The best pirate games ever made

Stand down, Denuvo - not that kind ofpirate games. The titles on this list encapsulate the feeling of being a lawless buccaneer on the high seas of the 1600s and 1700s. Running scoundrels in stockings and breeches through with your cutlass, digging up chests full of gold doubloons, making governors angry and ladies of the royal court hot and bothered. That kind of thing. 

Really, it’s a wonder there aren’t morehistorical games set in this slightly fantastical era. It’s absolutely made for video games, isn’t it? Violence and plunder are the most important things in any virtual world, and also in any self-respecting swashbuckler’s credo. Despite its puzzling rarity as a setting, it has provided a rich breadth of experiences over the years from classic point-and-clicks to city builders and both open-world and isometric RPGs. Settle down with a flagon of grog, absolutely do not drink it because that stuff’s poison, and enjoy these pieces of eight… pirate games.

Sea of Thieves

If you’ve seen a pirate do it in a movie, you can probably do it in co-op open-world RPGSea of Thieves – one of thebest co-op games around. Shouting ‘Land ho!’ from atop the crow’s nest of a galleon you and your friends are crewing: in the game. Fighting off gangs of skeleton pirates on desert islands in order to secure their booty using a treasure map and a spade: oh, very much in the game. Playing Ride of the Valkyries on a hurdy-gurdy from a precarious spot in the rigging of an enemy ship you fired yourself onto with your own ship’s cannon: truth be told we don’t remember Captain Jack Sparrow ever doing that, but here it is inSea of Thieves so maybe we need to watch those films again. 

Although it was a bit light on content at launch, lots of post-release support has realized the game’s huge potential, and the officialPirates of the Caribbean expansion is the cherry on top of that rum-infused cake. 

Sid Meier’s Pirates!

First created in 1987 and remade in 2004, this is an encyclopedic take on the pirate’s life. Everything from using the winds correctly in your sails to learning the ballroom dances that wow the ladies is accounted for, and unusually for a game beginning withSid Meier’s, there’s not a hex tile or ‘end turn’ button in sight.

In light ofSea of Thieves’ rather more modern multiplayer take on the formula, its absence of spoken dialogue and disjointed transitions between activities can feel a bit primitive now by comparison, but those activities are still, even now after all this time, fundamentally thrilling.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

The hooded assassinations and hidden blades that madeAssassin’s Creedwhat it was were starting to feel played out beforeBlack Flag came along. Being given a ship, with a crew singing sea shanties and foamy swells on the horizon - well, what a revelation that was after three games spent jumping into haystacks.

But it’s more than a change of scenery that makes this one great. A preposterously silly plot sees you enjoying the life of both a privateer and Brotherhood of Assassins member, grazing tunics with historical figures and, of course, murdering them. Quite why such an illustrious figure would spend his time clambering over rooftops to capture the anthropomorphized manifestations of sea shanties is beyond us, but we’re glad of it. 

Monkey Island (series)

Sorry, but we’re not picking just one out of Lucasarts’ magically captivatingMonkey Islandadventure game series. It’d be like picking a favorite child, and that’s just not fair. Oh alright then, it’sMonkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. But truly, they’re all fantastic feasts of breezy and silly humor, characters that stay with you for decades, and puzzles you probably still wouldn’t have worked out without asking that one kid in school who’d completed them already. 

While most games on this list are forensic in their exploration of a pirate’s activities, being a pirate is almost incidental in Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman’s surreal creative vision. It’s as much a game about 90s postmodernism as swashbuckling, and all the better for its eclectic mix of pop culture references and fourth wall-breaking. 

Risen 2: Dark Waters

More third-person RPG-ing in knee-high boots, this time with a supernatural touch. Voodoo is very real and very powerful in the world ofRisen 2, and provides some showstopping class abilities. If you’ve been reading along so far and lamenting the absence of trained monkeys and parrots distracting enemies, or voodoo magicians inhabiting their bodies using a voodoo doll, we’ve got good news. 

It’s this malleability around what it means to be a pirate that makesRisen 2 stand out. Production values weren’t stellar for 2012 standards and the meat-and-potatoes combat is functional rather than a flourish. But investing your skill points in a stealthy thieving buccaneer or an improbably powerful inhabiter of unwilling enemies gives it an edge over the other titles it shares the seas with. 

Blackwake

It’s fair to sayBlackwake walked soSea of Thieves could run. Both involve first-person naval combat in co-op fashion, and both share an absurdist sense of humor. Whereas Rare’s pirate odyssey has drums and concertinas always at hand for impromptu band practice,Blackwake gives you a cup of tea to sip when you really want to amplify how British you are. Crews of up to seven trade cannon blows and endeavor to outmaneuver each other, blasting muskets from across the bows when their ships get close enough that you can see the whites of your enemies’ eyes. And it’s from 2017, whenSea of Thieves was still in the docks getting its last rivets hammered in.

Tropico 2

Tropico 2sold about as well as Cheetos lip balm when it first arrived in 2003 and invited us to build and manage our own pirate cove, instead of merely dwelling inside one. But over the years, attitudes have softened, appetites for deep, spreadsheet-filled city builders have grown, and underappreciated little numbers like this one found cult status. Where else can you be a pirate with a genuine concern for waste management? 

The balancing act was to give your pirates a good time in taverns, with wenches, feasting - you know, pirate stuff. But to also keep an eye on the level of anarchy all that boisterous outlaw reveling was generating so that the town still functioned. And all within a time limit and a campaign that tasked you specific objectives. Turns out pirate coves require quite a lot of administration.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Baldur’s Gate with a peg leg and an eye patch. While the firstPillars of Eternity was happy to occupy traditional Euro-fantasy territory in its epic quest to satiate the nostalgia of Infinity Engine RPG fans, its sequel took to the high seas to find new drama and excitement from the old isometric foundation. 

Highlights include aHitman-style assassination mission in which you may or may not decide to rig an explosive harpsichord, an enormous map to explore in your upgradeable galleon, and surprisingly few pirate cliches for a game that satisfies the fantasy so well. 

Written by Phil Iwaniuk on behalf of GLHF.

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