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
I love Monkey Island!
Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. Also, the sea battles in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey are fantastic.
Yup - Black Flag - half tempted to even purchase the remaster if that actually comes to fruition.
I’d like a spin-off. Less land stuff and more sea stuff. Instead of the ‘armada’ thing, how about being able to buy or capture larger ships for personal use? Or being able to directly control 2-3 ships? Or fight large scale coordinated naval battles?
That concept has so much more potential and I wish somebody would do more with it.
They’ve been trying with skull and bones but it’s both in development hell, been delayed multiple times and even changed play styles over the years. I’m not hopeful sadly.
And somehow Skull and Bones is coming out this month! Not getting it (cos its Ubisoft) but excited to see how the game will be taken in by the players, if at all…
Ayy I worked on the Odyssey ships, I’m glad you enjoyed playing with them :D
I played AC:Oddyseey in 2021 and am currently playing through AC4:BF now for the first time. I’ve been wondering if the Ody ship mechanic was as great as I remember of if it was just a nostalgic feeling having it for the first time in the tail of Origins and throughout Odyssey. Sounds like it was actually great. Not-true-to-AC argument aside, Ody was an excellent game as someone who started on Unity.
I do recommend AC4: Black Flag as a pirate game. It does take a fair amount of somewhat normal AC gameplay (and Ubisoft side quest trinket distractions) to get enough upgrades to the ship to feel like a real pirate of the Caribbean and not just a poop deck swabber, but my ship is nearly maxed at ~75% story completion. I make sure my wanted level stays maxed so the pirate hunters chase me in level 60 men’o’war every time it loads me at sea. Two types of side cannons, forward chain cannons, rear fire barrel mines, long range mortars, front ram, and the option to board disabled ships for swashbuckler combat to gain different rewards. Plus a little tabletop smuggling across the Atlantic with turn-based sprite battles for a laughably insignificant amount of money compared to the work it takes to capture proficient ships.
Assassains creed black flag has such a good pirating mechanic they tried making an entire game focusing on it.
But Ubisoft…right?
The mechanic was developed for AC3 so I’d say they successfully made an entire 4th game revolving around it
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 a fun style that made me want to try it in depth some time.
Windward is pretty fun and under the radar.
Sid Meier’s “Pirates!” is old as hell but still a great game.
Pirates! is amazing
- Capturing ships to make your own fleet
- Searching for lost treasure
- Many different ships and upgrades to choose from (go war canoe)
- Sword fighting
- Wooing governor’s daughters (somewhat similar in gameplay to sword fighting)
- (mediocre) stealth and land battles
- Free your family from the grasp of Baron Raymondo (Evil!)
- Battle famous pirates and take their ships
Another one for Sid Meier’s pirates, it was great and aged decently.
Even the remake of Pirates! is fantastic.
I played this on Xbox when it came out. It was a lot of fun but once my pirate got too old I couldn’t bring myself to start again.
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 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.
Yet another old hidden gem! Thanks for shedding some light on this one 🌻
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
I rented PotC from blockbuster once and all i remember are insane loading times and super janky combat
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 had a Fisher Price pirates point and click adventure when I was… 6? I adored it so that I guess. Also there was a Muppets Treasure Island point and click adventure from back in the day. I’m sure that counts and is what you’re looking for.
If you’re into MMO and jack sparrow- The Legend of Pirates Online - a remake of an old PoTC online game is a thing
Looks interesting, very cool that its still in active development. Watched Manixs video on it :)
Thanks for sharing this, I never knew. Do you play this yourself?
I used to play the original PoTC version
(/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.
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.
Kind of along the same lines are Air Buccaneers and Guns of Icarus. Both are kind of like Sea of Thieves but with air ships. I don’t know how active the communities are for either these days.
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 like Raven’s Cry but it is a janky game so be warned.
