Sink Again
If you want light-weight pirate-y fare with a primitive economic model coupled with a bunch of turn-based mini dungeon crawls and disconnected scenarios that have you starting from scratch after each mission, then this game is for you!
If you’re not looking for all that, you might still get your money’s worth out of the game. I’ve only completed a few of the scenarios and yet there is enough meat here that I’ve got over 20 hours in, and the rewards for each scenario are interesting enough that I want to see what the next batch will add to my arsenal.
– Real player with 52.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pirates Sailing Games.
Nice little game. Not very complicated as turn-based / strategy game, and it tends toward grinding, but it manages to keep me busy and interested. Also, the silly slapstick jokes make me smile. If you ever wanted to play as a gorilla bashing pirates with an anchor…
The game comes with a good number of “scenarios”. Start a scenario, you get a (very) small ship and 2000 gp, and a selection of 3 to 5 pirates to hire in the nearby tavern. First hire is free, and is usually the one you pick as the captain of your crew - at start, anyway, you can change your captain later.
– Real player with 39.0 hrs in game
Here Be Dragons
An unexpectedly wonderful game
Although not perfect, this game is wonderful! However, it may not be what you expect. This is not the (satyrical true!) story of how Christopher Columbus reached the New World, but the (indeed satyrical true!) telling of the events which led to his protagonism. While the former make us think this is a traditional RPG, with exploration, battles and a progression system consisting of evolving one or few characters until the end, the latter gives room to what it really is: a combat-only game with many characters, each of which protagonist in their own short campaigns, and where character progression starts after the first battle of the campaign and ends just before the last. What really progresses throughout all the game is combat complexity and the greater scheme which ties all campaigns together. So let’s dive deeper into both aspects.
– Real player with 20.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pirates Strategy Games.
There were two good things in this game that made me complete the game: battle mechanics and solid visual style during battles. But other elements of the game must be rewritten from the scratch:
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dialogs - thay are boooring; guys, please don’t try to do all the pieces of the game by yourselves, find good writer. Alternatively make an option “skip dialogs” to save time
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technically I don’t understand why 2D game had been made using Unity. It’s huge overkill, there’re many crossplatform libraries and frameworks for 2D games that can be run anywhere. Because of your poor decision the game doesn’t run on Linux
– Real player with 12.9 hrs in game
Pirate Code
This is exactly the pirate type game I’ve been looking for. It’s the best pirate rpg I’ve ever played. I like the fact that battles are turn based and can be strategically won with only one ship left in your arsenal. Then like a good rpg your ships are resurrected after battle. You are able to battle on the open sea as much as you want because you get a full heal after battle. No need to keep buying ships to replenish ones you lost. There’s fishing that works well as well as botany. You can get upgraded ship designs as you progress through the story and new Islands. I have been playing for 44+ hours and I haven’t even unlocked half the content in the game. This game I will probably play more than 100 hours before I come close to finishing the story. I bought this with the winter sales event so I got it half off, but it’s totally worth more than that because you’re going to be playing this game for more than 100 hours. Bug reports are monitored by the developer and fixed soon after. This is the only game I play every day taking breaks to eat & sleep. It’s easy for anyone to pick up & play. The only thing missing from this game is being able to rename main character, but other than that it a well made great RPG. You get to name the ships you buy so that’s a plus, too. If other Pirate games were made like this, I’d buy them too. I am a fan of Horizon’s Gate too, another similar game to this one, but not by this developer. This game gets better with the Kraken DLC, which i am hoping opens the door to them for adding more content this game. It would be even better and more like Horizon’s Gate, if not all ships you encounter at sea were hostile enemy ships, but great game with all ships being made enemy too….
– Real player with 171.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pirates Strategy Games.
Turn-based hex strategy games aren’t usually my thing, but I’m always on the hunt for a good pirate-themed game. I initially started the game up to get trading cards and also give the gameplay a shot— very quickly this became my favorite game to relax with after work for the past couple weeks. The combat gets quite challenging, but the overall gameplay loop is very satisfying and soothing, for me personally. The visuals and music are great as well! My only complaint would be that I found the story to be a bit lackluster, but still fun. Great game!
– Real player with 51.3 hrs in game
Pirates Outlaws
Pirates Outlaws is a roguelite deckbuilder where the player is the captain of a pirate ship in search of fame and fortune, and must fight against Human pirates, skeletons, ghosts and monsters. The game mechanics will be very familiar to anyone who played other games in the genre such as Slay The Spire or Neoverse, although of course Pirates Outlaws has its own unique twists.
Combat Mechanics
Combat is turn based, with the player’s actions being represented by the cards drawn into their hand, and you’ll see what action each enemy intends to take on their turn. Melee attacks can only target the enemy closest to the player (unless the card says it damages all enemies) but are usually free to play. Ranged attacks can target any enemy but they cost ammo to play. Other cards can give the player armour (which can be carried forward to the next turn), restore health, apply status effects to the player or enemies, change the position of an enemy, or have other special effects.
– Real player with 78.6 hrs in game
This game looks and plays like a pirate skinned Slay the Spire, and well, that is pretty accurate and not a bad thing either. It does mold and craft its own unique image in both the style and gameplay. Some of the game design choices would actually make me think it is more of an Anti-Slay-the-Spire at times as it makes deliberate design decisions to stray from the path of its inspiration.
While you can craft some pretty OP builds still, it can be a lot harder to achieve some of the broken builds of stacking poison to 999 or such - largely because the status system in this pirate game is quite different. Only one status is allowed to be active at a time. So if your enemy is poisoned, they can wipe their poison stacks clean by buffing their self with an attack increase. Because buffs can erase debuffs and vice versa. However, this goes for the player too. There is even a boss battle that will absolutely wipe the floor with you if you don’t have some kind of way to buff yourself. He will keep raising your injury (this game’s version of poison) stacks on you and they will just get higher and higher unless you wipe it with a buff. Not much different than how Slay the Spire bosses can hard counter some of your decks. But at the same time it is just different and feels unique. I wasn’t so sure about the status system at first but it grown on me quite a bit. Which I think brings me to the next major difference.
– Real player with 69.4 hrs in game
Port Royale 4
I’ve played Port Royale 2 and 3. They were good games,not great ones but they were fun to play for a while. Enter Port Royale 4. My first observation is why have trading ships at all? I played as a merchant and built farms and production centers to bring down the cost of items I sell. Unfortunately you have to sell massive quantities of them in order to keep you head above water. Unfortunately, you can’t sell enough with your fleet no matter how big it is because trading ports will only accept a specific amount of a product before your forced to sell below what it cost you to produce the items. A temporary way around this is to sell the product to the market in the town where you produced it. You can make quite a bit that way but it only serves to help you break even because your trading fleet is fundamentally useless.
– Real player with 95.2 hrs in game
TL:DR Port Royale 4 is a fun trading game with a few caveats especially for returning players. But it is a trading game through and through, so those who find such games boring will probably not enjoy it.
Actual review (based on latest beta, it will be updated if it turns out some of these points are not true anymore)
What is Port Royale 4?
Port Royale 4 is a trading game set in the late 16th/early 17th century Caribbean.
What is it like?
If you haven’t played any Port Royale game before…
– Real player with 56.8 hrs in game
Void Marauders
Void Marauders puts you in command of a pirate space ship and its crew. Recruit soldiers, arm them and lead them into tactical turn based battles against alien, robotic and human forces. Board or destroy ships, assault installations and colonies and loot your way across the stars to become the most infamous pirate of the sector.
Loot and pillage enemy ships and installations, sell your well earned loot in space trading stations and improve your ship and equipment. Remember to save something for your soldiers though, pirates and mercenaries will be loyal to you as long as you pay them or you could risk desertion, a mutiny or being thrown through an airlock.
FEATURES:
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Manage a ship and its crew. Recruit soldiers from different classes and species.
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Lead your soldiers in turn based tactical battles against human, alien and robotic enemies.
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Play a procedural campaign for great replayability.
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Loot and pillage enemy ships and installations.
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Trade your loot and buy new equipment and upgrades.
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Manage the loyalty of your crew and hunt down any deserters and traitors.
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Fight Dynamic Rivals: enemies that win reputation for defeating your men or even traitors that will challenge you across the campaign.
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Find and capture the legendary ship The Omen to become ruler of the sector.
Shadowhand: RPG Card Game
Shadowhand (Solitaire/Battle-Card)
Options include Full-screen/Borderless Window, Tutorial, Show Blood and Custom Cursor. There are 3 difficulties (Relaxed, Normal, Very Hard), and each is clearly marked as to what is different. Difficulty can be changed before each chapter if you so wish.
The Basics:
Gameplay is similar to that of Faerie or Regency Solitaire, with cards being placed one lower or one higher. The first big difference here is that there are no face cards (Jack, Queen, King, Ace). Instead the cards range from 0 to 9. Zero can go on nine, and vice-versa.
– Real player with 34.9 hrs in game
Shadowhand is a very fun and (mostly) relaxing way to spend an hour here and there. It took me around 23 hours to 100%, playing only on hardest difficulty.
I found it best to play 1-3 chapters per sitting. There are 22 chapters in total, with 8 hands each chapter after the first few tutorial-type chapters. There are also three difficulty levels that can be toggled on a per-chapter basis, with each chapter being replayable, so there is no need to create new profiles.
The base gameplay is similar to the usual solitaire titles on Steam, where you have a stock or draw deck each hand, and the objective is to basically clear the board of cards in sequential up and/or down chains, one card at a time. The card numbers range from 0-9 rather than your standard deck of cards, and there are 6 or 7 total suits.
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game
Anchor Up
Anchor Up is a calming strategy puzzle game about out-manoeuvring your opponent’s ships by careful navigation and weapon placement. The weapons you choose, and where you place them on your boat are all part of the puzzle.
To complete each puzzle, you must sink the enemies' ships whilst avoiding the same fate for yours. Can you outsmart your foes? Can you escape the grasp of the Azarak forces?
What to Expect
-40 hand-crafted puzzles with diverse modes
-10 unique weapons to unlock
-New puzzle and movement mechanics introduced throughout the experience
-Multiple locations with varying weather and visuals
How to Play
During your turn you can either move your ship or you can use one of your weapons. The enemy ships (AI) will all then take their turn with the same two options. In the next phase, if any weapons were used by the player or the enemy in the previous phases they will be triggered/updated, for example cannon balls moving or lasers firing. Where you place your weapons is also important, so you can correctly align your weapon with an enemy! These core gameplay mechanics are then built upon with new environmental objects, varying enemies/weapons and much more in order to add layers of complexity towards the end levels!
The movement in Anchor Up is a key part of the puzzle: your ship takes up two tiles, the front of your ship and the back of your ship. This means that thinking ahead is key to victory. When moving tiles, your boat rotates to face the direction you just moved, careful manoeuvring and navigation is vital! If you get a hit by a weapon or an enemy is in an adjacent tile (your ship being boarded) you fail the level.
Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion
All the time I spent on this game was just hunting for achievements, side questing, exploring, and level grinding. But aside from that, the main story of this game is quite short, and it can be completed in about 2-3hrs. All in all, I think its a fun game and if not the first game that AT has with free roam and an open world setting. The turn-based battles are alright, with the game explaining how status debuffs work, elemental advantages, and buffs, it’s pretty easy to understand and master the game with just basic knowledge. You can pretty much destroy any boss you encounter by just playing against their weaknesses (every character has different elemental skills). But, the game’s pretty much over once you get BMO to join you, you’ll see what I mean when you play it. For the price it has right now, I think its worth it IMO, but better to wait for a sale to get it.
– Real player with 12.0 hrs in game
This is a casual turn based RPG based on the Adventure Time world including many of the shows famed voice actors. The game plays out like an extended episode or even movie with a pirates theme that gives off a WindWaker vibe with the boat you use to travel from the strange worlds.
The game is poorly optimised for PC with chopy frames and clunky feel and very poor menus, but it does all work and if you can get past the games annoyances your likely to enjoy this immersive world. Theres enough detail to make you feel like you really are in the Adventure Time world as oposed to a game developers intepretation of it.
– Real player with 11.8 hrs in game
Runeverse: Sea Brawls
The best designed autobattler by far. Minimal RNG that can be easily mitigated with good play, extremely good balance between the factions (every faction can truly beat every other faction) and the developers are lightning fast in taking aboard feedback and correcting any issues with the game. For anyone who likes this genre of games, this is a must play.
– Real player with 274.4 hrs in game
I love this game, i played it back when it was a beta mode in another card game they had, then decided to make it its own standalone game which is awesome. Used to be extremely buggy and barely playable. Although. as time went buy the developers would listen to their players and fix all the bugs and stabilize the game. Which made this game amazing and really fun to play. Constant updates and they love hearing suggestions and taking them to consideration.
– Real player with 156.2 hrs in game