*Sigh* After the wildly successful revamp and popularity of pirates with Disney’s run-away hit, Pirates of the Caribbean, it seems that more than a few game companies are taking notice and trying to leech off their success. Unfortunately, Tortuga didn’t leech much of the positive aspects of the craze. From its extremely linear gameplay to its unrefined hand-to-hand combat, the only thing that keeps this game from sinking completely is its naval battles.

You play as Thomas "Hawk" Blythe, a puppet for Blackbeard in which your orders are to hunt for and collect the long lost treasure of Henry Morgan. The story kicks off with a voodoo “friend” of yours that senses strong powers and destiny with an amulet that hangs around your neck. The CG animation is rough because there are games out there that look as good as these do… but in real time. You won’t really have to worry about that, though, because you will be easily distracted by the awkward voice acting. I say awkward because it’s not like the dialogue is horribly written, it’s just when you see these characters speak their voices just don’t match their looks. For example, Blackbeard isn’t a rough, growling, or menacing voice, he sounds more like an ice-cream truck driver. But I digress…

If you are familiar with pirate games you will instantly recognize the ship battles are directly modeled after Sid Meier’s Pirates! with the addition of raising and lowering your sails. This is by far the most fun aspect of the game and though it lacks variety, it is done fairly well. The basic strategy of gameplay is taking your ship and sailing circles around the enemy’s while shooting cannonballs at them. If it sounds simplistic, it’s because it is. What the game truly lacks is an open-ended exploration. Tortuga pushes you from one mission to the next without giving you an opportunity to freely explore and travel the world.

The last and yes, least big part of the game is hand-to-hand combat. Tortuga allows you to hack and slash your enemies with button smashing madness. And although I’m very glad to see them try this, it didn’t pay off well. Hawk just repeats the same slash over and over until your enemy falls down. And the battles themselves go from extremely easy to being ridiculously hard for no apparent reason what-so-ever.

Tortuga is certainly not a treasure and you would have to be a die-hard pirate lover to really get some enjoyment out of this one. It’s not a horrible game, but its flaws far outweigh the positives. My best advice is to leave this one at the bottom of the sea…

Gameplay: 6.0
Sea battles are the only thing keeping this one afloat. Bad hand-to-hand combat, pacing, and very linear gameplay.

Graphics: 7.0
While on the ocean, the sea looks good, everywhere else consists of flat textures and blocky animation.

Sound: 7.0
Good music, but very uninspired and awkward voice acting.

Difficulty: Medium
It jumps from being very easy to extremely difficult quite frequently.

Concept: 8.0
I’m glad somebody else tried to improve on Sid Meier’s Pirates!, but Ascaron bit off a bit more than I think they could chew.

Overall: 6.0
Tortuga has only one shining stone in the chest: sea battles. Unfortunately the rest of the game pulls it down.