Puzzle Pirates (2003)

Day #00 — Preparation

We are running a series in parallel to our “new to us” 90s MMORPGs, including any MMORPG and closely-related massively-multiplayer virtual world game released before November 2004. I have experience with a few of these games and for those specific games, I will be focusing on how well the game holds up in it’s current state in 2021. For the games that I have very little or no experience with, I will be approaching it from the perspective of a new player playing in present times.

Many of these games have small but dedicated communities who believe the respective games to be some of the greatest games of all-time. To them, these games are the equivalent to my Asheron’s Call, Star Wars Galaxies, Anarchy Online, and City of Heroes (to use games from the same general time period). I will treat each game fairly and given my extensive experience with classic MMORPGs, the games shouldn’t be too difficult to pick up. I will not be using guides, help from community members, or any outside resources though. I want the entire “drop me into the world and let me learn and fend for myself” experience.

The first pick of this series is an oddity. It’s not really a roleplaying game by any stretch but it is massively-multiplayer. It has player housing, questing, and character customization. It’s a bit of a relic of a different time — of a sub-genre of massively-multiplayer online games (MMOGs) that never really caught on. It’s a shame the massively-multiplayer puzzle game never really caught on but I care very little about what’s popular. It’s time to see if Puzzle Pirates, a 2003 release, holds up well in 2021.

Where to Download

Puzzle Pirates is available on Steam, sitting at 93% recommended. Many of the not recommended reviews are from people who still play the game but have objections to specific publisher decisions. If we are to assume these people enjoy the base game, this means that approximately 19 out of 20 players who reviewed it on Steam enjoy the game. This is relatively rare in the older free-to-play MMO market, given there’s always a subset of people who have an objection to the monetization model or outdated appearance of the game.

Puzzle Pirates is also available directly from it’s website.

Expectations

I have mixed feelings about puzzle games. A well-designed or at least interesting puzzle game is a blast (i.e. Tetris and Boppin’ for the “well-developed” and “interesting” labels respectively). Otherwise, I’m likely to lose interest quite quickly unless I have some sort of nostalgic attachment to it (i.e. Loopz for the NES). I love pirate games but mostly because I enjoy sailing, ship-to-ship combat, and trading, and I’m doubting this game resembles Legends of Pirates Online, Windward, Sid Meier’s Pirates!, or the Uncharted Waters series of games. (I know it doesn’t. I’ve played this game for about 30 minutes before.)

I’m expecting a good change-of-pace game to balance out the other games on my list: a bunch of cryptic 90s MUDs and MMORPGs and barely-alpha indie-developed MMORPGs that probably should have waited another 6 months before releasing to the public. Sometimes different is good, but will it be good enough with Puzzle Pirates? At least it’s not called Puzzle Pirates Online, so I’ll give it credit for omitting the obvious “Online” part to the title.

Check back tomorrow when I set sail and engage in odd puzzle games to help ensure we can win money in an honest fashion so we can work our way up the pirate ranks!