Pirate Hunter (FPS) - TV Tropes

Knee deep in the hostile seas...

Captain Eddie Jackson: Two weeks ago, I was just some regular guy saying goodbye to his wife as she left on a business trip...

Pirate Hunter is a 2009 tactical-based First-Person Shooter developed by Russian studios Orion Games, with a format mostly inspired by the Far Cry series.

Regina Maris, a luxury cruiser carrying hundreds of passengers, was hijacked in the middle of the Java Sea; with the feared Islamic Militant cult leader, a man who went by the name Abdul Sayyid bin Iblis, claiming responsibility over the incident. In a single night, most of the ship's crew and occupants are slain and a scant handful of survivors taken hostage, including the Regina Maris's captain, an ex-US Navy Admiral named Boddicker, and the famed reporter Mary Jackson among the captives.

As time runs low for the hostages, bin Iblis' demands aren't made clear yet, but the Navy has already assembled a task force known as Team Pilgrim to mount a rescue mission with US Navy SEAL Captain Eddie Jackson - Mary's husband whom she married merely months ago and the player hero - volunteering to lead the unit.

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If anyone knew how to deal with a pirate situation, it's the Pilgrims.

• Almost Dead Guy: Team Pilgrim's contact, Ishmael, who secretly feeds the squad details on bin Iblis' insurgents, and a mission requires Jackson to find and retrieve Ishmael only to find out he's mortally wounded by shrapnel. Ishmael manages a lengthy Final Speech before his expires, and this only inspires Jackson to press on with his mission.

  Eddie... My job... is done now... there is... one thing... My... real name... is Slomsky. Aidan Slomsky... I have a wife... Ashley, back in the US... please, give her this letter... Tell her... I love her... and... I did my best.
  [dies]

• Apocalypse Cult: The main insurgent group led by bin Iblis worships none other than the Islamic equivalent of Satan, with bin Iblis intending to trigger a nuclear holocaust with a stolen warhead.

  Much has been written about the Dajjal in the scriptures of Islam. Listen to this, for example... You shall know that the final hour has come by six signs; the sun shall rise in the west, and there will be great smoke all around. Then the Dajjal shall appear, and the Beast within him, and there will be death and turmoil in all places.

• Badass in Distress: Eddie Jackson was captured in one stage, requiring player to switch control to Moses (the black Team Pilgrim member) to break Jackson out. The level is even titled "Rescuing Eddie".
• Blasphemous Boast: From the Satan-worshipping bin Iblis, when he meets two of his hostages, Admiral Boddicker and Mary Jackson, the first time.

  I am hell's most favored offspring, scion of the grand renegade himself. I am Abdul Sayyid bin Iblis, al-Masihal-Dajjal, harbinger of the last days!

• Bling-Bling-BANG!: The Final Boss, bin Iblis, wields a golden AK-47.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Subverted; bin Iblis leaves Captain Boddicker alive after obtaining the nuke's launch codes, which subsequently allows Captain Boddicker to intervene with bin Iblis' attempt to sacrifice Mary in the final stage, allowing Jackson to escape with her at the cost of Boddicker's own life. However, it is very likely bin Iblis intends to make Boddicker witness the destruction of Western civilization after the nukes goes off, along the rest of the world.
• Bullet Time: Jackson's "Adrenaline Mode", when his adrenaline meter is full, turns everything slow-motion as he plugs away at terrorists everywhere. The meter drains after ten seconds and can be refilled by killing multiple consecutive mooks.
• Container Maze: There are several of these, stages set on container ships where shipping containers forms walls and fences as Team Pilgrim navigates their way around between shooting at insurgents.
• Death Equals Redemption: The Somali pirate boss, Jassassah, spills the beans after Jackson defeats him, revealing where bin Iblis' final hideout where Jackson's wife Mary is head is so Jackson can mount one last rescue mission. And take down bin Iblis' plans for doomsday for good, of course.

  Jassassah: The submarine... I know where he has hidden it. Salapi volcano... there is... a cave on one of the islands... He has it there... Go now, Pilgrim... Go, and strike down the False One.

• "Die Hard" on an X: On a luxury cruiser at first, but later it spills over to surrounding islands and shipping vessels belonging to the Indonesian authorities.
• Evil Versus Evil: A Middle-Eastern themed terrorist group worshipping an apocalyptic cult (led by bin Iblis) and a bunch of Somali pirates (led by Captain Jassassah Warabe). No surprise that the former turns on the latter and kills almost all their members in an ambush after deciding the Somalians were no longer useful...
• A Father to His Men: Unlike bin Iblis, the Somali pirate leader Jassassah legitimately cares about his minions. He's royally pissed after finding out bin Iblis betrayed him and had most of his men killed.
• Go-Go Enslavement: Mary was still wearing jeans when bin Iblis abducts her after the botched broadcast. She's wearing only a skimpy, backless one-piece swimsuit when Iblis puts her on a sacrificial altar, all tied-up, and ready to kill her to appease the Gods of evil he worships. This subtly hints bin Iblis' nature as a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist; he's blatantly violating the laws of awrat (indecent exposure of flesh) in the Holy Quran, a strict no-no for Muslims.
• Hollywood Silencer: Jackson's silenced 9mm pistol he packs for stealth-based missions barely makes a sound, where he can freely pop headshots on mooks and roam around as long as he isn't seen.
• Ironic Name: The Regnia Maris is captained by one Admiral Boddicker, whose first name is later revealed to be Clarence. As in, sharing a name with one of fiction's most evil fictional characters - and yet he serves as the Big Good who defiantly opposes bin Iblis' attempts to force him into surrendering the nuke's launch codes.
• I Have Your Wife: Literally - one of bin Iblis' most important hostage, Mary Jackson, is the wife of player hero Eddie Jackson, a reporter and famous news anchor that bin Iblis intends to force into broadcasting his propaganda messages after triggering the nukes in a nearby city. Naturally, Eddie Jackson needs to save her.
• Job Title: Team Pilgrim is tasked with enforcing security of waters around the Pacific Region and eliminating threats from pirates, and they're really good at their jobs.
• Justified Tutorial: The first stage is a training mission, a simulated insurgent elimination exercise for Eddie Jackson to prove he's got what it takes to lead Team Pilgrim (and of course, to ease players into shooting controls) on an unsanctioned rescue mission, before they get to see real action later on.
• Middle Eastern Terrorists: All the villains - besides bin Iblis' radical mercenary group, he's also in league with a Somali pirate army led by one Captain Jassassah who's on Iblis' payroll. Throughout gameplay, the mooks faced by Team Pilgrim tends to wear face-concealing veils, turbans, and appears to be speaking Arabic-sounding gibberish.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Featuring a Big Bad called bin Iblis, or "Son of Satan". And is a Psycho Supporter who intends to prove the power of Iblis by hijacking a nuke and triggering doomsday.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: When Jackson confronts bin Iblis' Somali conspirator, Jassassah Warabe, turns out bin Iblis' mission to "spread the holy words of enlightenment from the Quran by triggering the apocalypse" is nothing but a load of bull.

  Jackson: Why did you do it, Warabe? Why help a madman like bin Iblis?
  Jassassah: He spoke what seemed to be many truths, of the future as it is written in many holy books. Also he paid very, very well. Most of the time anyway. But all his words and promises were nothing more than lies!

• The Oner: The game loves using long, panning, uninterrupted shots as cutscenes before each level; stages are usually preceded by a tracking shot of the level's entire terrain that lasts for over a minute while narration and mission briefing goes on in the background.
• Poison and Cure Gambit: How bin Iblis managed to procure the launch codes to the badly-tortured Admiral Boddicker - pretending to show mercy by giving Boddicker a choice between suicide via poison or water, Boddicker drinks the water instead... and turns out the water is spiked with an agonizing drug that isn't fatal, but meant to inflict the worst torments on anyone who consumes it, enough to make Boddicker surrender the codes for an antidote. It works, but Boddicker feels guilty for unintentionally dooming the world (despite being no fault of his) and reappears in the final cutscene to help Jackson save Mary, at the cost of his own life.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Jassassah and bin Iblis are respectively the leader of a Somali pirate gang and an Islamic terrorist syndicate, as well as the game's only two bosses. Naturally they can tank a few dozen magazines from Jackson's guns, and multiple grenade explosions before going down, despite being flesh-and-blood humans.
• Redshirt Army: To divert Team Pilgrim from his goals while obtaining parts needed for activating the nuke, bin Iblis sends his Somali conspirators to attack an Indonesian shipping vessel near the coast of Jakarta. The Somali pirates arrive and in the subsequent cutscene, made extremely short work of the Indonesian navy, killing everyone with barely any casualties. Team Pilgrim needs to infiltrate the shipping vessel to take down the Somali pirates first, and obtain clues of bin Iblis' whereabouts from there.
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: In the final stage, when Jackson tears through the rest of bin Iblis' mooks to reach his wife Mary.
• Ruthless Modern Pirates: They're the game's main villains, originating from Somali and the Middle East but somehow extending their reach to the Java Sea.
• Sniper Rifle: One of Jackson's equipment, which allows him to take down mooks too far to reach or eliminate guards in towers during infiltration stages.
• Vulnerable Civilians: Hostages can be killed in the crossfire, and Jackson needs to be careful if he's trying a Shoot the Hostage Taker.
• Walking Swimsuit Scene:
  • The game's opening cutscene depicts the annual Miss Bikini contest aboard the Regina Maris's deck pool, with scores and scores of scantily-clad supermodels posing onstage and strutting around with plenty of Sexy Walk postures amidst a massively cheering crowd. And then terrorists storms the vessel and shoots up the entire area, with loads and loads of crewmen and innocent bystanders killed in the crossfire as they took over, with bin Iblis on the top deck indulging in some Evil Gloating.
  • Mary's sole attire in the final scene is a white one-piece as bin Iblis holds her at gunpoint, thanks to being subjected to Go-Go Enslavement.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: When Jackson approaches Admiral Boddicker, who's near to succumbing to a bullet in his stomach.

  Boddicker: It's too late for me, son. Too late now.

• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Somali pirates working under bin Iblis rendezvous with Iblis near an uncharted island, delivering the supplies they raided from an Indonesian vessel. Then bin Iblis' men, who's hiding in the forests, ambushes and kills all the Somali in a cutscene. The Somali leader, Jassassah, isn't happy about this betrayal and plots a bigger terrorist attack to take out bin Iblis in an attempt to avenge his men.

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