Download Blackbeard's Revenge (Windows)

Stormwolf1O1 2025-01-14 3 points

This game is very simple and repetitive, but it's led by an original story with voice acting that keeps you wanting to hear more every level. It's not quite an open world game. The game is separated into two parts: one where you click around on your base island to manage your gold, resources, and upgrades, and to get a briefing of the next level's objective; the other part is sailing around a small 3D ocean, populated by rocks and the occasional shark fin. NPC ships will appear on your mini map and you can mouse over them in the 3D world to see who they are, and their current ship health. It's important to save your game often in the menu and review level briefings before starting to know whether the ships you encounter are enemies you should sink and plunder, or convoys you are meant to escort safely. There is annoyingly no "free look" mouse control for the camera, so you are forced to used WSAD to switch the angle of your view onboard. It's not great, but it works. E and Q switch you to your cannons, on either side. Clicking the cannon will load up and fire a shot. Supposedly R and F are used to adjust the height of the shot, but I never found myself using this function and instead just sail closer to the enemy if they get out of range. Sinking an enemy often results in several crates of cargo containing gold and resources to appear, which you must sail over to collect. Additionally, you should keep your eyes open for a floating message in a bottle while sailing around, as collecting it will spawn some floating cargo nearby for you to collect. I have not yet figured out how to switch my cannon ball type while in a level, despite having upgraded my ship to a better one and having crafted a number of steel cannon balls. It's possible that this function is unlocked as your progress through the story, as weapon plans for using better cannon balls are mentioned at some point. Overall, it is a neat little pirate naval combat sim accompanied by a captivating story. Simple, but somehow I keep coming back to it to play another level and hear more of the story.