Thank you Gamers Gate for sending us this game to review!

The Pirates of Black Cove: Origins DLC is a prequel to the original game chronicling the feud that first divided the three major pirate factions. You get to play the pirate responsible for dividing them for his own gain, thus forming a new faction: The Black Covians.  Not only do you get to play as Captain Grog, you’ll get to control the voodoo priestess and a much younger Captain Saintly.

To play the DLC you’ll have to start a new game and select Captain Grog as your character.  There are five chapters to play and you have to unlock them one at a time.  Each chapter unfolds the story of how Captain Grog broke free from prison, gathered an army, and planted seeds of betrayal to break up and weaken the pirate empire.  The tale ends with him seeking the treasures of the Forgotten Isle with the voodoo priestess as his guide.  

Those who are familiar with Pirates of the Black Cove will remember that you cannot save your game on land.  This DLC has the same limitation, and all of the missions are land based.  In other words, you cannot save your progress whatsoever.  To make matters worse, you cannot replenish your armies or buy supplies.  If you lose too many soldiers, it’s in your best interest to start the chapter over.

Each chapter has certain objectives that have to be completed to clear the level.  Most of the time it involves taking over (guarded) cannons or ships.  A few enemies will drop grog that can be used to heal your army.  Unfortunately, you cannot take it too often as it will make your party drunk and sleepy for a few seconds while they get pounded by enemies.

Most of the levels are challenging but doable.  I had to replay them a couple of times to beat them and enjoyed the quirky dialogue along the way.  The sense of humor is a bit below the belt at times and just as silly as the original game.  You can skip past the dialogue if you don’t want to wait through it.  I’m glad the voice acting was better this time around as there were no voices that annoyed me.  Sadly, there is still some cussing going on.  

When it comes to the visuals, nothing has changed here.  There are a couple of new monsters; everything else is the same.

I enjoyed most of the new levels offered in this DLC.  The last chapter is merciless, and since you cannot save or replenish your resources, I opted not to finish it instead of raising my blood pressure.  While the price tag is only $5, I’d wait until it goes on sale before picking this up.