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I love pirate games (not pirated games ) and I have Sid Meier's Pirates!, Port Royale, 1701AD and some others. The latest was Tortuga: Two Treasures by Ascaron. That blew monkey balls. I thought it would be like SM:P where you can do as you please and still go around completing your missions. Instead I got a crapfest with turn of the century graphics (on everything except sea battles), linear missions, spastic sword fights, not being able to buy your own ships, unable to undo your purchases and extremely shitty ending. They've made the main character a CJS clone except without acting like a drunk. All in all, it was a waste of my $2.

I still thirst for a decent pirate game and I'm asking the board for suggestions. I'm looking for something that is at least as good as SM:P. Preferably also one that lets you plunder towns by sending your crew to do the plundering (I've got a same like that but I've forgotten the name.)

Any recommendations?

There's one that came out kinda recently - Pirates of Black Cove.

It is a Paradox game though.

I havne't even peeped at the demo, so feel free to try it yourself.

Pirates of Black Cove is pretty terrible. Its not full of bugs, though, so it's probably only published by Paradox.

Took a look at the website and saw the game trailer and judging by that, I think I'll pass on it. Any other suggestions?

I saw one called East Indian Trading Company. Has anyone played it?

Are you looking for an open/dynamic carribean boat-fighting game?

what no one's mentioned Lucas' "Monkey Island" series yet?

How would it be even remotely relevant?

The Yosemite Bear wrote:what no one's mentioned Lucas' "Monkey Island" series yet?

While I've practically played just about every MI game, it isn't what I'm looking for.

you could take a look at the Pirates of the caribbean game released by Akella (sp?) a while back. It is pretty decent and probably the best of the bunch story wise. More of an RPG/hack&slash game than anything else though.

Most of the later Pirates-style games tried to change the formula, so they're not the same very open 'sail around killing dudes' sort of thing that I think he's looking for.

Stark wrote:Are you looking for an open/dynamic carribean boat-fighting game?

Pretty much, though a good story line (or at least one that doesn't suck) would be preferable with an inclusion of land battles. (though the latter isn't exactly a must have but it would make the game a lot more interesting.)

Wow. I think almost all the pirates games dropped the land battles. :S What advances of the various Pirates re-releases re you looking for?

Thanas wrote:you could take a look at the Pirates of the caribbean game released by Akella (sp?) a while back. It is pretty decent and probably the best of the bunch story wise. More of an RPG/hack&slash game than anything else though.

I've played a bit of the first PotC game but simply couldn't get into it. Too linear. Looking for something like Sid Meier's Pirates! or better.

Stark wrote:Wow. I think almost all the pirates games dropped the land battles. :S What advances of the various Pirates re-releases re you looking for?

Are you talking about the Sid Meier's Pirates? I think I have the latest one.

I figured you would have. I mean, since you've played that but want many of the same feautres, what extra shit do you want? Why not just play Pirates forever? Are you after more economy, better combat, emergent politics, or what?

Pirates of the Burning Seas is free to play, but I don't know how you feel about mummorpergers (mmorpgs).

Stark wrote:I figured you would have. I mean, since you've played that but want many of the same feautres, what extra shit do you want? Why not just play Pirates forever? Are you after more economy, better combat, emergent politics, or what?

Bolded.

I'd like one that isn't restricted to the Caribbean. Pirates! was great but suffers from diminishing returns. I'd love if there was an alt-hist pirate game in which you get to use more modern ships, maybe up to WW1 era.

I just like something that is like Pirates! but with a different story, better or simply larger economy, to be able to establish your own 'empire'*, land battles, different locales (or simply be able to anywhere in the world), etc..

*not a top priority.

I'm looking for some variety in a pirate game but still has a sandbox feel to it. I read the reviews for Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales. While it showed promise it overall tanked. Same with it's sequel.

Stormin wrote:Pirates of the Burning Seas is free to play, but I don't know how you feel about mummorpergers (mmorpgs).

I'm finding that I do not have much patience for online games due to the frequent RL interruptions here. So no.

Well, so far from googling, I find that the closest I'll get is East India Company. I'll pick it up sometime next week. But if there is any other suggestions then that would be great.

East India Company is an older version of Commander: Conquest of the Americas. IIRC both have pirate-themed DLCs; their default mode of play is as one of the nations with a stake in the Caribbean.

The latest Akella title (insofar as I'm aware) is Age of Pirates 2, but I could never get into it. It plays a lot like Pirates of the Burning Sea, except with a much steeper learning curve and simulationist gameplay.

From a while ago, but I found it fun then, I'd recommended Sea Dogs.

You can buy your ship and crew and equipment, improve your fighting skills and take on ships and towns. If you find the right guys you can even make your own squadron.

There is a large range of ships going from ships boats all the way up to massive heavy first rates (although I never did get one of them for myself as I only saw one when I finally tracked down a Spanish treasure fleet and there were a couple of those and various others that ruined me. A critical bit is standing on deck and using yur telescope to check that the target is easy pickings before you get too close to run.

The progression was also pretty satisfying, he first salvo you fire with inexperienced gunners will have shots firing at haphazard angles and timings, but when you get better you can launch a perfectly coordinated broadside.

That's an even older Akella title. The Akella series:

Sea Dogs
"Pirates of the Caribbean" (very little relation to the movie)
Age of Pirates
Age of Pirates 2

Enigma wrote:I'm looking for some variety in a pirate game but still has a sandbox feel to it. I read the reviews for Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales. While it showed promise it overall tanked. Same with it's sequel.

Yeah, AoP was buggy as fuck (to the point that I couldn't get it to play on Windows Vista or 7) and rather cliche and linear, at least to where I managed to get up to. Had a nice system of hiring pirates and upgrading your ships and what-not, but the story was woeful and the gameplay couldn't hold up by itself for long.

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:That's an even older Akella title. The Akella series:

Sea Dogs
"Pirates of the Caribbean" (very little relation to the movie)
Age of Pirates
Age of Pirates 2

Ah cool I didn't know there were more from those devs. I seem to remember Sea Dogs being pretty freeform, you could do whatever you wanted and sail about causing general mayhem. Do the later ones keep that? From the earlier posts in the thread it sounded like the Age of Pirates ones were less freeform. For someone who liked the original would any of the later ones be worth getting? PotC seems to be "Sea Dogs 2: Renamed at the last minute".