Cutthroats
$14.95		(Win95/98/Me/XP) (Jewel Case/ with manual) (CUTTHRPO)
$9.95		(Win95/98/Me/XP) (DVD case; manual on CD) (CUTTHRPR)

Publisher: Eidos Interactive

Game

Ratings:

B+ from Just Adventure

Hint, Shot And A Smoking Cannon...

Wealth is the name of the game and if you haven't got it ... steal it.

Raid, pillage and plunder your way to infamy on the bounty-laden seas of the 17th century Caribbean. Strike terror into the hearts of your victims, capture ships and ravage towns.

Work your way up from a small trading vessel to a galleon bristling with cannons, but remember to keep your crew plied with rum and treasure or face a mutiny!

Will you survive to retire a Pirate King, or end your days by dancing death's jig on Gallows Rock?

Highlights:

• Sophisticated real-time strategy requiring all the cunning and aggression you can muster
• Experience the freedom of over 6 million square miles of the Caribbean
• Explore and loot over 70 different ports
• A thousand different ships sailing around a million miles of coast
• Over 300 settlement Governors with different personalities and political motives
• Realistic sea and land battles featuring complex amphibious assaults and fortress bombardment

Requirements:

Windows 95/98/ME/XP: 166 Mhz Pentium processor (233 Mhz recommended), 32Mb RAM, 8x CD-ROM drive (24x recommended), 2Mb SVGA video card, Sound Blaster 16 or compatible, DirectX 6.0 (included on CD).

Tested OK on Windows XP.

Reviews:

JustAdventure by Gary Nalven

"Ah, the open air, the pitching waves, the blasting cannons ... a pirate's life for me! Who wouldn't want to cruise around the seas, raiding ports, harassing ships, and being a general nuisance to those wimpy landlubbers? Strangely, though, the gaming world is a bit lacking in pirate games. Yes, there was Sid Meier's classic Pirates, along with a handful of other high-seas games ranging from fun to plank-worthy. However, for every one of those, there's about a bazillion games featuring rival factions who want to take over the post-apocalyptic world. Me, I'll choose pirating any day. And Hothouse's Cutthroats is certainly not a bad choice."

"...The sea battles are extremely fun, and with lots of ships around they can grow very hectic. I do wish there was a better way to control all your ships, either with better AI control or some kind of split-screen. Interface aside, these fights are tactically challenging and rewarding. You can choose to relentlessly sink the enemy ships or send your marines over to take over the ship and press its crew. Taking advantages of a boat's strengths and weaknesses is important; those huge galleons might outrun you downwind, but they'll never beat a quick little sloop in an upwind turning contest..."

"A word must be said on performance. My copy would not run until I downloaded the latest patch and DirectX 7, and tweaked my graphics acceleration settings (quite annoying since I have to change them every time I switch games)..."

"Despite some problems, this is an excellent pirate game. While not everything is great, it all comes together to form an extremely fun and involving adventure on the high seas. Even though there's not much competition, Cutthroats simulates pirating as well or better than anything else."

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