For years, pirate games have usually fallen into one of two camps. Many gamers focus on bringing the whole pirate fantasy to life, a la Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced or Windrose, while others focused on a specific slice of that fantasy like Skull and Bones, which focused on naval combat moreso than living the life of a buccaneer. Meanwhile, it’s hard to say that there’s ever been a city builder game like Cities: Skylines focused on pirates.
That changes on July 31, when developer Limbic Entertainment and publisher Hooded Horse launch Corsair Cove. Rather than putting players in the boots of a single pirate captain, the game tasks them with preserving the Golden Age of Piracy itself (the same historical background as Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced). As the Crown begins wiping pirates from the seas, players must transform a deserted island into the last great pirate haven, which is where the Cities: Skylines-like gameplay comes in.
Coirsair Cove is coming to PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and the Microsoft Store. It will also release via PC Game Pass on day one
Corsair Cove Takes the Fantasy of Black Flag Resynced and Puts It Into Cities: Skylines
Corsair Cove begins with little more than a shipwreck and a handful of survivors stranded on an island covered in cliffs and steep terrain. Instead of expanding across wide open fields, players are encouraged to build upward, constructing settlements across cliff faces and hilltops while connecting everything through bridges, ziplines, and elaborate transport systems. Like Cities: Skylines, managing the movement of goods is just as important as expanding the settlement itself, with efficient production chains determining whether the colony thrives or collapses. Thematically, it’s hard to ignore how this nearly reiterates the core concept of Nassau in AC Black Flag Resynced.
Find the odd one out before the timer hits zero.
As the pirate haven grows, so do its demands. Players will manufacture more than 50 different goods, ranging from food, clothing, and booze to cannons, pistols, medicine, spyglasses, and peg legs. Every pirate has different needs depending on their role, while larger warships require specialist crews equipped with increasingly advanced supplies. According to Limbic Entertainment, players can expect the following features:
- A pirate city-builder with unrestricted vertical construction.
- Complex production chains spanning cliffs and towering settlements.
- Over 50 different goods to manufacture and distribute.
- Fleet building and management across the open sea.
- Exploration, raiding, treasure hunting, and legendary encounters.
- Turn-based naval combat against enemy fleets.
- Four progression paths centered around Notoriety, Empire, Seafaring, and Wealth.
- Defensive fortifications to protect the island from Crown attacks.
Although Corsair Cove is a turn-based pirate game, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced players will no doubt feel at home as they explore trade routes, raid nearby islands, raid enemy settlements, and otherwise pilfer their weasely black guts out. Meanwhile, expeditions go a little further afield and can lead to everything from ancient temples and smuggling operations to legendary sea monsters like krakens and monstrous whales, while turn-based naval battles determine the fate of fleets as they clash with the Crown’s naval force. Back home, gun towers and coastal fortresses stand ready to defend the island whenever the fleet is away.
Corsair Cove feels like it’s pulling inspiration from two very different genres because it is: the best of pirate games and the best of city-builder games. It captures the fantasy of being a pirate with a pirate’s ideals while layering in the economic and settlement management fans of Cities: Skylines know well. If Limbic Entertainment can successfully balance both halves of that equation, Corsair Cove could become one of the more distinctive strategy games on Steam when it sets sail on July 31.