Arr matey! What be the finest pirate-themed games ye have plundered? Personally, I’ve sailed the treacherous seas of Sea of Thieves and danced with shadows in Shadows Gambit. But I be yearnin’ for more pirate adventures. What be yer recommendations, me hearties?
Hope that worked :P
Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) is my favourite pirate game. No, it’s nothing like what you think a licensed tie in game from 2003 would be like.
It’s a real oddity. This was made by a Russian studio and originally meant to be a sequel to their previous age of sail game, Sea Dogs. In Russia it was still marketed as a sequel, without the Pirates of the Carribean branding. It has basically nothing to do with the movies in reality. I have no idea how or why this ended up being a tie in.
I don’t really have a short hand for describing the genre. It most reminds me of space sims - where you control a vessel which you can replace, has an economy/trade system, management mechanics, factional reputation systems and an open world. It’s not a simplified as Freelancer, but not a spreadsheet game like the X series.
The sailing is great, a happy medium between completely arcade stuff where you just point your ship where you want to go on and sims. Wind and weather play an important role without being tedious or overwhelming.
You also control a character for ship environments, like boarding, and exploring towns and islands (with swashbuckling combat, of course). It’s pretty bare bones but the variety is appreciated. There are lite-RPG dialogue/story mechanics and quests, though I do not want to give the impression this narrative heavy game. It’s an RPG style that used to be relatively common but not so much anymore.
But the real highlight is the New Horizons mod which greatly overhauls the game. It’s been developed for almost 20 years. I don’t recommend playing the vanilla game - I enjoyed it at the time, but it’s just an inferior experience to the mod.
Best yet, it’s free. The game is abandonware.
I haven’t played this game in years but spent hours playing it with the old build mods, pretty amazing that people are still working on this
Yet another old hidden gem! Thanks for shedding some light on this one 🌻
(/jk, because otherwise somebody will take me at face value)
I read that title and thought you were asking where to download cracked versions of games.
Nah :P I might be sailing the high seas from time to time, but never when it comes to indie games.
Puzzle Pirates was an amazing puzzle MMO. Unfortunately it died out and while you can still play it, the servers are quite abandoned
I miss it so much, it was great in its heyday.
I’ve been playing Sail Forth. It’s very basic, but still fairly fun.
It looks quite peaceful, ill check it out :)
This is stretching things a bit, but I’d like to throw in Skies of Arcadia if you like retro games. They’re also fantasy Sky-ships instead of real ones.
All games are pirate games if you do it right
Sid Meier’s Pirates! is a wonderful mix of exploration, sea battles, romance, swordplay, trade, and subterfuge.
Tropico 2: Pirate Cove is one that I’ve only played briefly, but I remember it having such good style that I want to try it in depth some time.
Its not quite a pirate game, but if you’re willing to expand your seach to include a nautical mystery game aboard a trading ship in 1807, than Return of the Obra Dinn is worth a look.
I love Monkey Island!
If you’re into MMO and jack sparrow- The Legend of Pirates Online - a remake of an old PoTC online game is a thing
Thanks for sharing this, I never knew. Do you play this yourself?
I sunk a lot of hours into Port Royale 2 many years ago. I’m not sure how well it holds up today or on its sequels. I think 3 was well received and 4 poorly.
If your looking for a cheap puzzle game, I had fun with Unforgettable Voyage on steam.
Assassains creed black flag has such a good pirating mechanic they tried making an entire game focusing on it.
The mechanic was developed for AC3 so I’d say they successfully made an entire 4th game revolving around it
But Ubisoft…right?
