I’m a huge history buff, usually military, and I pick a topic then spend a lot of money on books (and some documentaries) and immerse myself in whatever topic that might be. E.g. WWI air warfare, the Punic Wars, the Korean war, Civil War, Rise and Fall of Rome, etc.
So I’ve been gorging on the era of the pirates in the Caribbean, finding a few decent books, tracking down a couple of classics written back close to the actual time period, and so on.
And now I have an itch to play a pirate game. I know it won’t be realistic, I just have a pirate itch,
What I’m looking for:
If it plays on the PC it needs to run on my relatively GPU power Thinkpad X1 Carbon 6th gen. So I was looking at the classic Pirates by Sid Meier (one of my favorite games of all time,) but also Tempest on Steam. The thread on Tempest here turned into a fight over what constitutes spam and who has what mod rights, etc.
Anything needing more power needs to run on my PS4.
I’m looking for something with an open world pirate environment, with at least SOME ties to what was going on in the real world at the time. E.g. Pirates by SM isn’t a realistic ship simulator, but the changing alliances and wars and writs/“contracts” to attack a certain nation honor the reality of the time.
I remember really enjoying Tortuga: Pirates of the New World, but that was ages ago, who can say if it’s any good. Seems to be available on GamersGate.
Thanks on the Blackbeard but I’m really looking for a computer or PS4 game (for a variety of reasons.) However I wrote that down in my “keep an eye on this” notes sheet.
It is hard to believe and disappointing that nothing has come close to touching Sea Dogs. That being said, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag is great fun. You can get ACBF on PS4.
With both Black Flag and Rogue, you get a lot of fairly meaty ties back to real world history courtesy the Database that’s built into the Animus thingy, which is a nice bonus for helping to center the premise on the world in front of you in the game.
I was just looking at video reviews of Rogue, and that just has too much melee combat for what I’m looking for. I.e. I’m looking for a game focused on open world pirate action, not running and jumping and rolling and fighting 4 or 5 enemies in melee combat at once.
How much does Black Flag let you just focus on sailing from port to port, seeking out ships from an enemy nation, ship to ship combat, selling the booty to enable you to upgrade your ships and hire more crew, interacting with the governors etc. on the various islands and ports, etc. vs, having to do forced missions?
Both games have a lot of both parts–melee and ship-to-ship.
And if I’m remembering correctly, both games are going to require some melee combat to clear some adventure/story steps early on before setting you up with your first ship.
BUT…once that’s done, a HUGE portion of the game is sailing around and conducting privateering raids, trading, etc port-to-port and improving and outfitting your ship and crew, which I found to be immensely satisfying on that whole scratch the pirate itch thing.
Either way, though, both games will make you do your fair share of melee combat, especially at the start. It’s fairly painless, though, as far as difficulty goes and helps to do some good world-building and setting the scene. Plus, you meet a pretty famous pirate – before he went pirate, even – right from the outset in Black Flag.
AC:BF can be had the cheapest, I think, on PS4. That’d be the entry point. If it’s appealing at all, then Rogue is basically “Here’s some more of that for you.”
If you do, hunt about for a sale. BF goes on sale in the Playstation store pretty frequently, but looks as if its full price at the moment. $15 for a digital download code from Gamespot, though.
Tempest really is a good game, btw, regardless of whether someone was spamming or not. However, the only connection between that and what was happening in the Caribbean in the time of pirates is the presence of ships, water, and islands in the game.
Abandon Ship is an early access game which has been improving with time. Yet again, not much of a connection to reality.
Sid Meier’s Pirates is a classic for a reason, but it does show its age in some ways. And ballroom dancing. Can’t forget the ballroom dancing.
Windward is an odd one. Not really piracy, but more tall ships from different sides struggling over a large map. More of a casual take on the genre.
Even further out on a limb… perhaps the furthest one can go: Disney’s Treasure Planet: Battle of Procyon. It’s a space game, yes, but directly inspired by the Caribbean pirate era (I mean, all the spaceships are tall ships with masts, etc.). It’s also not open world, but it’s a lot of fun.
Swords & Crossbones: An Epic Pirate Story is an even more casual take on the genre, using old-school pixel graphics to blend an RPG and a city builder (neither of which are terribly deep). Still, it can be fun for a spin.
I haven’t played them myself, but from cursory search it seems like some trading/strategy games from the past, like Port Royale series or East India Company might be good alternatives to the suggestions on this thread.
If you’re looking for a more action oriented approach I’d definitely go with AC: Black Flag though.
Yeah, I loved Pirates and would buy a modern remake in a second. I’d actually gotten the timing down on the dancing, but I would dread the thought of having to go through the dancing torture again.
Port Royale looked interesting, but after reading a number of review of PR 1, 2 and 3, it sounds like a good idea not executed very well.
I think I may just start with Black Flag. My brother tried it and gave up and threw his controller at the wall over some particularly frustrating mission (for him - oh, and he’s in his 50s so he doesn’t through his controller very often, LOL!) but I’ll watch the PS4 store for a sale.
Just thought of another suggestion, but this one comes completely out of left field - Expeditions: Conquistador. Before you chew me out for picking the wrong era and setting, hear me out - I went into this game blind and found it to be oozing that 90s game design philosophy, and the whole time I played I had Sid Meier’s Pirates on my mind. So even though there aren’t any real pirates in the game it still felt like I was playing Pirates!, except on land, and with far better writing.
I guess I’d dissent a bit from Dan’s impressions of Tempest. I gave it a shot but the UI and controls were like something from a pre-alpha state demo. I mean…they were bad in an “I’ve played Gothic and figured out those controls” bad kind of way. Tempest remains one of just three games I’ve gotten a Steam refund for.
And Abandon Ship got better in its most recent update, but is still one to wait on for the next update at least.
… is not allowed! Actually, I agree on the UI; I had to google how to do really basic stuff, but once I understood I could roll with it. The controls didn’t bug me, though.
