Publisher who resurrected lost pirate game Captain Blood says it's 'a 3 or 4' by today's standards, but that's half the fun: 'All its charms, all its flaws, all the vibes are from that era'

Captain Blood's trailer looks like it should be buffering in 240p on Mediafire with a Ventrilo window next to it. Captain Blood itself looks like it should live in a generic Blockbuster case on a DVD so abused it makes my Xbox 360 disc drive howl in agony. Among the detritus of Steam's New & Noteworthy page, this game is the equivalent of a perfectly preserved T. Rex mandible—if dinosaurs were contemporary to Halo 3, anyway.

Despite being released this week, Captain Blood looks every bit the relic of 2000s development hell it is. This isn't lost on anyone behind the game, which began development in 2003 and almost released (but didn't) on the seventh generation of consoles. Unlike most retro revivals, this isn't a detailed touch-up or reimagining of a storied classic; it's a canned game taken to the finish line exactly as it might have released in 2011 or so.