Are there any good games about being a 18th century sea captain or pirate?

[Drathnoxis]

I've been reading the Horatio Hornblower books and it seems to me that a game about being a sea captain or a pirate could be really great. It'd be neat to have one where you need to worry about setting the sails right and drilling the crew, pumping out the bilge, and capturing prize ships. All the games I've ever played with navel battles have had extremely simplistic simulations and it'd be cool to play something with a little more depth.

So is there anything good out there?

Edit: edited for clarity

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Maybe Microsoft needs to start developing a nautical sim. Until then, I’ve read that Sailaway is probably the best thing around. It had a rocky start, but recent reviews on Steam have been very positive.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Maybe Microsoft needs to start developing a nautical sim. Until then, I’ve read that Sailaway is probably the best thing around. It had a rocky start, but recent reviews on Steam have been very positive.

I'm not really looking for a full simulation, I'd like an actual game. Basically what I want is to be able to play a Horatio Hornblower book.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Since it's low hanging fruit, I'm assuming ACIV:BF isn't an option?

Failing that, it's a lot more impersonal (since it's about fleet management and squadron level engagements), but Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail?

 

[happyninja42]

Since it's low hanging fruit, I'm assuming ACIV:BF isn't an option?

Failing that, it's a lot more impersonal (since it's about fleet management and squadron level engagements), but Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail?

Why wouldn't it be an option? It's probably one of the better realized sailing games for the general era the OP has requested. I mean, it's a game where you play as an 18th century sea captain/pirate.

OT: Sea of Thieves I guess is something that roughly fits the setting you want? But I've heard mixed things about that game.

*thinks*....yeah, I mean that's a really narrow category for a game type, aside from just googling "pirate video games based in 18th century" I can't think of any others.
Granted that's game type isn't a big personal draw, so it's hardly like I've been doing much research on it.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Since it's low hanging fruit, I'm assuming ACIV:BF isn't an option?

Failing that, it's a lot more impersonal (since it's about fleet management and squadron level engagements), but Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail?

Is Black Flag actually mostly about sailing? Being Assassin's Creed, I assumed it was mainly about jumping around on buildings and only had sailing as a mini game or something. And also that it sucks. Because AC 1 and 2 were both kind of bad.

Ultimate Admiral sounds like what I'm looking for. I'll definitely look into that in a couple years when it comes out of early access.

 

[Satinavian]

It might not be deep enough or too early, but what about Sid Meiers Pirates!

 

[SckizoBoy]

Is Black Flag actually mostly about sailing? Being Assassin's Creed, I assumed it was mainly about jumping around on buildings and only had sailing as a mini game or something. And also that it sucks. Because AC 1 and 2 were both kind of bad.

Ultimate Admiral sounds like what I'm looking for. I'll definitely look into that in a couple years when it comes out of early access.

Huh, thought you already knew about it. Anyway, ACIV:BF is still at its heart an AC game, so there's a lot of land-based stealth gameplay which comprises most of the story missions. However, a big majority of the open world and a central part of the gameplay loop is the naval exploration, travel and combat. As video games go, it's one of the better representations of naval combat during the Age of Sail. Need to suspend disbelief a fair bit if you're after 'realism'/historical accuracy, but as far as gameplay itself goes, it's excellent. It's a great deal more personal though as you only ever play as an assassin/pirate captain of one ship and never actively manage more than that one ship in any engagement (the fleet mechanic is pretty dull TBH, I never bothered with it and I get the feeling you'll probably feel the same). That said, since there's a butt-ton of upgrades available, you get to see the ship go from rickety tub to a decked-to-the-nines affair which is pretty cool, if grossly exaggerated, but in fairness, that is part of the game's charm. The Legendary ship fights are pretty epic, too.

Since you approved of the Ultimate Admiral suggestion, a lesser one might be Napoleon: Total War and play as Great Britain and concentrate on the navy, but this one would be even worse in terms of being impersonal and the window for which there's exciting naval combat gameplay is kinda narrow unfortunately.

 

[Adam Jensen]

Is Black Flag actually mostly about sailing?

Kind of. You're basically free to roam the seas as much as it pleases you once you get your ship. You can also upgrade the crap out of your ship. But you'll need to visit the land to purchase ammo and other stuff.

Being Assassin's Creed, I assumed it was mainly about jumping around on buildings and only had sailing as a mini game or something.

Sailing is not a mini game. It's the focus of the game. The central element. You'll spend roughly 70% of the game sailing.

Black Flag is kind of Assassin's Creed in the background. The overall story of Assassins and Templars takes a bit of a backseat. You are, first and foremost, a pirate captain who gets involved in the Assassin/Templar plot accidentally and you don't really care that much about the whole thing until pretty much the end game. Your primary goal is to get rich. And you get rich by engaging in piracy, taking over naval forts (which is A LOT of fun, by the way), looting sugar plantations, treasure hunting (both on land and under the sea) and doing all sorts of fun things that didn't really exist in prior Assassin's Creed games.

I don't know why you'd want a game that's exclusively about sailing, though. Assassin's Creed IV offers a lot more and it's a better game about pirates because of it. They kind of thought about everything. Everything about Assassin's Creed IV is made to make you feel like you're playing a role of a pirate captain. Every island you visit is designed to take advantage of that fact. Every gameplay mechanic reinforces that idea. Even those boring chest looting mechanics from other games suddenly make a lot more sense because of the pirate context. There's very little in that game that's purely about Assassin's Creed.

If you want to play as a pirate captain, you owe it to yourself to get this game. If you end up liking it, there's also Assassin's Creed Rogue, where you play as a Templar captain of a ship.

 

[laggyteabag]

Is Black Flag actually mostly about sailing? Being Assassin's Creed, I assumed it was mainly about jumping around on buildings and only had sailing as a mini game or something. And also that it sucks. Because AC 1 and 2 were both kind of bad.

Ultimate Admiral sounds like what I'm looking for. I'll definitely look into that in a couple years when it comes out of early access.

Assassin's Creed 4 and Rogue are both ship sailing games, and about 70% of the games focus on that. Sure, there are still land portions, where you spend a lot of time climbing buildings and such, but the games are mostly focused around ships and piracy.

Admittedly, they are not super in-depth, but they are still very enjoyable games.

Otherwise, if you have a few friends, you could also try Sea of Thieves. I've not played it, but from what I understand, you and a few friends manually control the different aspects of a ship. So one player steers, another fires cannons, etc. If your ship gets shot, you have to patch up the holes, and bucket out the water. It seems like a lot of fun, but you just need a few guys to play with. That being said, it is sort of "pirate fantasy", so you have things like skeletons and ghost ships, etc.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Kind of. You're basically free to roam the seas as much as it pleases you once you get your ship. You can also upgrade the crap out of your ship. But you'll need to visit the land to purchase ammo and other stuff.


Sailing is not a mini game. It's the focus of the game. The central element. You'll spend roughly 70% of the game sailing.

Black Flag is kind of Assassin's Creed in the background. The overall story of Assassins and Templars takes a bit of a backseat. You are, first and foremost, a pirate captain who gets involved in the Assassin/Templar plot accidentally and you don't really care that much about the whole thing until pretty much the end game. Your primary goal is to get rich. And you get rich by engaging in piracy, taking over naval forts (which is A LOT of fun, by the way), looting sugar plantations, treasure hunting (both on land and under the sea) and doing all sorts of fun things that didn't really exist in prior Assassin's Creed games.

I don't know why you'd want a game that's exclusively about sailing, though. Assassin's Creed IV offers a lot more and it's a better game about pirates because of it. They kind of thought about everything. Everything about Assassin's Creed IV is made to make you feel like you're playing a role of a pirate captain. Every island you visit is designed to take advantage of that fact. Every gameplay mechanic reinforces that idea. Even those boring chest looting mechanics from other games suddenly make a lot more sense because of the pirate context. There's very little in that game that's purely about Assassin's Creed.

If you want to play as a pirate captain, you owe it to yourself to get this game. If you end up liking it, there's also Assassin's Creed Rogue, where you play as a Templar captain of a ship.

Damn this piqued my interest in it as well, and I’ve always shied away for typical AC kinds of reasons (repetitive, shallow, icon-chasing fetch quest gameplay).

 

[happyninja42]

Damn this piqued my interest in it as well, and I’ve always shied away for typical AC kinds of reasons (repetitive, shallow, icon-chasing fetch quest gameplay).

You should check it out. While I do consider myself a fan of the AC franchise in general, I wouldn't say I'm a rabid fan of it. But Black Flag is just fucking fun as hell. It's a huge shift in the game focus, as far as gameplay goes. Yes, the PLOT of the main story, mostly involves being on land doing climby stuff, the main game loop is about the ship and sailing. And it's incredibly engaging in my opinion. From the ambient sea noises as you crash through the waves, the singing of your crew (the sea shantys, my god the sea shantys are awesome and provide huge atmosphere to the sailing), the weather coming up and making things dangerous. Just, all of it is really damn fun. You will EASILY find yourself ignoring the main story of the game (which is easy to do in all of the AC games, given how much side content there usually is), and just let yourself be a pirate. The ship combat is fun and engaging, and it's really awesome to do a boarding action and go leaping from the rigging of your ship to the enemy ship, then leap down on them and start cutting away. The ranged ship combat is fun, and you have to account for waves and angle and momentum, it's just, really damn fun.

Highly recommend it to anyone that wants to play a fun pirate ship/sailing style game, regardless of the AC skin to it.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Well dang, looks like it's unanimous. I'm gonna have to play Black Flag.

Sea of Thieves I'm gonna give a pass to, I'm not interested in online mulitplayer games.

It might not be deep enough or too early, but what about Sid Meiers Pirates!

What do you recommend, the original or the remake?

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

You should check it out. While I do consider myself a fan of the AC franchise in general, I wouldn't say I'm a rabid fan of it. But Black Flag is just fucking fun as hell. It's a huge shift in the game focus, as far as gameplay goes. Yes, the PLOT of the main story, mostly involves being on land doing climby stuff, the main game loop is about the ship and sailing. And it's incredibly engaging in my opinion. From the ambient sea noises as you crash through the waves, the singing of your crew (the sea shantys, my god the sea shantys are awesome and provide huge atmosphere to the sailing), the weather coming up and making things dangerous. Just, all of it is really damn fun. You will EASILY find yourself ignoring the main story of the game (which is easy to do in all of the AC games, given how much side content there usually is), and just let yourself be a pirate. The ship combat is fun and engaging, and it's really awesome to do a boarding action and go leaping from the rigging of your ship to the enemy ship, then leap down on them and start cutting away. The ranged ship combat is fun, and you have to account for waves and angle and momentum, it's just, really damn fun.

Highly recommend it to anyone that wants to play a fun pirate ship/sailing style game, regardless of the AC skin to it.

Well I'll be a pirate. I had credit on my Steam account so got the Gold Edition for about $15. Whenever I get done with TLOU2 I'll try it out.

 

[Gordon_4]

I've been reading the Horatio Hornblower books and it seems to me that a game about being a sea captain or a pirate could be really great. It'd be neat to have one where you need to worry about setting the sails right and drilling the crew, pumping out the bilge, and capturing prize ships. All the games I've ever played with navel battles have had extremely simplistic simulations and it'd be cool to play something with a little more depth.

So is there anything good out there?

Edit: edited for clarity

I also heavily recommend the Horatio Hornblower mini series starring Ioan Gruffudd, they’re bloody good fun.

 

[Dalisclock]

Damn this piqued my interest in it as well, and I’ve always shied away for typical AC kinds of reasons (repetitive, shallow, icon-chasing fetch quest gameplay).

Among from what everyone else has said, I appreciate that Edward is an interesting character for the story to follow. He's a wonderfully terrible person who over the course of the story alienates everyone around him with his selfishness....and yet he's strangely likable despite that. He also gets to hang around with a lot of the famous pirates as the golden age of piracy comes to a close.

This includes Blackbeard.

 

[Adam Jensen]

The writing is also pretty good, and the writing in Assassin's Creed games has always been hit and miss.

The biggest problem that I have with AC writing is the needlessly colorful and theatrical dialogue, which doesn't feel right because it makes every character sound like they're acting out a scene on Broadway, which in turn makes those characters feel one-dimensional because every sentence they utter feels forced. And if everyone sounds the same, then no one really stands out as a real character.

Black Flag doesn't suffer from that type of writing to the same extent as later titles like Syndicate, Origins and Odyssey which are the worst offenders (and judging by Valhalla gameplay footage, it's gotten way, way worse). First Assassin's Creed gets a pass because it's the first in the series, even though it's objectively probably the worst offender. But writing a game set in medieval Holy Land is a tall order as it is, and Ubisoft probably just took a lot of hints from the movies like Kingdom of Heaven etc.

Anyways, solid writing in Black Flag could be due to one of two factors: 1) the writing is genuinely better, or 2) it's still bad, but because of the setting it doesn't feel wrong and it just naturally fits with your expectation of how these characters should sound.

They've also gone above and beyond to include a lot of the jargon from that era. So it all just feels very authentic as a result.

Unity still has the best writing overall, if we're talking strictly about dialogue between characters.

 

[Trunkage]

For something a little different - if you want a Moby Didk like game, try Sunless Seas. It’s not about pirates though, but then Horatio isn’t a pirate. It more text than actual game play

 

[Drathnoxis]

For something a little different - if you want a Moby Didk like game, try Sunless Seas. It’s not about pirates though, but then Horatio isn’t a pirate. It more text than actual game play

I have played (and mostly enjoyed) Sunless Seas. I wouldn't call it a Moby Dick game though. At least half the text would need to be a dry dissertation on the minutiae of whaling for it to be called that.

 

[Satinavian]

What do you recommend, the original or the remake?

They are quite similar gameplay wise, so i would recommend the remake for updated graphics and user interface and stablility on modern systems.