By Brad Cook
Drinkin. Sword-fightin. Pillagin. Aye, the pirates life be full of adventure, and now ye can partake in it when ye play Three Rings Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates.
It be a good game, but there be a catch, as it were: ye must be good at puzzle games, ones like Bejeweled & Alchemy and Super Collapse! 3. And if ye aint no good at em, ye may find yerself in Davy Joness locker fore long.
And if ye still think the pirates life is the one, remember this fore ye go on the account: buccaneers enjoy plenty o drinkin an sword-fightin, and yell need to do both in Puzzle Pirates. Aye, they be puzzles too, but they require ye to think smartly an keep a finger on yer mouse button.
Playin at the Pirate Life
We calls this one an online multiplayer role-playing game, which means ye pretend to be a pirate. No need to actually dress as one and parade around yer house, makin yer mates think yer daft. Ye simply creates a piratey character an gives him a good name, like Scurvy Dog or Black Jack. Aye, or Sally o the Seven Seas, if yer into that sort o thing. Personally, I prefers to be known as Scallywag.
At any rate, ye makes yer pirate (one of three ye can create) and sets off to Guava Island, where yell find other players who can join yer list of hearties, or buckos. Friends, I thinks yer word is. So ye can chat with yer hearties or even challenge them to swordfightin or drinkin duels. Aye, these be puzzles too.
What ye really wants to do, though, is stop bein a landlubber and join a ships crew. There yell be put to work pumpin out bilge water or fixin up holes in the hull, all for a few pieces o eight, which be Puzzle Pirates money. Aye, those tasks be puzzles, as are the swordfights that happen when one vessel attacks another and come close enough for hand-to-hand fightin. If ye win, ye plunder the other crews booty. Not all ships be equal, though, so dont go round pickin fights with just anyone.
Buildin Yer Fortune
Once ye earn enough pieces o eight, ye can buy better swords an clothes an even build yer own ship. Then ye can hire yer own crew and call the shots as ye sail the high seas. Theres nothin like hangin up the Jolly Roger and commandin yer own destiny, I tells ye.
Aye, theres plenty for landlubbers to do too. Ye can work in a shop, or open one yerself, and put yer puzzle skills to work. The faster ye are at a puzzle, the faster ye can create products for sale. All this drives an in-game economy that me simple mind dont quite get. I knows, though, that worker and supply shortages can drive up prices and make yer buckos wait longer for their stuff. Ye dont want that to happen, so ye need to make sure ye have enough landlubbers on hand to do the work.
Or if ye enjoy makin yer own way, there be plenty of unsettled islands to explore and claim for yerself. Maybe ye might make it a veritable pirate paradise, a place for buccaneer bacchanals, if ye will. Ye should also be on the lookout fer NPPs that be non-playable pirates who might offer ye quests and other missions, or even secrets. Ye wont rightly know what to expect every time ye logs on; th world o Puzzle Pirates be a vast one.
Ah, but that be the true pleasure of the pirates life: settin sail for adventures beyond yer wildest imaginin. There be nothin like it.