Ahoy me hearties!
The first person shooter genre is typically one filled with fantasy, military or science fiction cliches such as alien races, laser guns, dungeons and whatnot, with classic examples including the likes of Doom, Hexen and Duke Nukem 3D. It's therefore somewhat refreshing to find one which branches out from normal expectations and Plunder and Pillage, while not without its faults, is certainly worthy of investigation, thanks to its bold take on a somewhat stale genre. Interestingly enough, Plunder and Pillage is a pirate-themed adventure, full of all the classic elements of seafaring tales, such as treasure maps, sword fighting and desert islands and while in other media, this might seem cliched itself, in gaming it's at least slight original. The game sees players taking on the role of Captain Jess Murdock, a renegade pirate somewhat down on his luck who finds himself washed up on an island after having lost his ship, his crew and well, basically everything. In order to regain his status, he must simply fight his way across the island, slaying rival pirates, plundering whatever gold and treasure he can find and generally being a classic pirate villain. In many ways, the game is a fairly standard shooter, with players exploring a variety of environments, blasting away at other pirates and seeking out whatever secrets lurk on the island. However, it does score plenty of points for its setting, which is authentically pirate-like, with lots of 'Argh, me hearties!' and enough appropriately jaunty music to make players truly feel like they are living the dream. If you ignore the atmospheric background, you're left with a fairly standard adventure, but all that window dressing actually counts for a lot and Plunder and Pillage makes for an enjoyable unusual (if pretty challenging) action adventure
