Bounty Bay Online is a pirate-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game. In it, you take on the role of a pirate in the Caribbean, sailing for plunder and exploring tropical islands. You can even take your ship into battle against rival captains. There are dozens of historic cities and towns to visit as well as a wide range of ships to choose from.

A pirate's life for me?

If you've played many other MMOs, the basic experience of Bounty Bay Online will seem familiar. You visit ports and meet NPCs who give you quests, which you then complete. Land combat is very simple; you select targets and your character will auto-attack. Naval combat makes a nice change from standard MMO fare -- it uses a simple system reminiscent of Side Meier's Pirates! -- but the bad news is that there's a lot of grinding between a starting character and being truly competitive in naval combat. The game tutorial, which focuses on this system, can therefore be a little misleading. The game's age means that the graphics, which were fine at the time, now look somewhat dated compared to more modern, bigger-budget RPGs.

Sailing for adventure on the deep blue sea

If you like the romance of the golden age of piracy, Bounty Bay Online should entertain you as long as you can accept a few of its weak points.