You see, this game has had quite the troubled development cycle.
This game began development, in 2003, and has had quite the journey since then, being shown on E3 2004, and then being restarted from scratch, because they wanted the game to be more mature.
Yet, the project was shelved, until it was restarted in 2006 and it was set to be released that same year, but, due to some legal shenanigans between publishers regarding who owns the IP, the game couldn’t be released, and, was delayed, 4 years passed and nothing, then the one who managed to win that legal battle, went bankrupt in 2010, and the game was canceled.
But, in 2020, some of the devs managed to get the rights of the game, and decided that it was time to finish it, once and for all, with the game now finally getting its commercial release, after many delays and coming back from the dead.
So here we are, no crashes, but I did notice a few bugs, nothing game breaking, mostly funny.
And, let’s get on with it, shall we?
Story & Setting
Its the 17th century, the Golden Age of Piracy, many British sailors have come to The New World, flying the black flag, wanting to hit it big, and earn enough booty to be set for life.
Among them, Captain Blood and his crew. He has it on good authority, that a war between England and Spain is on the horizon, knowing that war is good for business, he waits for the perfect opportunity, to offer his services of course.
And, wouldn’t you know it, while he was hanging out in Port Royale, the Spaniards had decided to invade, so, might as well give everyone a little show of what him and his crew are made of.
Thanks to his display of bravery, and badassery, he catches the attention of important people, and his first gig comes knocking right in the morning.
The job is simple, rescue the daughter of an important pencil pusher, he will reward handsomely.
So, off they go, Captain Blood and the boys set sail to a new adventure.
Among them, Captain Blood and his crew. He has it on good authority, that a war between England and Spain is on the horizon, knowing that war is good for business, he waits for the perfect opportunity, to offer his services of course.
And, wouldn’t you know it, while he was hanging out in Port Royale, the Spaniards had decided to invade, so, might as well give everyone a little show of what him and his crew are made of.
Thanks to his display of bravery, and badassery, he catches the attention of important people, and his first gig comes knocking right in the morning.
The job is simple, rescue the daughter of an important pencil pusher, he will reward handsomely.
So, off they go, Captain Blood and the boys set sail to a new adventure.
Presentation
For good and for ill, the game looks and plays like it was released during the Seventh Generation of consoles, if it came out back then, it would have been called a God of War clone.
Artstyle wise, the game goes for a cartoony approach, with exaggerated features for most characters.
Enemies wise, you will be fighting either Spaniards, or Pirates, they share enemy types, but, aesthetically, they look quite different from each other.
Spaniards have the late game enemies however, while pirates just get variations of the basic types.
Each type of enemy, stands out quite well, making it easier for you to prioritize, and, armor isn’t just for show, it does make enemies tankier, but you can destroy it as you fight them.
For locales, we have a few ports, some high seas battles, islands with ruins and shipwrecks, a city, and forts, pretty much what you would expect from a pirate game, all of them look pretty good, and even have secret passages for you to explore and find treasure. Although historically accurate they ain’t.
Artstyle wise, the game goes for a cartoony approach, with exaggerated features for most characters.
Enemies wise, you will be fighting either Spaniards, or Pirates, they share enemy types, but, aesthetically, they look quite different from each other.
Spaniards have the late game enemies however, while pirates just get variations of the basic types.
Each type of enemy, stands out quite well, making it easier for you to prioritize, and, armor isn’t just for show, it does make enemies tankier, but you can destroy it as you fight them.
For locales, we have a few ports, some high seas battles, islands with ruins and shipwrecks, a city, and forts, pretty much what you would expect from a pirate game, all of them look pretty good, and even have secret passages for you to explore and find treasure. Although historically accurate they ain’t.
There are some really cool set pieces, but, there are also some which overstay their welcome, mostly when it involves bosses.
All bosses are their own thing, with their own gimmicks, although their arenas and fighting styles could be better.
Traps get some visual tells, so the attentive player can easily dodge them.
Enemies have tells for their attacks, but most are quite quick so you need to have good reflexes, and their attacks do have different animations.
There is quite a lot of cartoon gore, with dismemberment, and rotting corpses, and cool execution moves.
Regarding the level design, in some of the later levels, its a little difficult to tell which path is hard progress, and which path is the treasure side path, its not really a problem, but if you are OCD about it, it could be.
Sound wise, the most memorable music track, is a little track which resembles the theme from Pirates of The Caribbean, its close enough that you can tell is a homage, and distinct enough so the Mouse’s Legal Team doesn’t get ideas.
For most of the game, its either ambiance, or that music track, there isn’t much variety.
But, when it comes to voice acting, its very quiet, so make sure to turn on subtitles before you start playing, as you can’t do it in the middle of the game for some reason, only the main menu.
The voice acting itself, it isn’t stellar, but it gets the job done, enough to get the plot going, and it has some charm in its quirkiness.
All enemies have their own quirks, both in animation and in voice acting, which adds to the charm, there is a lot of personality in the models, animations, and voices, which is something I quite enjoy.
I did notice some little hiccups with the hair physics, which made me chuckle each time.
And, the lipsyncing does have its hiccups as well.
Mechanics
Its a simple hack-and-slash, it doesn’t do anything crazy, as I said in the previous section, looks and plays like it was released during the Seventh Generation of consoles.
For some reason, there is no camera control, it just moves automatically, or to preset camera angles, yes it can be a problem in some areas.
For combat, you got quick attack, and heavy attack, you make combos by mixing them up, nothing too complex, longest strings are 5 hits.
But, you first have to buy the combos in the shop, with the gold you earn by killing enemies, or from finding treasure, more on the shop later.
Then there is block, and dodge, unblockable attacks have a yellow glow, and yes you can block bullets, bear in mind, that the dodge doesn’t give you iframes.
To finalize your kit, you got a firearm, and bombs, your firearm is really good for crowd control, and for giving you breathing room, it slowly recharges after you use it, as for bombs, they are more of a “to whom it may concern” affair, good damage if you manage to land them, bombs are consumables tho, and you can get some charges from treasure chests, but not all treasure chest give them.
The shop, is where you upgrade yourself, and get new combos, once you get the combos, you can upgrade them for more damage. You can access the shop, from both the pause menu, and at the end of levels.
Upgrades for yourself include increasing max health, shooting more bullets and making your gun recharge faster, and have more bombs.
Then, there is the execution moves, once an enemy is weakened enough, you see a skull icon above them, that’s when you execute them, when you grab the enemy (minus some exceptions), you get to pick from your unlocked moves, you start the game with the basic one, which just kills them, but you can unlock a move which builds meter, a move which lets you steal their weapon, and a move which gives you more money when you kill them.
The basic execution, and the steal weapon execution, have different animations, depending on enemy. They are delightfully over the top.
Execution moves are purchased in the shop as well.
The weakest of the enemies, can be executed right away, and they have similar animations, and, the strongest of the enemies have their own special execution move, which involves QTEs.
For some reason, there is no camera control, it just moves automatically, or to preset camera angles, yes it can be a problem in some areas.
For combat, you got quick attack, and heavy attack, you make combos by mixing them up, nothing too complex, longest strings are 5 hits.
But, you first have to buy the combos in the shop, with the gold you earn by killing enemies, or from finding treasure, more on the shop later.
Then there is block, and dodge, unblockable attacks have a yellow glow, and yes you can block bullets, bear in mind, that the dodge doesn’t give you iframes.
To finalize your kit, you got a firearm, and bombs, your firearm is really good for crowd control, and for giving you breathing room, it slowly recharges after you use it, as for bombs, they are more of a “to whom it may concern” affair, good damage if you manage to land them, bombs are consumables tho, and you can get some charges from treasure chests, but not all treasure chest give them.
The shop, is where you upgrade yourself, and get new combos, once you get the combos, you can upgrade them for more damage. You can access the shop, from both the pause menu, and at the end of levels.
Upgrades for yourself include increasing max health, shooting more bullets and making your gun recharge faster, and have more bombs.
Then, there is the execution moves, once an enemy is weakened enough, you see a skull icon above them, that’s when you execute them, when you grab the enemy (minus some exceptions), you get to pick from your unlocked moves, you start the game with the basic one, which just kills them, but you can unlock a move which builds meter, a move which lets you steal their weapon, and a move which gives you more money when you kill them.
The basic execution, and the steal weapon execution, have different animations, depending on enemy. They are delightfully over the top.
Execution moves are purchased in the shop as well.
The weakest of the enemies, can be executed right away, and they have similar animations, and, the strongest of the enemies have their own special execution move, which involves QTEs.
Now, meter, in this game, as you do executions, you build rage, it doesn’t do much, when you use it, it damages enemies around you on wake up, and it makes you invulnerable for as long as you have meter, it gets consumed pretty quickly, but, its also recharged pretty quickly (if you get the execution move).
As for weapons, when enemies die, there is a chance their weapon doesn’t break, you can use that weapon, you get it automatically if you use the steal weapon execute. Weapons have their own combos, and have different attributes, the catch is tho, that they break, I recommend stealing muskets and pistols, if you see the two-handed sword, get it ASAP, they are the best, also, steal the bomb from the dwarves, is hilarious.
The game has QTEs, either in cutscenes, to make sure you are paying attention, or in execution moves, they are quite merciful for the most part, although most bosses are beaten through QTEs. Thankfully my Virtua Fighter reflexes didn’t fail me.
For ship combat, you get to walk around your ship and control the cannons, all you gotta do, is to sink the enemy ships, they are a bit tanky, and you can slow them by destroying their sails, do be careful, as they send boarding parties your way, you can destroy those ships too, but, if they get to your ship, you gotta fight enemies. The First Mate will be telling you in which direction enemies are coming from.
For healing, you recover naturally about ¼ of your health when not attacked, but, to recover all, you need to find healing potion, either dropped from enemies, crates, or treasure chests.
Oh yeah, you can pick up and throw boxes and barrels.
Sometimes, you get your crew fighting along side you, they usually stay out of the way, and are good at getting enemies off your hair.
There is also a moment, in which you get to play as the First Mate, he doesn’t have much of a kit, but its pretty cool.
And, that’s most of the core gameplay, I must add, that the game is quite short.
Final Thoughts
This game is an interesting beast, it doesn’t do anything out of the norm, its very similar to God of War, its story is just an excuse to look cool and change locale.
Yet, I had a blast playing through it.
The devs decided to disregard updating it for modern audiences, it has all the quirks a game of its genre had in the Seventh Generation, and, I don’t see anything wrong with that, the devs wanted to have the original vision, warts and all, and they stuck to their guns, even though the game will pretty much not do well with anyone younger than 20.
Still, the game has personality, sure the combat can get samey, there are sections which overstay their welcome, and there are some bugs, its rough around the edges, but its still a fun game.
There are quite a few references to other games, and to Pirates of the Caribbean, it was fun looking for them.
Anyway, thank you for reading, and I hope you give the game a chance if it seems like something you would enjoy.
Yet, I had a blast playing through it.
The devs decided to disregard updating it for modern audiences, it has all the quirks a game of its genre had in the Seventh Generation, and, I don’t see anything wrong with that, the devs wanted to have the original vision, warts and all, and they stuck to their guns, even though the game will pretty much not do well with anyone younger than 20.
Still, the game has personality, sure the combat can get samey, there are sections which overstay their welcome, and there are some bugs, its rough around the edges, but its still a fun game.
There are quite a few references to other games, and to Pirates of the Caribbean, it was fun looking for them.
Anyway, thank you for reading, and I hope you give the game a chance if it seems like something you would enjoy.
Pros
- + Models and characters filled with personality.
- + Follows the rule of cool.
- + Simple and very fun core.
Cons
- - Paper thin story.
- - Bad sound mixing.
- - Gets repetitive near the end.
8
Gameplay
If it ain't broken, don't fix it, there is a reason this genre was so popular in its time, its a simple game with simple mechanics, you just focus on having fun and getting good.
8
Graphics
There is a lot of charm and personality in the game, as well as a very good variation and tells to help the player understand, and prioritize threats, besides some hiccups, its pretty good overall.
6
Story
Its there, that's it, it gives an excuse as to why we are doing what we are doing, it doesn't need to be complex, but it would have been nice to have something to get invested on.
6
Sound
There isn't that much music, and the sound mixing for voices is pretty bad, as for the rest, its pretty decent at what it does.
2
Replayability
There is no reason to really replay it, as most playthroughs won't vary that much, its at the player's discretion.
7.5
out of 10
Overall
Captain Blood its a relic from a time long gone, it never had the chance to truly shine in the glory days, and it has now made its triumphant escape of Development Hell, it doesn't do anything in terms of innovation, nor does it twist the genre in a very unique way, its a simple game, from a simpler time, wanna turn off your brain and just chill while watching copious amounts of cartoon violence? Then, this is your game, wanna have some quick and fun game in a slow afternoon? Then, this is your game. Since you are in this site, I am sure that mechanics being outdated is the least of your worries anyway.
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