Need Help Need someone familiar with all of Akella's pirate games

[felipepepe]

Hello everyone,

My name is Felipe, I'm the editor of the CRPG Book Project, a free, crowd-sourced book on the history of Computer RPGs. We just published our first release, which got a lot of praise in the media: https://kotaku.com/massive-book-about-history-of-pc-rpgs-is-out-now-for-fr-1822796892

We're now expanding the book with a few games we missed, and we would love to have a review of Akella's Storm Engine games. Something around 800-1000 words, giving the story of the series, its highlights and a primer on which game & mod newcomers should play.

Something like this:

Spoiler

Is there anyone here who knows about the entire series and would like to write this article?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@felipepepe: Wished I could help, but I've got no time to spare.
Short summary is that there were these games in the series that I know of:
1 - Sea Dogs (video game) - Wikipedia - 2000, made by Akella
2 - Pirates of the Caribbean (video game) - Wikipedia - 2003, made by Akella (originally developed as "Sea Dogs 2" before being commandeered by Disney)
3 - Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales - Wikipedia - 2006, made by Akella
4 - Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships - Wikipedia - 2009, made by seaward.ru
5 - Sea Dogs: To Each His Own - Pirate Open World RPG on Steam - 2012, made by Blackmark Studios

All games are based on the "Storm" engine.
#1 was based on "Storm 1", which I think was nearly completely rewritten for "Storm 2" used in #2.
#3 had some slight updates as "Storm 2.5", then more updates followed for "Storm 2.8" in #4.
#5 has a further updated version, but I don't know the number.

All except #2 were rebranded as games in the "Sea Dogs" series not too long ago.
#5 doesn't seem to have a Wikipedia listing for some reason.

There were several Russian-only titles in the series, but I'm not very familiar with those.
I think there was a "Dead Man's Chest" one that has no relation with the PotC film series.

As for "which game to play", that is very much up to personal preference. From what I understand, all games in the series are worthwhile in one way or another.
As for which mod, that's both confusing and sometimes controversial. I tried to make a short summary in the past here:
Need Help - Landlubber's guide to games and mods?

Hopefully the above can at least get you started. And maybe somebody else will be willing to pitch in at some point with further details.

 

[felipepepe]

Just an update, I managed to find help and finish the review:

 

[LarryHookins]

Good write-up. Thanks.

 

[Cerez]

Looks purrty. :3

(Man, am I in love with this game!)

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Glad to see you got some assistance, @felipepepe!

Just in case it hasn't been published yet, here are some quick comments:
- Is that large "Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales" text the title of the article? Technically that is only the title of one of the games in the series.
- Akella didn't really "take advantage" of the PotC film name, because the 2003 game was officially licensed.
I'm not sure what actually happened, but from what I understand, Disney needed a movie tie-in and commandeered the "Sea Dogs 2" game that was in development at the time.
- Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships is technically also a "professionally made mod", just like "Sea Dogs: To Each His Own".

But those are all just tiny nit-picks and can easily be ignored.
Altogether, as @LarryHookins says, it looks like a pretty great write-up. Congratulations and thanks for sharing it!

 

[Cerez]

Is that large "Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales" text the title of the article? Technically that is only the title of one of the games in the series.

Furthermore, "Age of Pirates" is no longer officially a title for any game in the series, as the developer and publisher have reverted back to the original title of the series: "Sea Dogs". The switch to "Age of Pirates" was made due to complicated licensing issues at the time.

The (English language) game titles (in order of release) now stand as:
Sea Dogs
Pirates of the Caribbean
Sea Dogs: Caribbean Tales -- (Formerly known as "Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales")
Sea Dogs: City of Abandoned Ships -- (Formerly known as "Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships")
Sea Dogs: To Each His Own

The first three are Akella originals (with Disney executives butting into POTC's development), and the last two are official releases made by other developers, who built upon Akella's last release: Caribbean Tales.

Confusingly, in Russia the series is titled "Corsairs" instead of "Sea Dogs", which makes me think of Corsairs Gold, which was released just a year before the original Sea Dogs and is NOT an Akella game.