i think they should've made it less childish tbh.
the graphics are more cartoonish than i'd want them to be. the humor is often misplaced imo.
things should also be more intertwined. as is, the game doesnt really feel like you make a big impact on the world (except capturing towns).
go speak to a governor you just put there (by capturing an enemy town) & he will thank you for capturing the town, but he will say exact the generic text as the governor in the next town.
another example of this is a captain of the local guard harrassing the barmaid. if you fight him & win, more people will be willing to join your crew. however, if you recruit the available crew first & then fight him, no one extra will want to join your crew.
small things like this make me think it could be a lot better.
the political aspect of the game is very underexploited. it really doesnt matter at all whome you marry, except for some bogus little statistic (based on beauty). i'd expect that marrying the daughter of the most wealthy & influencial gouvernor in the continent would be more important than to marry some beautiful broad in a city with two houses & a military force of 10 soldiers.
the revenge part of the game is an utter anticlimax (i wont spoil anything, but you'll see). the rescueing of relatives is useless as they do not change anything in the game at all (except you get another accomplished quest, jippie).
some features from the original are missing. as far as i know you cannot attack a town from sea (in the originals you could sail towards the town and try to destroy the fortress protecting the harbor). this leaves only land assaults, which often come down to patience & use of surrounding nature. even here, they seem to have dropped the marches (i've only encountered forrest, open land & rocks).
as for the voiceacting? basically there is none. it's a bunch of mumbles and moans. ok maybe he did not want to use spanish, french, english & dutch, but come on! the texts you get to read during these mumblings are so generic you could easily do em with english actors.
if you use mumblings at least vary the text instead of serving us utter generic crap...
(maybe i'm spoiled on that subject since i just played Vampire: tM - Bloodlines)
dont get me wrong, this is all in all an enjoyable game. however it is nowhere close being listed with the top games of the year, let alone be a classic like the original.
i cant help but feel sorry that this game turned out like this. it had so much potential. hell, not that many changes should be made to make it into a truely wonderful game. (my hopes now rest with the modding community)
Sid Meier obviously missed the mark for me this time.
then it's just a fucking pain in the arse!)