Menu

«Previous post | Next post»

It´s been a really long time since I played “The Last Ninja“, “Skate or Die” and “Ghostbusters” on the C64 (probably about 15 years, or more). Even so, I still recognized those games in Baby Duka´s turn-based 2D urban crime simulator “Urban Pirate” (I could also throw in “Pizza Tyccon 1” into the mix for sure). However, “Urban Pirate” has its own set of unique features. Just take the fact that the whole game is one big society satire (the whole part about quitting your slave job, the corrupt politicians and the never ending battle against the system). And since you (the player) quit your job and decided to become a full-time Urban Pirate, you have to fight for survival on a daily basis.

Sheep Island will offer all that and more (like tons of drugs, for example).

And that includes everything from stealing food from your local grocery store (to avoid starvation), smoking weed (which you do in-order to stay happy), avoid the police (and security), socializing and taking black market jobs (none taxpaying jobs). That´s just the half of it though, because due to the fact that “Urban Pirate” is a turn-based game. You have to keep a close eye on your mental health (if you go insane you lose), food level (if you starve for too long, then you will die) and how much money you got (you need money in-order to buy weed and other things). Because each time you push the space button (that´s how you end one turn in “Urban Pirate”), you will lose one mental health and food point. It´s also very important to think through what you should do during each turn, because you can just do ONE thing per turn (steal food, buy weed etc.).

You better not get caught by the police (or the stores security staff), or else you might end up in jail.

So, yes. You guessed it. You have to juggle your food stealing, weed smoking and “avoiding the long arm of the law” skills every single day. And that´s of course easier said than done. Sure, the very first levels and challenges are rather easy. However, that will change as soon as you reach level 5 though, because then you have to survive for 23 days (each turn = 1 day, so you have to stay alive for 23 turns). Not only that, the city map will be crawling with cop cars as well. And your workplace will be raided much more frequently too. And as long as the cops are raiding your employer, you can´t work. And no work = No money, and no money = No more weed for you.

And each time you get caught by either the police or the grocery store security. You will be fined and punished (if get caught stealing repeatedly, then you will eventually end up in jail. Unless you can pay for your fines that is). I should also point out that it´s enough that you accidentally bump into a police car on the city map, because that will result in having the cops stealing all your weed (you will also get a beating while they´re at it). Furthermore, you will lose one mental health and food point in the process as well. In other words, avoid cops at all costs!

Sooner or later, you will have to fight the police heads on in “Urban Pirate”.

There is also a handful of quests that must be completed for each level that you pick (you finish the quests by beating different kinds of mini-games). And the quests get more difficult for each level that you finish in “Urban Pirate” (that should keep you occupied for a while). Don´t get me wrong now, “Urban Pirate” is a really neat and fun turn-based 2D urban crime simulator. However, the alpha demo did suffer from some bugs. And the keyboard controls are pretty sloppy during quests (especially when you try to jump over objects while running away from the cops). I also find the game to be somewhat repetitive (some random encounters, missions and more stuff to do would be nice).

Even so. I still think that “Urban Pirate” is worthy of your time, but if you´re not quite sure if this is your kind of game or not. Then simply download and play the free demo for Windows, MAC or Linux =) Or you could just watch my “Urban Pirate” gameplay video down below 😉

Pros:
+ Nice retro graphics
+ The comedy value is top-notch
+ Plenty of mini games

Cons:
– Too much repetitive gameplay
– The controls lives a life of it own at times
– Bugs (sometimes the cops will never stop raiding your workplace)