Corsairs each have their own ways to improve their attitude. Corsairs: To Each His Own (2012). A headache for nerds. Hotkeys in the game

Hello everyone, you are on a blog about fantasy and science fiction! Sometimes there are issues here that are not related to science fiction, but this is not the case. There is plenty of devilry in these “Corsairs”. In all senses.

The game turned out to be made on the engine of the previous corsairs, that is, from the same bearded year. Even then, they were squeezing out of him everything that his senile powers were capable of, so the picture cannot boast of anything new. Except that some splash screens, character models and icons were redrawn. A couple more videos have been added.

However, I am quite comfortable playing like this.

So, the game. We don't have a choice of characters, you can only play one - a Frenchman named Charles de More. Next, we select parameters, focusing on fencing, handling heavy weapons, pistols and muskets, or trade and oratory. In my opinion, it is better to choose one of the first two options. I settled on rapiers and swords.

Attention! Under no circumstances set the difficulty higher than Level 2! For all but the most hardcore nerds, play on the lowest difficulty setting. Masochists who are confident in their chosenness of God can choose the second difficulty. IN different versions games, this is either the Boatswain or the Brave Privateer.

The game is incredibly difficult, and if you felt confident on the “Captain” difficulty in “City of Lost Ships,” then set the difficulty to minimum here and put all possible concessions in the menu next to it.

If you played on “Admiral” and it was more or less tolerable for you, then you can risk setting the second difficulty.

If you choose a higher difficulty level, you will quit the game after a few hours, cursing the developers and the whole wide world. I'm serious.

No, you will swear and scream in any case, even on the minimum difficulty, but then at least there will be a chance that you will not quit the game, but will go to the Internet for tips and a manual.

Important! This game must be played exclusively with a detailed manual! This is due not only to the prohibitive complexity of the game, but also to bugs - without knowing where the catch is, you will not have a chance to avoid a fatal bug. I will give a link to one of these at the end of the article.

Okay, difficulty has been selected, everything is set, let's go!

I did this: Z – shot, Q – active action key, C – power strike and parry (instead of the wheel). It's quite convenient to play this way.

First impressions

They're great. We are introduced to the game in detail, led by the hand a little, talking about the buildings and gaming capabilities. It seems that the game is also designed for new players unfamiliar with the previous parts of the franchise. Don't be fooled by this!

The first difficulty is that over the past time I’ve pretty much forgotten the controls in battle, and here no one is in a hurry to explain which keys to press. Therefore, to understand the types of strikes, feints and parries, go either to YouTube or to thematic sites. For those who are familiar with the earlier parts, I will briefly explain the innovations:

1) A new parameter for melee weapons is balance. It is very important, and is closely related to two factors: the type of weapon (rapiers, sabers or broadswords), weight, type of blow.

For a rapier, the ideal balance is 0.0. In this case, lunges (by default, right mouse button) deal maximum damage. Chopping and power strikes are not for light weapons.

Sabers perform well with a balance closer to 1.0. They can chop, stab, and carry out power strikes. The problem is that the saber doesn't do any of this very well. In Corsairs: City of Lost Ships, the saber was the most convenient weapon for me. They're kind of clueless here. I do not advise.

Broadswords and axes. The balance is closer to 2.0. Slashing and power strikes. It hits hard, but consumes a huge amount of stamina.

It was not possible to find out how weight affects damage. Most likely, the same as balance - the greater the weight, the greater the damage of a slashing weapon. In this case, it is better to choose rapiers that are as light as possible.

2) Pistols can now explode when fired. This happened to me with Combat and Dueling pistols. Multi-shot muskets and shotguns did not explode.

3) New types of charges: in addition to bullets, there are shot, harpoons and nails. There is also a hand mortar with grenades.

New is good, but there is a big but. The shot hits only one target, thereby completely devaluing itself. My Combat Buckshot fired shot at the crowd (although if you believe thematic forums, this shouldn’t happen), but the damage there is ridiculous.

The “berserk” skill, which was white in the previous part, was removed. On the one hand, it’s correct - the thing was absolutely cheating, turning any duel into nonsense, but I somehow got used to it. And with her, the local quest duels wouldn’t tear up one place so much.

First quests

The first serious problems you will encounter are in Guadeloupe - when you need to go to Fadey.

Important! Yes, these problems will only appear first if you play according to the manual. Otherwise, you will still be stuck in Martinique. Play only according to the manual!

I still don’t understand how Fadey’s quests work. If you take them in the wrong order, you will easily break some scripts, and he will not give you the assignment that your brother talked about.

If you have the patience to deal with all this, then you will have to choose a side - the quest “The Dutch Gambit”.

I played as the Dutch - there are tricky restrictions on level, reputation and skills. The Dutch are unpretentious to this.

To play as England you must be: positive reputation, level below a certain value (it seems to be different in different versions, mine was less than 12th).

Secret organization: negative reputation, all weapons have been upgraded to a certain level (about 30+).

Difficulties await you here. Time-limited missions, mind-blowingly difficult duels and other amenities. But if you have played the previous parts, you will be able to master all this.

And I'll move on to the icing on the cake.

Quests that break the player

This joy is called “Pirate Saga”. This is a global, mandatory and plot-interesting quest. Made by complete sadists.

The first difficulty is that you will need to save one girl - Rumba, aka Helen - in 16 calendar days. This will be at the very beginning of the quest line. And if you fail this rescue, you will fail the entire line.

The first difficulty is that there is not a word about deadlines in the task log.

The second difficulty is that even with a tailwind, you will not have time to sail to Antigua on time. No way.

What to do? Go out to battle card, and sail along it, periodically going out to the global map to check the direction.

How do you like this game design?

IN " Pirate saga“There are still many difficulties, but I’ll move on to the next extravaganza of the absurd:

Two naval battles in a row. First, you must deal with a corvette and a frigate on a half-acre (3rd class ship). And then, on the same half-acre, board a heavy frigate. And it’s just brutal even on the second difficulty.

Then, in many places, scripts can be broken to hell if you complete quests in the wrong order, and there are many other exciting things.

Impression

Due to the really interesting storyline, I can’t even call it a bad game. I got a huge amount of pleasure from it. Yes, it was a somewhat perverse pleasure, especially until I thought of burying myself in the manual, but still.

Large, varied and interesting plot. This is cool, and great respect to the developers for this.

A good partner is Mary Kasper. But if you don’t play according to the manual in life, you won’t know what to do to get her to join your team. Yes, you may not even meet her. Despite the fact that the location of the Island of Justice is not that big. But confusing...

Ship characteristics have been reworked. Now corvettes are useless troughs. Otherwise, the rebalance is good.

Bottom line

If you are well versed in the game series, then you should arm yourself with a manual and a detailed walkthrough and play “Corsairs: To Each His Own.”

If you are more or less fluent in Corsairs, then you can try your luck on the minimum difficulty. Again with the manual and walkthrough. But be prepared to suffer.

If you haven’t played Corsairs before, then starting with “To Each His Own” is a worse idea. "City lost ships“at one time was called the most difficult game in the series, and “To Each His Own” is 5 times more difficult...

It’s always like this: a good plot just doesn’t want to get along with good game design. You almost always have to choose one thing, especially in more or less independent projects like this one.

Play at your own risk. I'll finish the game until the end. Now I brought 3 church relics to the inquisitor, and took a long pause to calm my nerves.

The walkthrough I used: Beginning of the Walkthrough. On the same site there are detailed manuals for later quests.

See you soon!

By the way, “The Witcher: Blood and Wine” was declared better than the RPG 2016 🙂 Yeah, an addon. I have it on the site, for those who haven’t played or haven’t seen all the endings, I recommend checking it out. There are also links to 2 other articles on the world of The Witcher.

Place the contents of the archive in the game folder. For the cheat menu to work, need to start a new game

Hotkeys in the game

F4- restore HP and energy reserves
F5- enable instant reloading of the pistol, switch the damage multiplier
F7- remove / show HUD
F10- kill the nearest mortal NPC
F11- launch cheat menu
F12- show the character menu of the nearest NPC
Insert- get the current coordinates of the GG

Cheat menu for KKS

Character:

1 - enable/disable immortality
2 - receive 100,000 pesos and 100 doubloons
3 - all skills are 100, all perks have been learned
4 - to increase level
5 - lower level
6 - increase the number of HP
7 - reduce the amount of HP
8 - get/clear free perk points
9 - improve health, replenish HP, cure poisoning
10 - increase authority
11 - lower authority
12 - increase reputation
13 - lower reputation
14 - increase fame
15 - reduce fame
16 - p.I.R.A.T.E.S.: everything is 10 / default
17 - carried weight: increase / default
18 - get all the bonuses of other types of hero

Nations:

19 - protagonist's nation: England
20 - protagonist's nation: France
21 - protagonist's nation: Holland
22 - protagonist's nation: Spain
23 - Protagonist nation: Coastal Brotherhood
24 - relations between nations: standard
25 - relations between nations: neutrality
26 - relations between nations: war
27 - relations between nations: peace
28 - relations between nations: alliance against pirates
29 - run a roulette wheel of changes in relations between nations
30 - improve relations with all nations
31 - the best possible relations with all nations
32 - the worst possible relations with all nations

Items:

33 - get all melee weapons
34 - get all firearms
35 - get all the cuirasses and uniform
36 - get all telescopes
37 - get all amulets, charms and talismans
38 - get all the cards
39 - obtain trade licenses of all nations with a one-year validity period
40 - explore everything possible recipes and get all the alchemy tools
41 - increase the service life of all amulets, amulets and talismans to 365 days / default
42 - remove all regular items from inventory

Officers:

43 - Helen 1st level as an officer
44 - 1st level knipple for officers
45 - 1st level longway to officers
46 - 1st level mayor to officer
47 - 1st level tichingita as an officer
48 - 1st level tonzag to officer
49 - Daniel 1st level officer
50 - add/remove free perk points for unique officers
51 - remove all officers, companions and passengers

Ship:

52 - get the ship “Black Pearl”
53 - get a ship " Flying Dutchman»
54 - get a quick manovar “Mortifero”
55 - generate the most powerful manovar “Victory”
56 - repair the ship, replenish supplies and crew
57 - upgrade the ship
58 - get large-caliber guns
59 - install 36 lbs. on the vessel. guns
60 - install 36 lbs. on the vessel. culverins
61 - install 42 lb. on the vessel. guns
62 - install fort guns on the ship

Miscellaneous:

63 - fast forward a day
64 - rewind a day ago
65 - fast forward 10 days
66 - rewind 10 days
67 - enable/disable display of locators
68 - open all islands, access to the sea, etc.
69 - enable/disable ships on the global map (resets when the day changes)
70 - strong wind at sea (resets every game hour)

Special:

- teleport to taverns
S3- game difficulty: “Free Pirate”
S4- game difficulty: “Brave privateer”
S5- game difficulty: “Brave filibuster”
S6- game difficulty: “Fearless Privateer”
S7- game difficulty: “Desperate Corsair”

Quests:

Q1- start the quest “Dutch Gambit”
Q2- start the quest “Pirate Saga”
Q3- start the quest “On the Island of Justice”
Q4- start the quest “Turtle Soup”
Q5- start the quest “Ancient Mayan City”
Q6- start the quest “In Search of the Guardian of Truth”
Q7- start the quest “The Treacherous Island of Xochitham”

Corsairs To each his own Capturing settlements
Sooner or later, the hero will have to face the need to capture some settlement. Port cities are guarded by a fort and, sometimes, warships, which may be in the port at the time of attack. Settlements and forts in the jungle do not have forts, and they can only be captured from land. The forts differ in appearance, have different quantities guns (and various types) and different garrison numbers. Almost every fort is armed with long-range and powerful 48-pounder fortress cannons, in many ways superior to the most powerful naval guns. They usually fire bombs and are supported by batteries consisting of 42-pounder guns and 36-pounder culverins, which prevent the fortifications from being approached.
Corsairs To each his own The defeat of the fort and the battle in the settlement
IN naval battle You have to destroy most of the fort's cannons. The number of guns that need to be destroyed depends on the difficulty of the game. As soon as this happens, a quick action “Landing” icon will appear next to the mini-map, which will take you to the second stage - the battle in the fort itself with the remnants of the garrison. In addition to destroying the cannons, you can shell the fort with grapeshot to reduce the number of soldiers in the garrison. After the cannons are destroyed, the defenders will retreat deeper into the fortifications and grapeshot shots will become useless.
Corsairs To each his own Especially valuable materials for improving your ship at the shipyards
On some lines, you can select a specific ship improvement from the dialogue menu, in exchange for doubloons and special items. These items are extremely difficult to obtain, but you can find them on pirate ships, in the holds. These items should be taken immediately; no benefit can be compared with the achievements of these items. You can store especially valuable materials in a warehouse or on the shore. Valuable items in the ship's hold are at the very bottom; you won't look through them, you won't be able to sell them in the store, you can only throw them overboard. Finds on pirate ships depend on your luck stat. On the ship you can store your gains “honestly”; what the character carries should be stored in the captain’s cabin in chests.
Ship's silk - designed to increase the ship's speed and sailing angle, an additional three knots in battle will give you an advantage in battle. A masterpiece of Lyon weaving manufactories - thick silk sailing fabric. Incredibly strong material, lightweight and breathable, quickly absorbs moisture and dries even faster, retains its shape and is stretch-resistant. With all the advantages, silk fabric has a significant drawback - Sun rays have a detrimental effect on him. Weight 2 c, pack 1 pc.
Ropes- designed to increase maneuverability and reduce the minimum crew size. Durable ropes made of hemp fiber, which practically does not wear out from contact with sea salt, are the best material for ship equipment. The most famous and desired ropes by sailors of any profile are produced in hemp spinning factories in distant Russia. Weight 1 c, pack 1 pc. If you bring at least one blade that Fadey asked you, he will sell you 50 bays of this product every month on the 20th, the cost of one bay is 10 doubloons, for a total of 50 bays 500 doubloons.
Lignum vitae- a specially designed tree for deck reconstruction of a ship in order to increase the ship’s numerical capacity. Hard, dense and stable wood, incapable of splitting, the heaviest wood sold on the market, and sinks easily. Backout is wear-resistant, but difficult to process, and has self-lubricating properties (especially in water). Backout ship elements do not require replacement at all, despite the harsh conditions during their operation at sea. Weight 7 c, pack 1 pc.
Resins- serve to strengthen the hull of the ship, increasing the life reserve of your ship. Natural asphalt tar, a sticky gray-black mixture of bitumen, fine clays and salt water, is Trinidad's most famous, if not most beautiful, landmark. These resins and the tar from them are used to impregnate the ship's hull. It is believed that they are significantly superior in quality to analogues supplied to shipbuilders by northern European countries. Weight 1 c, pack 1 pc.
Corsairs To each his own Improvement at the shipyard
Jamaica Port Royale Island - increasing the speed of the ship or the angle of motion (ship silk, doubloons)
Saint Christopher Island, Capesterville settlement - increasing maneuverability or reducing the minimum crew size (ropes, doubloons)
- increased hull strength (resins, doubloons)
Curacao island, Willemstad settlement - increased crew space (backout, doubloons)
In the Spanish colonies, shipyards are also undergoing improvements, for example: Cuba Island, Havana settlement
Corsairs To each his own Improving relations with nations
If you have problems with the English authorities and a reward has been announced for your head, there is only one way out - Fadey. Guadeloupe Island is Fadey's house along the street, prepare your doubloons and get out of sight for a couple of weeks, taverns and brothels are your place for the next two weeks. After a couple of weeks, your reputation will change to hostile. We approach Fadey again, he asks for doubloons and wait a couple of weeks. Spend the night in the tavern until the attitude changes to neutral, Fadey has done his job. Fadey's payment depends on how bad your attitude is. Don't forget about your ship's crew, food and rum.
If you have problems with the Spanish authorities, in the Church of Saint-Pierre on the island of Martinique you can always ask Abbot Benoit for a certain amount of doubloons to establish relations with the authorities and remove hostility within a couple of weeks.
Corsairs To each his own Available storage facilities
Capesterville Island, the settlement of St. Christopher, the island of Curacao, the settlement of Willemstad, the island of Jamaica, the settlement of Port Royal, the island of Cuba, the settlement of Havana.

What does a pirate need to do to avoid being embraced prematurely? sea ​​devil? Take a sip of rum for courage, load a pistol, take the sharpest and strongest sword, and of course cheat a little here and there. There are cheat codes in almost every part of the corsairs. But in this game, apparently, the developer simply cut them out. So, what needs to be done to gain unlimited power over the world? Read the guide below.

Attention!
To launch the cheat menu, you need to copy the contents of the archive (see at the end of the message) to the root of the directory with installed game. The cheat menu is called up by pressing the F11 key. You can close the cheat menu by pressing the same key, or close it with the cross in the upper right corner. The "Ok" button next to the command line in the upper left will teleport you to the inn on Isla Tesoro (unless you entered other parameters for the character transfer endpoint into the command line). Little advice- do not abuse the use of cheat codes. Otherwise, at a certain moment the game will start to crash, thanks to the long-suffering engine. And you won’t be able to complete the game if you don’t have earlier saves to replay almost a whole line of already completed quests.

Game hotkeys:
F4- restore HP and energy reserves
F5- enable instant reloading of the pistol, switch the damage multiplier
F7- remove / show HUD
F10- kill the nearest mortal NPC
F11- launch cheat menu
F12- show the character menu of the nearest NPC
Insert- get the current coordinates of the GG

Cheat menu hotkeys:

Character:
1 - enable/disable immortality
2 - receive 1,000,000 pesos and 1000 doubloons
3 - all skills are 100, all perks have been learned
4 - to increase level
5 - lower level
6 - increase the number of HP
7 - reduce the amount of HP
8 - get/clear free perk points
9 - improve health, replenish HP, cure poisoning
10 - increase authority
11 - lower authority
12 - increase reputation
13 - lower reputation
14 - increase fame
15 - reduce fame
16 - P.I.R.A.T.E.S.: all 10 / default
17 - carried weight: increase / default
18 - get all the bonuses of other types of hero

Nations:
19 - protagonist's nation: England
20 - protagonist's nation: France
21 - protagonist's nation: Holland
22 - protagonist's nation: Spain
23 - Protagonist nation: Coastal Brotherhood
24 - relations between nations: standard
25 - relations between nations: neutrality
26 - relations between nations: war
27 - relations between nations: peace
28 - relations between nations: alliance against pirates
29 - run a roulette wheel of changes in relations between nations
30 - improve relations with all nations
31 - the best possible relations with all nations
32 - the worst possible relations with all nations

Items:
33 - get all melee weapons
34 - get all firearms
35 - get all the cuirasses and uniform
36 - get all telescopes
37 - get all amulets, charms and talismans
38 - get all the cards
39 - obtain trade licenses of all nations with a one-year validity period
40 - study all possible recipes and get all the tools for alchemy
41 - increase the service life of all amulets, amulets and talismans to 365 days / default
42 - remove all regular items from inventory

Officers:
43 - Helen level 50 officer
44 - Knippel level 50 for officers
45 - Longwei level 50 officer
46 - Mary level 50 officer
47 - Level 50 Tichingitu as an officer
48 - Tonzag level 50 to officer
49 - Daniel level 50 officer
50 - add/remove free perk points for unique officers
51 - remove all officers, companions and passengers

Ship:
52 - get the ship “Black Pearl” (this code does not work)
53 - get the ship “Flying Dutchman” (this code does not work)
54 - get a quick manovar “Mortifero”
55 - generate the most powerful manovar “Victory”
56 - repair the ship, replenish supplies and crew
57 - upgrade the ship
58 - get large-caliber guns
59 - install 36 lbs. on the vessel. guns
60 - install 36 lbs. on the vessel. culverins
61 - install 42 lb. on the vessel. guns
62 - install fort guns on the ship

Miscellaneous:
63 - fast forward a day
64 - rewind a day ago
65 - fast forward 10 days
66 - rewind 10 days
67 - enable/disable display of locators
68 - open all islands, access to the sea, etc.
69 - enable/disable ships on the global map (resets when the day changes)
70 - strong wind at sea (resets every game hour)

Special: - teleport to taverns
S3- game difficulty: “Free Pirate”
S4- game difficulty: “Brave privateer”
S5- game difficulty: “Brave filibuster”
S6- game difficulty: “Fearless Privateer”
S7- game difficulty: “Desperate Corsair”

Quests:
Q1- start the quest “Dutch Gambit”
Q2- start the quest “Pirate Saga”
Q3- start the quest “On the Island of Justice”
Q4- start the quest “Turtle Soup”
Q5- start the quest “Ancient Mayan City”
Q6- start the quest “In Search of the Guardian of Truth”
Q7- start the quest “The Treacherous Island of Xochitham”

“It doesn’t dare officially go under the Corsairs brand.” - from one of the forums.

Pay or flee...

What is “Corsairs: to each his own”? To paraphrase the famous formula of feudal relations (“the vassal of my vassal”), we can define this creation by Black mark studio: a fan mod for a fan mod for the third “Corsairs”. But only. If someone expected something more, then he can put his expectations in writing and send it to Santa Claus, since it seems that only he can help in this situation.

Before starting the main “debriefing”, you need to stop and spend a couple of minutes at Black mark studio, the people who “gave” us this miracle. The author, holding back a sharp impulse to throw away, is simply forced to note that this company is capable of producing a good product, namely: “Black Mark” gave us a huge amount of excellent materials for “Corsairs - GPK” (for example, mods for changing the textures of weapons, characters and other things). In general, if these people continued to engage in fan mod building, everything would be fine, but...

Everyone is familiar with the concept of “scoop”. This is a mentality, this is, if you like, a state of mind. More than twenty years have passed since the collapse of the Union, the first Russian president has already passed away, but the “Soviet psychology” still lives on, like Koschey the Immortal from ancient fairy tales. Unfortunately, Black mark studio also suffers from this disease, and they are ill in an extremely severe and advanced form. Reading the company’s “native” website, you can’t help but wonder: when will we finally grow to the west?? Not in terms of pixel quality and byte count, no! It's all about the state of the gray matter that fills the cranium.

The West realized a long time ago: the main thing (in any profit-oriented area) is consumer satisfaction, as well as the widest possible coverage of the target audience. We still believe that “people are gobbling up” because they have nowhere to go. How else, besides the notorious “sovok within,” can one explain the developers’ response to the complaint of one of the left-handed players about inconvenient controls? He was told that, they say, one of the beta testers was also left-handed... and nothing happened, he got used to it, overcame it. You too will overcome, scumbag. And if you don’t like it... well, in this situation it’s impossible to say better than Black mark studio themselves. Here is a verbatim quote from one of the “fathers” of “Corsairs - KS”: “Don’t like the game? Play others."

This attitude towards the consumer is manifested in absolutely all aspects of the game, although in order to understand this, you do not need to purchase the disc itself - you just need to visit the official website a couple of times, where the “patriarchs”, lazily squinting their eyes like well-fed cats in the April sun, agree only graciously accept the enthusiastic aahs and aahs of the faithful flock. Any criticism evokes a reaction so similar to the behavior of the notorious Dangerous Butt from YouTube: “This is our point!!” The Sovkovsky worldview of these gentlemen, outdated already two decades ago, does not allow them to understand that the concepts of “We” and “Ours” ended exactly at the moment when they entered into a contract for the paid distribution of their products. Black mark studio could bend their fingers as much as they wanted, counting everyone but themselves as excrement, while their “creations” were distributed freely - now the consumer, his taste and desires, rule the roost. Receiving royalties by authors also entails responsibilities, the first of which is to make products accessible and interesting to the vast majority. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and it did not happen not because of impossibility, but because of reluctance.

So, the year is 1654. It died down just a few decades ago Thirty Years' War, in which Spain, which essentially fought against the rest of Europe, was defeated thanks to a stab in the back by France, which has been a “political prostitute” in all centuries. Escorial is weakened, drained of blood, but not broken. The high-speed ships "Costa Garda" are waging a desperate (and it must be said that, contrary to popular belief, successful) war against the pirates and corsairs who have flooded the Caribbean Sea, supported by the governments of France and Britain.

But all this does not concern us yet, because the main character of the game has his own small task, the task of freeing his unlucky brother from prison, who, like Benn Gunn in the brilliant cartoon “Treasure Island,” got involved with the company, began to play toss and rolled . “Wait,” an attentive reader who is well familiar with other games in the “Corsairs” series will say, “we are offered one (sic!) character”?? Absolutely right, exactly one (remember: if you don’t like it, don’t play?!). This is a French nobleman, rake and womanizer named Charles de Maur. The question of what this victim of 17th-century glamor forgot in the Caribbean arises naturally. Wouldn’t it be easier to get the required million pesos - which is exactly what you need to pay off your brother’s debt - in Europe, using family connections, attracting friends... finally pawning family values! No, our character, even if he has no idea about maritime affairs and believes that beam is the name of a lapdog, decides to become a corsair.

Not stopping at the lack of choice of model for our protagonist, the developers went further: now we are even deprived of the opportunity to sort out the treasured (and already extremely scarce) P.I.R.A.T.E.S., since everything has already been decided for us, offering us a choice of one of several extremely unsuccessful templates.

In principle, the entire plot is limited to the choice of a template (a set of practices and training to which Charles devoted his early years) and a starting video that tells the entire simple story of our hero. Then begins - no, not the harsh prose of life - the insanity called “Corsairs: KS”. A total lack of money, forcing us to take on stupid tasks in the “go and fetch” style (we remember that we need to raise a million for a good-for-nothing relative), quests “Gentlemen of Fortune” that overtake us without fail and under any conditions, as soon as we go out on a quest to the global map. I think there is no point in saying once again that wild imbalance in such battles is good form, and putting a brigantine against a lugger is, in the opinion of Black mark studio, an annoying indulgence for the player.

Almost all story quests are certainly accompanied by tasks in the style of “swim to point Y in X amount of time.” If you don't have time, the plot fails. Everything would be fine, but the time is given a little less than for an ideal journey with passing time - so the unfortunate player has to resort to the well-known “bug”, getting to the desired point on the tactical map, leaving the computer on when leaving for work or going to bed. If in “Corsairs: GPK” the use of save/load was most often used to get fatter loot, now “draining”, which is how users aptly dubbed such a tactic, has become the norm and a way of survival in this crazy world. You need to save constantly, while remembering the possibility of a fatal bad save that can ruin the file. You came to the tavern to recruit a crew, and the sailors are having another “Neptune’s holiday”? save/load. Did your card partner win by a point? Save/load. Is there an unnecessary close-hauled wind blowing? You already know the recipe...

What prevented Black mark from simply adding time to complete the quest? No, what do you mean... but they fight with simply satanic hatred against those who, in their opinion, are playing “dishonestly”. This term means absolutely everything that goes beyond the rules they themselves have established. It is precisely in the fight against such “scoundrels” that the lion’s share of the “Black Mark”’s strength and energy is spent, energy that could be used in a peaceful direction. Back in the final version of their patch for Corsairs: GPK, they put a plug for players using ArtMoney, but now their sweaty hairy paws have reached those who are engaged in “dumb game”, namely, trying to quickly develop their character. To develop, and not to run around the unfortunate “underdogs”, who receive constant slaps in the face from boorish NPCs, whom caring developers awarded with cuirasses, three hundred hit points and a tank of healing targets. Now, for killed bandits, Indians and soldiers, the user receives only pitiful crumbs of experience: with such actions, the game forces him to perform all those inane tasks, because it is for them that the main experience comes.

Related to the quests is another “brilliant find” of the Black Mark: a journal. Why, one might ask, is this thing needed if nothing is noted in it? As it turned out, the player himself must, with pens, write down passwords, appearances, names of prostitutes, beggars and other fascinating information in a school notebook specially purchased for this purpose, without which there is no way to complete the next task. It is impossible not to reveal one more “trick” associated with the magazine: failing a task (even one that is carried out according to storyline), the player very often does not receive any information about this at all, learning that the game is “screwed up” many months later. And this is not a bug or flaw - this is a conscious innovation by Black mark studio.

Another “trump card” of the new “Corsairs”, which “Black Mark” so actively boasts of, is “revolutionary new system fencing." In fact, there is nothing revolutionary here, since a mod of the same name for “GPK” has been released quite a long time ago. The essence of all this action is that now opponents have completely forgotten about the need to twitch and writhe when wounded, and their algorithms have been reduced to a constant frenzied “shut up” of the player. The closest analogy to such a fencer is a crazy woodpecker. Together with carefully issued good weapon and the skill of breaking through a block, all this gives simply wonderful results! Now, as the “masters” of the game carefully advise, you need to parry all enemy attacks, for which it is proposed to constantly use... slowdown. Congenial, as Bender used to say.
We can continue indefinitely, but the above-mentioned “charms” of the game can turn away the lion’s share of the potential audience from it, maintaining interest in this “pirate masochism” only among the most stubborn fans of the series.

Finally, in order to be objective, we need to talk about the advantages. It should be noted that there are quite a few of them, since “Black Mark” still has potential.
First of all, these are texts. All of them are written at a very high level, and their style is impeccably maintained in the spirit of classic adventure novels. The ability to craft items, new to Corsairs, has been wonderfully implemented: from paper cartridges to shamanic things and amulets. Special thanks can be said for the excellent textures: the capabilities of the old Storm are squeezed out like a lemon by “Black Mark” to 200% (Beginners still need to keep in mind that this is the engine and graphics of the same 2005!). A titanic amount of work has been done to optimize the game, which has finally stopped causing constant crashes to the desktop... that’s probably all the good stuff that should be noted.

So, to summarize, you need to firmly understand that “Corsairs: KS” is nothing more than a classic fan mod created by a group of people for themselves and a group of individuals like them. This is a game that could have become the event of the year for all fans of salty pirate romance, but it didn’t... “And again Akella missed” - now only a miracle will save the old wolf...

• Developer: BlackMark Studio.
  
• Publisher: Akella.
  
• Genre: Action, RPG.
  
• Platform: PC.
  
• Release date: December 7, 2012.
  
• Age restrictions: 12+.
  

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