A New Blend of Plunder and Planning
There are a few archetypes that feel eternal in our stories and fantasies. Vampires and zombies are a prime example in recent years; they drift in and out of fashion but always seem to lurch back into our popular consciousness through films, games, and books.
Pirates are another that we seem to endlessly love, reaching a cultural peak in the heyday of the 2000s with Johnny Depp’s swashbuckling, drunken antics. And of course, in games, we have had the big highlights of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag and the ever-growing Sea of Thieves. However, the release of Skull and Bones perhaps showed a dip in fondness for those swashbucklers.
Republic of Pirates hopes to give the pirate theme a new kick, by mixing thrilling combat on the high seas with detailed simulation and world-building on land. Let’s plunder!
Revenge and Riches
When you start the game, you are presented with two primary modes: a free-play mode and a story mode. The former, as its name suggests, allows you to build your pirate haven without any constraints or narrative purpose, letting your creativity run wild. The Story mode, however, provides a more guided and objective-driven journey.
This narrative tells a tale of three powerful pirate factions – The Gallows Men, The Raiders of the Caribbean, and Los Guerreros – who rule the seas with an iron fist. You are cast as a lowly pirate whose father was tragically killed by the leaders of these factions, leaving you with just a loyal shipmate and a small, unassuming ship to your name.
After a daring escape, you end up on a small, uncharted island. It is here that you must build a base and establish a “republic of pirates” of your own, hoping to gather enough strength and build your resources to one day seek revenge.
The City-Building Loop
As your settlement grows, you’ll meet a cast of characters along the way, such as the resourceful brothel owner, Isabella, and an allied captain, Mary Connor. As you build your world, more pieces of the narrative begin to open up, revealing a deeper plot. I found the writing and the world-building to be engaging, serving as a nice thematic topping for a game that is, at its heart, a city-builder.
The city-building gameplay begins, logically enough, with constructing a small port for your ship. Once your port is established, you’ll need workers to run it, so building huts for them to live in becomes the next key step. These workers, in turn, need a marketplace to shop and eat in, and of course, they all need roads to get from their homes to their workplaces and back again. Before long, you’ll find yourself managing the needs of your growing populace. Some will demand a fishery to provide food, while others might want something a bit saucier for those long, lonely nights at sea. You get the general idea of how a pirate society functions.
Lumber, Logistics, and Naval Battles
Managing resources is key to your success. Lumber is a foundational requirement for almost all construction, followed by essentials like cotton farms for sails and, of course, fish for food. These core resources are also needed to build a variety of ships, which can then be assigned a captain at the local Inn. From here, your fleet can venture out onto the seas, finding valuable resources in floating wreckage, barrels, or old shipwrecks.
As you are out exploring with your ships, some will attack you on sight, and naval battles will take place. These aren’t as in-depth as those in, say, Black Flag or even Skull and Bones, but they are fine, and you soon work out the best way of taking down bigger ships than your own. You can also use your armada to take down enemy bases to get more resources and plunder.
Presentation and Flow
I found this whole gameplay loop to be quite relaxing, rather than stressful like some sim builders, where the constant fear of being in debt, having unhappy townsfolk, and a hurricane coming to town were the least of my worries. Here, it was quite an easy journey, and the story was interesting enough to keep me going. I suspect that dedicated sim-building fans might find the mechanics a bit basic for their tastes. However, when combined with the exploration and combat on the open seas, there is something undeniably unique and charming about the whole premise.
Visually, Republic of Pirates has some hand-drawn, static cutscenes that look nice. The rest of the presentation is fine but doesn’t feel like a current-gen game in terms of graphics. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it feels like a game we could have been playing 10 years ago. The text in the menus is very tiny too, to the point where I was at times walking over to the TV and putting my face two inches away just to read it. The overall translation from PC to Xbox is okay, but some controls are a bit convoluted.
The game features a fully-voiced cast, which is great to hear, and there are some amazing sea shanties that play every time you click on your ship. I love a good shanty, so this part never grew old for me.
A Relaxing Plunder That’s Simple By Design
Ultimately, Republic of Pirates just about provides an enjoyable time. The core gameplay loop of building and plundering is surprisingly relaxing, and the story is interesting enough to provide solid motivation. Personally, I need the narrative element to keep the interest, and for that reason, the free mode doesn’t particularly appeal, but the city-building gameplay all works perfectly fine, even if it won’t satisfy sim experts who are looking for the more complex economic and logistical systems they’ve grown used to in other titles.
But for now, the pirate’s life is back, and maybe we might see more of their ilk popping up in other games.
Important Links
Forge a New Pirate Utopia as Republic of Pirates Sails onto Xbox & PS5 – https://www.thexboxhub.com/forge-a-new-pirate-utopia-as-republic-of-pirates-sails-onto-xbox-ps5/
Buy Republic of Pirates on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/republic-of-pirates/9PKNBSLM8J9B/0010
