Pirate's Plunder!

I like easy puzzles … the kind where you poke at them a bit, feel confused for about fifteen seconds, remember to examine something obvious, and go aha! – then move along to the next one. Every puzzle in Pirate’s Plunder is exactly like that, and that makes me a happy little buccaneer. If you’re seeking challenging lateral thinking, Loot Island is not your vacation destination this year.

Pirate’s Plunder has character … arguably, a few-dozen ye’s, thars and harr’s too much character. Despite my sincere childish love of things cheesy and piratical (and this glass house I’m standing in, with rock in hand), I admit the game gave me a fight-or-flight response with the first few paragraphs. I decided to stick with it, and was rewarded … after awhile, I absorbed the intense barrage of faux-nautical lingo, and it felt just fine.

There are a few issues that make the game feel unpolished. Descriptions never seem to change, even when I’ve taken specific and game-meaningful action to change the thing described, resulting in some moments of confusion. The game’s determination to help the player along is similarly immune to the passage of time and event, and helpful suggestions to do something you’ve already done are pretty common. I also ran afoul of one colossal (though not actually game-breaking) bug, which led me to worry for a bit that I’d need to start over: (Spoiler - click to show)you must deal with an old nemesis, "summoned" by digging where X marks the spot ... but even once you've gotten rid of him, you can seem to summon him right back again if you repeat the DIG command - and the game won't let you get rid of him again! Eek.

But such niggles feel all niggly, because the bottom line is that Pirate’s Plunder feels a lot like a near-perfect little morsel of IF … just the right number of barriers for a quick (but not trivial) game, all of which feel appropriate to the setting and genre … piratey fun and silliness all over, and a playful willingness to bend heaven and earth to celebrate a ship’s boat full of requisite cliches. This brief game delivers pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, with a hearty “harr” and a joyous refusal to take itself seriously.

Note: This review is of the Gargoyle version, which the ReadMe implies may have some small differences from the main one.

Pirate’s Plunder! is your definitive perfectly-executed, well-written, well-coded, light-hearted adventure.

This game has a lot of things to offer.

It has personality—the characteristic tone of the game is unlike any other; the proliferation of ‘ye’ and ‘yon’ and other such locutions are only tolerable because the game creates its own distinct atmosphere. The story—thin as it is—serves as a backdrop to the exploits of the main character as he tries to find the treasure and get off of the island. Sorry folks, not blockbuster plot here; clichés are wholly embraced here, and to good measure. And it doesn’t overstay its welcome either; this game is over soon enough.

It has puzzles—interesting ones that make sense. There are no out of place puzzles, and it does not seem as if he’s padding the game. The puzzles are easy to solve. They would be a bit harder were it not for the gentle push of the author’s hand. There is a lot of hand-holding going on in the game. Direction certainly isn’t a bad thing, but if you are the type of player who gets a special kind of enjoyment from solving a puzzle relatively unassisted, you will probably be dissatisfied. The game seems tailor-made for beginning IF players and/or veterans who want a quick, entertaining romp.

This is a fun little story and like Lumin's “the Aegis” it would make a great game for novice players. The important commands are written in bold which leaves out a lot of guessing, but maybe also some of the challenge in solving the puzzles.
The fact that the story is told in old “Pirate language” is a great idea. But I would imagine that foreigners could have a bit of trouble understanding some of the words and phrases.
The instructions regarding the game, comes after the introduction where it, in my opinion, should have been displayed before the story starts.


Story:
A nice captivating story. You are the Captain, and a pirate, and you have to find a treasure on Loot Island and get away with it.. Not as simple as it may sound. Especially with your old mate Ichabod around, who in my case was more of a puzzle than of help, until I figured out that he has his own little part to play in this game.


Playability:
The fact that the available commands are in bold makes the game easy to play. And I only discovered a couple of places where I would have liked to have a synonym (D for Down, and Place for Put) I will not reveal where they are, but it will be obvious when you play the game.
If you try something that doesn't quite work, the game gives you a hint of what you might try. You'll find out what I mean when you try to get the chest.
The puzzles are logical, although one or two had me think for quite a while. But nothing that the hints probably couldn't have helped me through (just me being stubborn, I guess)

Technical Achievement:
This game stand out from the others I've played in this competition, because it allows the player to type his/her name at the beginning, making the game more personal. Also the hints are very well managed, with plenty to go around.

Enjoyment:
I certainly enjoyed playing the game, and it kept me captivated. So I would absolutely recommend you to go ahead and give it a go.