Be as evil or as noble as you wish while sailing across the seas in Choice of the Pirate!

As a writer, it’s natural that words would grab at my attention and spark my imagination a thousand times more vividly than any picture would.  So when I discovered a game that appealed to my pirate fandom as well as my artistic side, I was already hooked before I even started playing. I’m talking about Choice of the Pirate.

Reminiscent of those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books I was so fond of as a teenager, this game is a text adventure. There are no images at all — you’ll have to use your love of the written word and your imagination to go through this adventure.

Thankfully, the writing in this game is very immersive. I was engrossed by the descriptions of the various scenes. The settings are vivid and very typical of the imaginary pirate’s life. You really feel as if you are there, inside the story. The choices are yours to make and the adventure unfolds based on your decisions.

You go through quite a few pages of interesting background building before the game inquires about your gender and name at all. Why not get a better feel of the story before adding yourself to it? I ended up molding my story a bit on the dark side.  I wasn’t going to be a goodie-two-shoes with a perfectly acceptable background story.  I’m a pirate, after all!

Right as you start the game, you realize that you are in the eye of the storm: two rivals vessels are dueling. Their captains are about to be at each other’s’ throats. You’re serving as crew member for one of them, but this isn’t where your ambition stops.  However, we are in the here and now and you will have to make some important decisions through this battle.  Are you faithful to your Captain, or do you cheer for the other team?

I fear I’m repeating myself, but you will have many choices to make through the game and they may not always align with your moral compass at first. You will need to deal with the immediate, and sometimes delayed, consequences of your decisions throughout your adventures.

I found the game was absorbing all my attention. It reads like a novel where you can actually take the actions you would like the hero to take, so it has a very intimate aspect.  I feel connected to Choice of the Pirate, as if I was truly a part of the story.

If you are a fan of the genre, or simply curious, you’d do well to entertain yourself with this title.