here. I do not advise.

Broadswords and axes. The balance is closer to 2.0. Slashing and power strikes. It hits hard, but consumes a huge amount of stamina.

It was not possible to find out how weight affects damage. Most likely, the same as balance - the greater the weight, the greater the damage of a slashing weapon. In this case, it is better to choose rapiers that are as light as possible.

2) Pistols can now explode when fired. This happened to me with Combat and Dueling pistols. Multi-shot muskets and shotguns did not explode.

3) New types of charges: in addition to bullets, there are shot, harpoons and nails. There is also a hand mortar with grenades.

New is good, but there is a big but. The shot hits only one target, thereby completely devaluing itself. My Combat Buckshot fired shot at the crowd (although if you believe thematic forums, this shouldn’t happen), but the damage there is ridiculous.

The “berserk” skill, which was white in the previous part, was removed. On the one hand, it’s correct - the thing was absolutely cheating, turning any duel into nonsense, but I somehow got used to it. And with her, the local quest duels wouldn’t tear up one place so much.

First quests

The first serious problems you will encounter are in Guadeloupe - when you need to go to Fadey.

Important! Yes, these problems will only appear first if you play according to the manual. Otherwise you will still be stuck in Martinique. Play only according to the manual!

I still don’t understand how Fadey’s quests work. If you take them in the wrong order, you will easily break some scripts, and he will not give you the assignment that your brother talked about.

If you have the patience to deal with all this, then you will have to choose a side - the quest “The Dutch Gambit”.

I played as the Dutch - there are tricky restrictions on level, reputation and skills. The Dutch are unpretentious to this.

To play as England you must be: positive reputation, level below a certain value (it seems to be different in different versions, mine was less than 12th).

Secret organization: negative reputation, all weapons have been upgraded to a certain level (about 30+).

Difficulties await you here. Missions limited in time, mind-blowingly difficult duels and other amenities. But if you have played the previous parts, you will be able to master all this.

And I'll move on to the icing on the cake.

Quests that break the player

This joy is called “Pirate Saga”. This is a global, mandatory and plot-interesting quest. Made by complete sadists.

The first difficulty is that you will need to save one girl - Rumba, aka Helen - in 16 calendar days. This will be at the very beginning of the quest line. And if you fail this rescue, you will fail the entire line.

The first difficulty is that there is not a word about deadlines in the task log.

The second difficulty is that even with a tailwind, you will not have time to sail to Antigua on time. No way.

What to do? Go out to the battle map and sail along it, periodically going out to the global map to check the direction.

How do you like this game design?

There are many more complexities in The Pirate Saga, but I’ll move on to the next extravaganza of the absurd:

Two naval battles in a row. First, you must deal with a corvette and a frigate on a half-acre (3rd class ship). And then, on the same half-acre, board a heavy frigate. And it’s just brutal even on the second difficulty.

Then, in many places, scripts can be broken to hell if you complete quests in the wrong order, and there are many other exciting things.

Impression

Due to the really interesting storyline, I can’t even call it a bad game. I got a huge amount of pleasure from it. Yes, it was a somewhat perverse pleasure, especially until I thought of burying myself in the manual, but still.

Large, varied and interesting plot. This is cool, and great respect to the developers for this.

A good partner is Mary Kasper. But if you don’t play according to the manual in life, you won’t know what to do to get her to join your team. Yes, you may not even meet her. Despite the fact that the location of the Island of Justice is not that big. But confusing...

Ship characteristics have been reworked. Now corvettes are useless troughs. Otherwise, the rebalance is good.

Bottom line

If you are well versed in the game series, then you should arm yourself with a manual and a detailed walkthrough and play “Corsairs: To Each His Own.”

If you are more or less fluent in Corsairs, then you can try your luck on the minimum difficulty. Again with the manual and walkthrough. But be prepared to suffer.

If you haven’t played Corsairs before, then starting with “To Each His Own” is a worse idea. “City of Lost Ships” was once called the most difficult game in the series, and “To Each His Own” was 5 times more difficult...

It’s always like this: a good plot just doesn’t want to get along with good game design. You almost always have to choose one thing, especially in more or less independent projects like this one.

Play at your own risk. I'll finish the game until the end. Now I brought 3 church relics to the inquisitor, and took a long pause to calm my nerves.

The walkthrough I used: Beginning of the Walkthrough. On the same site there are detailed manuals for later quests.

See you soon!

By the way, “The Witcher: Blood and Wine” was declared better than the RPG 2016 🙂 Yeah, an addon. I have it on the site, for those who haven’t played or haven’t seen all the endings, I recommend checking it out. There are also links to 2 other articles on the world of The Witcher.

Recently, Mikhail Naritsa and Maxim Kulakov conducted two streams on the game “Corsairs: City of Lost Ships,” the penultimate part of the cult pirate game series. In this blog I will tell you about the latest installation of the saga - “Corsairs: To each his own!”

For the sake of atmosphere

First, let's take a short historical excursion for those who are unfamiliar with the series. "Corsairs" is an Action/RPG with strategy elements in an open world. The series has five official games, as well as a number of additions.

The first game in the franchise, developed by Akella, was released in 2000 and became a commercially successful project for the Russian company. Moreover, in North America the game was published by Bethesda, and in Europe by UbiSoft, which is very, very commendable. The second game was related to the first Pirates of the Caribbean film and was released in 2003 to lukewarm reviews and comments. The third part was released in 2005 and was almost universally criticized by both critics and players for being buggy and having a weak plot.

Then the series came under the development of the company Seaward, which had previously worked on fan mods for the second and third games. And strange as it may seem, two worthy games came out of the hands of amateurs - “Return of the Legend” and “City of Lost Ships” (both 2007). The latter was a global revision of the previous part and brought the game mechanics to mind. According to the developers' promises, the fourth "Corsairs" was supposed to be a revolution, but the financial crisis and lack of budget buried the project, and it was never released.

In 2012, “Corsairs: To Each His Own!” was released. (KKS for short), developed by BlackMark Studio, which previously worked on fan-made additions. And, in fact, this is the patient of our review and analysis. KKS is a light attempt to rethink the “City of Lost Ships” (CC for short), introducing a number of new features to the basic game mechanics, which will be discussed now.

Gameplay "Corsairs"

The gameplay consists of three modes. The first is land. In it, the hero, under the control of the player, runs through cities, jungles and caves, fights while boarding and plundering colonies. In this mode, the hero explores the land, communicates and fights with non-writings.

The combat system is interesting and challenging. The player can perform different types of melee attacks depending on the situation. Enemies surrounded - a circular strike, the enemy sat in the block - a piercing strike. In addition, the hero can equip firearms - both muskets and pistols. The former are more powerful, but take longer to recharge and are useless in close combat, the latter recharge faster, but are weaker. Recharge is automatic. In addition, the hero can equip amulets that will give bonuses to his skills.

The second stage is tactical. In this mode, the hero controls a ship, participating in naval battles with other ships and forts.

The ships are divided into 7 classes: from the tiny tartan to the giant manowar. Ships have three “health” scales: plating, sails, crew. Damage to the hull will sink faster, damage to the sails will slow it down, and on command will force you to reload guns, control the sails more slowly, and will also reduce the number of fighters during boarding.

The third allied ship is not visible, because God knows where it is due to a bug

Even ships of the same type are not of the same type and may have different characteristics. Among them are guns that differ in type and caliber. The larger the caliber, the greater the damage and weight of the guns; the type affects the range and reloading.

The movement of a ship is affected by the wind; some ships move better with the wind, others perpendicular to it. In calm weather, naturally, everyone swims slowly.

The third mode is strategic, in which the hero travels on a global map, which is a Caribbean archipelago with part of mainland America. The player encounters encounters that are pirates or ships from one of the four nations; in addition, the player can get caught in a storm. If the player enters into a confrontation (both with NPCs and with the elements), he is transferred to the tactical mode, which in turn, in the event of a boarding, goes into the land mode.

Leveling up characters

Characteristics are represented by the PIRATES system: Strength, Perception, Reaction, Leadership, Learning, Endurance, Luck. They affect the character’s skills, giving an increase to certain points. A strong hero hits harder and carries more things; a leader has a better-behaved team and officers.

In this part, the characteristics affect only the initial stages of the game, since it has an extensive plot and does not focus on freeplay. This means that the developers are forcing you to be a terminator, both land and sea. Which in turn gives little space for roleplaying, since the plot is set on rails, which, however, sometimes offer the player a very serious choice.

Abilities are divided into land and sea. The first are responsible for all sorts of increases in stamina and health, are responsible for the ability to handle pistols, and so on. Upgrading ship abilities allows you to open up new opportunities in naval combat. Boarders will allow you to capture ships from a great distance, inflict preliminary damage to the team with a musket salvo, the skills of a carpenter will allow you to effectively repair a ship in battle, and so on on the list.

However, before using ship skills, you need to hire the appropriate officer with the same leveled skill. Have you upgraded your cannon damage bonuses? Be kind enough to appoint a gunner with the appropriate ability to the position. In addition to the gunner, the ship has the following officers: a navigator (speed, maneuvering), a boatswain (boarding), a doctor (protects the crew in battle), a treasurer (trade), a carpenter (repair) and three boarders who accompany the hero on sea and land. Officers can combine up to three positions on a ship with appropriate skill. In addition, the ship can transport passengers and prisoners.

And finally, the hero’s skills. They are also divided into personal and ship. Personal ones are responsible for handling different types of bladed weapons and firearms, and are also represented by secrecy (responsible for successful forays into an enemy fort under a false flag), charisma (reputation and leadership) and luck.

Even with 100% luck, the game trolls you like the first Witcher

The ship's officers are responsible for: navigation (control of ships of different ranks and the ship as a whole), accuracy and guns, boarding, repairs, trade and defense. Skills are upgraded as in the TES series - with practice.

Difficult? Enough. But, like contour maps, it is not as incomprehensible as it seems at first glance.

The player can complete quests, most of which are repetitive tasks. They can be issued by prominent figures of the colony: merchant, moneylender, shipbuilder, port manager, priest, governor. In the city, NPCs may approach you with a request: to transport or accompany you somewhere, to find someone. As a reward, the player receives pesos or doubloons, an increase in skills during the completion of the task. Quests also affect the character's reputation: failed tasks will lower it, which in turn will not allow you to do some things in the game (playing cards with governors, for example), and can also incline officers to mutiny if they have a reputation opposite to the player.

So, the very large introductory part is finally over and we can move directly to “To each his own!” with which this blog began.

I must say that I played the game back in the year it was released, in 2012, and then it was, to put it mildly, a disaster. The developers clearly went too far with the hardcore, and as usual for the KKS series, they had a bunch of bugs at the start. Now it’s 2018, and it would be nice to check not only the presence of qualitative changes in the game (fortunately it is still supported), its strength, but also the series’ compliance with the realities of current game design standards.

KKS is almost no different from GPK in terms of the basic part of the gameplay. All the same three modes, the same Storm Engine, which overclocked the very first part. However, there are still changes.

Craft appeared. The player can make potions and other useful items such as amulets, paper cartridges, and means of determining latitude and longitude. Crafting is simple and quite useless, it does not affect the balance in any way and is used, often only because of the periodic need to determine the location.

And there are probably grenades here too

By the way, about this - new mechanics after all. During quests, sometimes you need to find an island hidden on the global map, or some specific meeting place, which is helped by an astrolabe, compass and chronometer. Such an innovation fits in well, does not cause any particular rage because of its crookedness and, most importantly, looks appropriate and authentic.

They reworked the concept of amulets. In their current form, they do not operate together from the hero's inventory, but only when they are directly equipped on the character. Moreover, their action is limited in time. Again, this is not a serious innovation and does not have a significant impact on the gameplay, because you can do without them. They are rather a small bonus, which is not significant for a pumped-up hero.

But a more or less significant innovation is the new currency in the game - doubloons. They are more expensive than pesos and, unlike them, have weight, so it won’t work to carry thousands of them. The new currency is used mainly in quests and is of little use in freeplay, since pesos are generously poured in both for quests and for boardings. Doubloons, it seems to me, were introduced only for the sake of extra spokes in the player’s wheels. Like many things in this game.

Compared to the GPK, the KKS ship fleet has expanded slightly. New items were added, some colonies came into the possession of another power, and a little more random events and quests appeared. The F2 window has been slightly changed. In short, the developers touched on a little of everything, without touching any vital organs. Almost.

KKS, following the second “Corsairs” (the same as “Pirates of the Caribbean”), made a big story campaign. And it is the main innovation of this part. The main advantage and the main disadvantage at the same time.

Main quest and game problems

Walkthrough of the plot “To each his own!” Taking into account additions, it takes about 70 hours. Not counting saves/louds.

The second half of the 17th century, the heyday of piracy in the Caribbean, the era of a collision with the unknown and not yet known, the struggle of the powers of the Old World for the redistribution of the New. A young nobleman, Charles de More, arrives from Paris to the French colony of Martinique - a typical rake who wasted his life senselessly in high society until he was 25 years old. He was called to America by family duty - it was necessary to rescue his half-brother Michel de Montpey from the French prison in which he was imprisoned for a debt of a million pesos by Governor General Philippe de Poincy.

Naturally, everything will not be so simple, even after the protagonist’s brother is free. But we still have to go before that. The game starts with a fairly detailed introduction, in which you complete simple quests and become familiar with the game mechanics. As a result of the starting tasks, you will have control of a ship, a crew, possibly first officers and, most importantly, experience in doing business in the Caribbean.

Then the macroquest begins, during which the hero actually earns the coveted million pesos in one way or another. This is one of the few tasks in the game that asks you to choose a side in the conflict. In this case it is: Holland, as well as two different options for England. And here both the advantages and disadvantages of putting the plot at the forefront begin to emerge.

As already mentioned, the plot is very large, sometimes it even seems endless. The plot itself does not shine with some kind of genius; the player is more interested in participating in local fights, getting from one adventure to another, which is why a crowd of characters flashes in the narrative, whose names (if not their existence) you will forget when completing the next quest. The tasks, although well-developed, are quite similar. But, it seems to me, this will not stop the Corsairs lover, since the gameplay itself is the same beloved and unique Corsairs.

Sometimes the game wants to fuck you

But what is a problem is the saves/lows mentioned above. I can’t even guess how many times I rebooted in this game, if you believe the statistics at the end of the game - 419, and this doesn’t even count the fact that I had to replay some moments.

If earlier the game had troll encounters and troll storms, then troll wind and troll time were added to them. No, they were also present in the Civil Procedure Code, but here they lead to complete exhaustion.

The game now has an indecently large number of quests that require completion within the allotted time. And everything would be fine, but the wind troll puts the spokes in the sails every time, so failure of quests as a result of being late due to unfavorable wind is a common occurrence. There are often times when you seem to be completing a quest and find out that it has already been failed for a month (in my case it was “The Pirate Saga”) because you were late. And no one tells you that there was any time limit - load an earlier save, start a few hours of the game again.

And no one is stopping developers from increasing the time it takes to complete a quest or one of its stages by several days. No one is stopping you from adding more notes in the ship’s log in the spirit of “we need to hurry.” And in the end, instead of hardcore, this results in nothing more than crooked game design. Something like a lite version of troll games.

We are no longer talking about directly completing quests. The game has an indecently vulgar number of situations like this: the hero is left alone with a crowd of enemies - fight them. And in the end, it’s not interesting, but again crooked and even funny at times, especially if you play with shoot-and-run tactics. The only thing missing is the music from “Benny Hill” or “I Got You Babe” if this episode is replayed several times. Or something more authentic, like a cut of Chuvash anger.

And you think that's all? Damn it, the game can bring surprises, for example, force you to collect some amulets or dueling pistols throughout the archipelago. And if the latter is even more or less excusable (no), then the first is a facepalm. And then they will force you to look for all sorts of plates, large pearls and candles. And yes, all this is not something impossible and hardcore, it is rather infuriating with its absolutely dull and unoriginal routine.

No, I'm serious, clearing locations alone is complete bullshit.

Let's return to the plot, which I will now mercilessly spoil. The fact is that it was interesting for me to go through the main quest as a fan of this series, but as a person interested in all sorts of cinema and other subjects, the game began to disappoint me from the second half.

Why? Because there is no problem or idea in the story. In fact, this is just another game on the theme “the boy was on his way to success,” and that’s all. The change in the main character and the revelation of his inner qualities are shown quite well. That's all. And the story does not have any core around which the game is built. The hero spends more than half of the plot in subplots, solving other people's problems over and over again. Therefore, it turns out that the story is not about two brothers, but about how one of them wandered around the Caribbean for months, so that then the second, with one dialogue, sent him on another voyage.

And besides, after crossing the equator of history, the paranormal actively begins to invade the plot. First we have a terrible curse that keeps the pirate on the ground. The woman herself, naturally, died a long time ago, and now exists in the form of an almost indestructible corpse that revives other skeletons. Is this not enough for you?

How do you like an entire Indian island made up of dead people? Cool? How do you like the fact that the plot descends into Indian game related to the rebirth of gods and time travel? Amazing? Of course, this is so consistent with the spirit of pirate adventures, which are made quite realistically, and most importantly, presented with a serious tone.

And as a result, as I progress through the story, I have a double feeling. It seemed like it was not bad, and it was quite exciting to go through all this; I was pleased with the rare opportunity to have different options for completing the quest. But the crookedness of the game design and the occasional wildness in the plot make the gameplay almost unbearable at times. The main distinguishing feature of the game turns out to be its weakest feature.

What besides the plot? Yes, the same endless “corsair” freeplay, in which the player entertains himself, and which I have already written about in sufficient detail above. By the way, the developers decided to get rid of the national quest lines due to the vastness of the plot.

DLC for the game cannot offer anything significantly new - they are macro-quests for several hours of playthrough, with all the disadvantages and all the advantages of the main game. It makes no sense to talk about them in more detail, and it seems to me unnecessary.

Results

These are the elaborate, contradictory, complex, crooked and unique “Corsairs” they are. What can you say about “To Each His Own”? We can say that the mechanics of the game in 2018, although they still look fresh and interesting, reek of the budget game development of the early 2000s. By the standards of the series, the gameplay was, in general, the same as in 2003 and 2007, and it remains the same. And for a modern gamer, this is, by and large, a death sentence, because KKS does not forgive the player at all. And some old people or even those who have played before may simply get tired of playing the same thing.

The immortal Storm Engine produces graphics that are, by and large, ten years old (at the time the game was released), periodically bugs in such a way that it can ruin the save or crash, and is also not friendly with minimizing; and I’m not even talking about the periodic appearance of crooked scripts, when something didn’t happen as it should, and in the end you can’t leave the location because everything is locked. And, of course, we should not forget that the dialogues are not voiced, and the gameplay sometimes amounts to ten minutes of reading the text at the bottom of the screen, and even if there is no voice acting, then what can we say about the production.

The plot, which started out sounding good with realism, slipped into a paranormal shambles, which, to be honest, was not very fun to go through in the finale due to hackneyed techniques in the spirit of the same crowd of enemies for one player. However, this is still a good adventure that will captivate a fan of such games for dozens of hours.

"To each his own!" can offer the same unique pirate experience that no other game has been able to provide so far. “Pirates” by Sid Meier and AC IV: Black Flag are light arcade games, in comparison with which any part of “Corsairs” seems like a real simulator of the life of a sea wolf.

Therefore, I would advise doing this. For beginners and those unfamiliar with the series, I advise you to completely forget about the plot in the first playthrough and engage exclusively in freeplay. And only then, having gained experience, begin the plot. I wouldn’t advise old-timers to hope for some kind of revelation, but I would recommend playing it in view of the fact that there is simply nothing like it on the market - and this game, with all its ambiguity, is capable of satisfying a feeling of nostalgia and giving at least something new.

And the best “Corsairs” are still “The City of Lost Ships”.