Pirate Hunter

xenus 2 if it was more like call of duty 4 or far cry 1 (just with far better gunplay and damage balancing than far cry 1); there was a period in which numerous ukrainian gamedevs were hyperfixated on the caribbean and this game is a perfect time capsule of that era. it even has some of the same voice actors who worked on the hilariously awful official english localization for xenus 2 - one of your squad mates is some ukrainian guy (probably some dev's self-insert) who sports an oseledets and he has the same exact voice actor that old guy in the beginning cutscene for xenus 2 has: some random slavic guy who happens to know english but mumbles into his microphone incoherently. i'm also pretty sure the main protagonist is voiced by the same exact guy who voices saul myers for the english localization for xenus 2.

worked just fine until the last level, but literally during the fight with the final boss upon reloading my save after dying the game crashes, but i am assuming there isn't really anything that happens after that fight so whatever, thank you, just an incredible experience. a lot of aspects of it seem to have trouble loading properly as well, like almost none of the cutscenes worked, so i didn't get to experience the majority of the very good story of pirate hunter, but that is okay. this game looks like a far cry 1 rip off but it is surprisingly actually a rip off of the arcade cab version of far cry 1 called paradise lost. very bizarre controls including auto locking onto an enemy when adsing, but very good idea to have team mates you can be if you go down. very funny music, an all star cast of voice acting, and what's more every map feels like a mount and blade warband mod and just for that this steam slop gets my eggcellent game award. well done.

Another thing I realised I really love about Slav Jank games - they manage to quite satisfyingly scratch that itch of wanting more of something that I played in the past and was simply (most of the time) better. And this one is a prominent example because it is like Far Cry (obviously) that meets with Soldier of Fortune (goofy PMC theme) and Ghost Recon (squad-based tactics). I love how they even modeled the weapons to pay the obvious homage to those games. Like, Jackhammer is undeniably Far Cry weapon, silenced Uzi is 100% SoF, and MR-C is a signature GRAW gun. There's also a blend of FEAR ("adrenalin" aka bullet time) and other classic FPS games thrown into the mix. The whole thing feels like those bootleg "best of" compilations recorded on cassettes by some semi-professional cover bands (also purely Slavic thing). It has all the good songs (gameplay), but they still feel quite off (well, it's jank). Worth recommending nevertheless.

Pirate Hunter is like if the first Far Cry game was created by alcoholics. Not a single sober line of code is included. The game is very buggy, but at least the combat is pretty fun. Albeit it is quite simplistic. The cutscenes are hilarious, with some "quality" voice acting. Pirate Hunter is not a good game, but it is also not a frustratingly bad one either. Best enjoyed with a few beers. I was entertained, so I will recommend it. But only at a deep, deep sale. 3/5

10/10 EuroJank Perfection. So Bad it's Gud in SPOTS yet in 90% of the rest of the game it is just SO GUD IT'S GUD! 4 difficulty levels. Avoiding killing civilians mechanic! Honestly if you enjoy FPS and little known titles, this is absolutely a MUST BUY! JUST LOOK AT THE RATINGS :)

Super groovy arcade blaster, super motion sickness inducing though