Pirate's Life

Pirate's Life
N/A
Metacritic
35
Steam
19.5
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$4.99
Release date
17 April 2015
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
35 (62 votes)

Pirate's Life is a 2D strategy game / city builder with an isometric camera where you take on the role of the captain of a crew of pirates that got shipwrecked on a deserted island. You will need to take care of your crews' individual needs (like hunger and drunkeness) in order to prevent a mutiny.

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Pirate's Life system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7
  • Graphics: DirectX / OpenGL compatible card
  • DirectX: Version 10
  • Additional Notes: .NET Framework 4.0 and Microsoft XNA 4.0 required

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
359370
Platforms
Windows PC
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Fairway Frank
Fairway Frank

This is the game Tropico 2 wanted to be. Straight forward, easy to learn, and rewarding gameplay. A good price at $4.99 for a good game. I'll be playing this one a lot in the future!

gebratene indomie
gebratene indomie

First of all: I've seen a lot of people comparing this game with Tropico 2. And since I don't have it, I won't be able to make a good comparison; but there are perspectives worth looking at.

1. The graphic: Please, what do you really expect from a game that's just a little bit expensive than a smartphone game? Still a lot of room to improve though (e.g. the raiding scene with the ships leaving the port, instead of just having one ship model with different masts, it would probably be better to have different ship models for different missions to prevent boredom)

2. The sound: Not bad, although it does sounds quite cheap, But again, for 5 bucks it is already a decent service.

3. The gameplay: Very linear: gather resources, raid, repeat. You'd probably stopped playing after a couple of hours, BUT in comparison to big names like the Anno series (I've tried 1404 and 2070) or Banished mods, the production chain in this game are a lot easier to master; the tier 3 buildings rarely need a lot of tier 2 or tier 1 building to function properly, which makes the game easier to learn.

Probably the biggest turn-offs in this game is the multiple repetition: You started on the same island, the same resources, the same starting place, and progress the same way.

BUT, knowing how these small budget games work, I might predict the futureof this game: MODS. A lot of it. Yes, it might make the game more difficult, but if this game want to be much more playable, the developer DEFINITELY have to let ppl make mods for this game, ranging from small graphic changes to a new resource chain and new ship types.

Still; a fast food meal set would probably cost the same (or a couple bucks more expensive) but it'll just fill your stomach for a short time; this game, because of its simplicity could be played again and again, even between short one-hour break.

In the end, this game really worth the 5 euro or 5 dollars spending, and I'd like to spend another 5 euro for more content, like easy misisons, more maps, more ship texture, and a couple of small extensions. Prost for the developers! :D

Dr Entropy
Dr Entropy

A good game, enough building and stuff to that the 5 dollar price point is well worth it. the only bad things are that you've built all the buildings in 2 3 hours but im sure more will come :) i'l be enjoying this game for quite a while i think

Chillingbear
Chillingbear

I want more. MORE MORE MORE. This game has so much potential. Personally I feel there isn't enough pirate games out there and this game is honestly one of the better ones that have been produced.

I am a bit disheartened that this game isn't in alpha or beta as it feels like one of the many alpha and beta games that steam seems to be filled with lately. I really want this game to be improved upon really badly. This game won't take off unless it has more content and more random situations for the players to experience. This is the sort of game you can only play for a couple of hours before you are bored.

I want to see this game go further or more games like it.

EDIT: Some people are upset that I haven't put a heck of a lot of time into it. For me .4 hours was enough to get a feel of it and post a review. Also don't get butthurt if I don't like your pirate game as much, I enjoy base building games quite a lot and pirate games. Thus this game for me is the perfect combo.

TucanSam
TucanSam

For five dollars you cant say much bad about this game and feel good about yourself. You get what you paid for and, to be fair, it is pretty fun. There are some pretty frustrating mechanics and flaws in the game however, but I still would say it's worth the money you spend.

Pros -
-Entertaining enough to be worth 5 dollars.
-Has a semi-helpful tutorial that explains the basics.
-Management feels relatively easy and clean.
-Graphics arent bad for five bucks, music is bearable as well.

Cons :
-Tutorial doesn't explain some key things you need to know, such as happiness management
-There is nothing you can view that I found that actually tells you why happiness is at a certain level (Maybe each pirate seperately?)
-Same Island over and over again.
-No autosave
-Remember button (To remember set ups for your fleet so you can send it back out immediately) Doesnt seem to work, or I couldn't figure it out.
-Auto assigns pirates at random to buildings it seems. So if you have unemployed level 2 pirates for your brig, and just enough to run it, you might accidentally send one of them to work somewhere on accident
-Very little information on VERY important things.
-No control over specific pirates or where they go/what they do.
-The raid menu shows a TON of items that have no explanation to what they are (I keep getting brown looking bananas. No idea what they do)
-The "Goods" section of a depot shows you everything you have. But that is the only way to see what you have over the 5 or so things at the top. Beer is important as well, as is different types of food for different levels. You get all your food crammed into one number, and only get shown rum.

Some insight into the above-

The good:
The game is pretty fun, and you'll probably be able to get your 5 dollars out of it. Rocking 2 frigates and a brig I was able to attack the third level targets, and I don't think the navy was after me yet (The navy comes after you when you become a big threat). The tutorial tells you which buildings do what.. kind of. All of this I figured out without using the tutorial, but then found it after. The building management is easy, as is resource managment. The only problem I ever actually ran into was having too MUCH of anything and having to build depots to hold more stuff since your main building maxes out at level 3.

And the Bad:
-Let's be clear. I like this game for its price. but there are a lot of things that actually made me quitefrustrated. Lets start with the pretty useless tutorial. I expect a tutorial to explain the base game mechanics. What the tutorial does is teach you how to place the basic level buildings and build roads. That's it. No explanation on how much food each pirate eats, no explanation on what makes them happy at what level, what they need at what level, how to level them up, how to get the stuff needed to build the upgrades that ALLOW you to level them up. nothing. This isn't a huge deal, some of this stuff is easily found out by digging around in the item. But some of it isn't and I didn't find a way to figure it out before my game crashed and lost ALL of my progress to that point.

-Happiness. Let's talk about happiness. As a pirate captain, you need to keep your crew happy, or they revolt against you and game over. How do you keep them happy? No idea. The game tells you that pirates at different levels have different needs, and I assume that works into the happiness level. So build tier 2 and 3 level buildings as your pirates work up that high. Spam buildings and hope it keeps it above 60. I never got mine higher than 66, and thatwas with most of my late game buildings.

-Let's talk about population though.. The only way in this game to get more people is to kidnap them. Not a bad mechanic. But when you are lucky to get 1 or 2 people on maybe 25% of your raids, it becomes a problem. Why? Because each building takes 1 or 2 people, and as soon as you grind out enough tools (Only way to get them early is by sea) you get specialty buildings like farms and breweries and the forge. THese each need a specific thing or make a specific thing, and only that one thing at a time. A forge needs coal and iron to work. You have one quarry and one lumberjack? Make two more to produce iron and coal. A farm can only ever make one type of crop at a time, and you need 2 sometimes 3 at the same time. Spam those buildings, baby. Which would be fine in its own right, if you didn't need unemployed pirates to run your ships. 2 to a sloop, your best option early (the brig is largely useless at this stage) and you need about 4 sloops or so to hit 100% success on a village I believe. Thats 8 people you can never have working if you want to (and you NEED to) raid.

This gets worse later game when the buildings poach seemingly random pirates to run buildings. Have a crew of level 2's to run your brig? Pray to rnjesus they don't get pulled into a building you give workers.

Acquiring new people does get easier once you get later into the buildings, and you can later spam levels so it doesn't much matter who gets pulled. But it seems like a broken mechanic to me.

- No autosave means you are at the mercy of crashes. I don't know why I didn't expect a game like this (no offense) to crash, but I didn't give it much thought. I was only 2 hours in and, boom. All gone.

-The menu showing you what you get after a raid is pretty useless. In 1920x1080, the icons were so small you could only recognize stuff you see all the time. Cannonballs are round. The other 60 or so items, I have no idea what they are, and you can't mouse over them to see an item name. Useless menu.

-The Goods menu on the top. You need different food and different drink for different level pirates, I'm assuming. That's how I *think* the mechanics work. All your food is lumped together into one big number, so maybe that doesn't matter? Rum is the only drink shown, so maybe once you can make that nothing else matters? You get shown clothes, but I am unsure what those do, since running at 0 doesnt seem to make anyone unhappy and having a ton doesnt make anyone MORE happy. Planks and rocks are shown, so that's good. Weapons are not, and you need those to level up.

-The remember button in the Raid section does nothing as far as I can tell.

Rant over. It's a good game if you don't expect much out of it.

EvelynEve
EvelynEve

Pretty average city builder. You can find a better flash game for free. It really needs more improvement before the price is actually worth it.

Flash Game? Flash Game.

For anyone curious, you can go to Google and type in, "free flash game city builder" and get results far more satisfying than this game. I have actually bought and played Secret of the Magic Crystal. I had at least a shred of fun with it.

Going out to lunch with my racist grandmother who I have refused to talk to in 6 years would have been a better experience than the moment I realized I had actually spent money on this game.

Where Do I Get Off Questioning an Indie Game Company?

I play a load of Indie games. I am also in the technology industry and have had three crappy games that I made from start to finish, including art, put into production as a free bonus. I did them all in under three days. I did them as a sophomore in college with only a basic understanding of how code even works. One of them is a hangman game for people in retirement homes. It's more fun to play than this.

What's Wrong with this Game? Everything.

    • Wow glitches.
    • Wow bad UI design.
    • Wow terrible graphics.
    • Wow, I actually spent money on this. I am writing the first review I've ever really done and realizing once again, that I actually spent money on this.
    • Really easy.

My Advice

If you really want to spend five dollars today, go find a fire pit. Arrange to start the fire and use five single dollar bills as kindling. It's a better experience than this game in every way.

Flexible Goat
Flexible Goat

Did you watch the video?

Before you click add to cart watch it again because that is quite literally the entire game. This game would have been cutting edge in 1995. Sadly it is about 20 years late. I give them props for trying but this game simply does not deliver. Buy it when it is on sale under $1 because it is barely worth that.

The joys of bad programming/translation

I got a few hours into it and suddenly it crashed out of nowhere. I loaded it up again and when I tried to load a game it just said leerer slot (empty slot in English). I selected the English option at load but who cares if the entire game is in English? Everyone knows German, right? Of course an empty slot didn't load either and crashed the game. Pfft, who would want an auto save? Or simple logic not to load a null game? That is way to much work. If you get more than a few hours into the game it is already over, what the hell are you still playing for?

Blue line "features"

Random blue horizontal lines will show up out of nowhere. Yep, cool feature.

Cutting edge graphics/animation

Have you used paint? Can you draw a stick figure? If so you could probably create better graphics than this game in about 10 minutes. These graphics are simply amazing... in 1995. I can't draw but I could have found someone who could before releasing this garbage. Simply lazy like most of the game.

Don't do it

Yeah all the cool kids say it is awesome but don't fall for it. I love my German bretheren but there are standards and this falls well short of anyone's standards let alone German. If only I can save one person from forking over their hard earned money on this garbage I will have done my duty as a citizen of the human race.

icydeadppl
icydeadppl

This is nothing like legendary city-building games like 1602 A.D. or The Great Empires Collection. If you're hoping for a new age version of games like those, run away. It does not offer levels of difficulty, random maps or modes and it has minimal resources. It offers minimal settlement, resource and character management. Map customization or settlement decor options are severaly limited here. You can only play on a solo map that consists of the ability to add/remove palm trees, add/remove a dirt road, and... nope, that's it.

The short tutorial that's available in the beginning lacks an emphasis on the importance of building a wharf and having a fleet for raiding early on and the role raiding will play in the early development of their settlements.

You will start out with access to nine basic buildings with the ability later on to unlock a total of eighteen on your adventure. There are only three upgradable buildings which are key to how those aforementioned buildings get unlocked in the build menu. There are no other forms of upgrading available to resource buildings or housing therefor your settlement never shows change as it grows, nor can you increase production like other strategy-simulation builder games. You can only place more of the same buildings and choose what resource you want it to farm. Once you have a small thriving settlement, you expand land ownership on the island and repeat until you've filled your island with happy little pirates.

Raiding is an interesting addition to this strategy-simulation builder game. A level three wharf allots you the ability to build three types of ships, each with their own advantage. Types of raiding are broken down into two categories, land and sea raids. Each type of raid will allot you three choices for what you wish to raid. Each offer a different level of difficulty. The more ships and crew members in your fleet you have, the percentage for success in those raids rises. For a nice twist, crew members aren't recruited to be crew members only. You have to give your pirates a break from their jobs to go on a "booty call" which may compromise your entire production if you do it at the wrong time.

Which brings me to mention your population. Unlike most other games of this genre, you don't have an increase of population merely because you've built a home for someone to move in. Houses are used in this game to provide a place for the pirates to rest. New additions to your settlement are pirates you've picked up on successful raids which means if you fail a raid, *cue music* DRN! DRN! DRN! ...you may also lose a members of your crew. If you lose too many of your pirates in a raid, you won't have enough to run your settlement and therefor must start over.

The user interface design is kept simple and easily accessible. You will have a menu at the bottom that allows you to build, assign workers, worker overview, raiding, military overview, time adjustment and options. Not a lot of asking yourself, "What do I click to control or see the yadda yadda?"

There's your five bucks worth of fun. The game is new and does have potential to offer much more. It lacks a few things you may have found in other games like this such as milestones, goals, trading with AI settlements, random acts of misfortune, different maps and a marketplace. But there's so much the devs can do with it from what we have here and they just may in the future. (Pssst. Tsunamis and shipwrecks would be off the chain, yo! *cough cough*)

At this time, the game quickly reaches a plateau where it no longer requires involvement from the player. If five bucks for five hours sounds good, go for it!

Feq
Feq

Not worth the price. Do not buy this game. Will take you about 1 hour to build everything. And do not play with the game speed because no matter how well you are doing you will at one point get mutaneers for NO REASON WHATSOEVER and it will end your game.

I regret my purchase of this game, was not worth the price at all.

Bored Peon
Bored Peon

If you are looking for a cure for boredom this aint it. Especially if you played the Tropico Pirates Haven because it is the same thing but without all the behavior decorations.

As for the $5 price....well guess what Tropico Pirates Haven can be bought for about the same price and you will get more of a game and play time out it.

Someone mentioned watching the video because that was the whole game. unfortunately he left out the part where it probbaly took longer to make that video than it did to make that pirate village.

snorlax
snorlax

This game has potential to be awesome........ if it ever gets worked on more. But at this point Tropico 2 is by far the superior game.

Sweaty Tooth
Sweaty Tooth

Pirate's Life is a cute little game for those who enjoy a simply strategy every now and then. I can't say that I could see myself playing this for hours on end because it is a bit too simplistic for my taste (I prefer games such as Anno 2070, as an example) but it really is fun if you're not in the mood to get too involved.

Given that it's only $5 I would give it a thumbs up but there are flaws (such as only one map) and bugs/glitches that still need to be worked out.

jimithyone
jimithyone

simple game worth the $5 if you want to see a video of this game ...go to view discussions, then click on Here's a good video of the game. you will get a video walk through of the game play.

Admiral Oblivious
Admiral Oblivious

The tutorial is incompleatable, as the very first mission has the second fishing spot out of range of your main building. And, you have no way of expanding this range.

Only three resolutions are supported. Only 16:9 720, 900, and 1080 resolutions.

Buggy early release that needs a lot more polish. I will check back in a few months to see if the game is playable then.

[Recon]The Famous Zombie Hunter
[Recon]The Fam…

I'm not sure what everyone is complaining about; As a 21 year old who grew up with classics like the N64 gaming console and computer games like Stronghold, the original Red Alert, Age of Empires II (And its Starwars spin-off whos name aludes me at the moment), and currently play games as "high end" as Battlefield 3, Planetary Annihilation, Tropico 3, 4, and 5, and a myriad of others, I have to say...

This game is DEFINITELY WORTH THE MONEY! Sure, the graphics aren't anything to rage about, and once you've played the game through once, it can be rather dull from a "Spit, shine, and polish" aspect, but it's built on solid gameplay, the graphics aren't painful, they're just not OHMYGODAMAZING, EVEN THE GRASS LOOKS REAL!!.

My only complaints with this game in all honesty are; 1. The game was clearly programmed in German first and not entirely played through by the developper when he localized it for English. When your time is up in a normal game mode, the game yells something at you in German about the Royal Navy, then says you won and shows you your score, which had me cocking my head sideways like a dog that just heard someone whistle for the first time.
AND
2. At the moment, the game only has moderate replay value. I feel as if it needs a bit more variety. Perhaps 5 levels of pirates instead of 3, and 5 levels of land and sea targets instead of 3 so that there's more than the 3 static tiers. Perhaps add a "Military Convoy" and replace the Merchant fleet with "Small Trader Fleet" and "Large Merchant Fleet", as well as add some new items; Perhaps a farm for fruit tree's, and for upgrade items for pirates, what about "Corsair's Hat" to go from level 2 to 3 instead of parrots, and make parrots level 3 to 4? Then you could add another item for level 4 to 5. Along with that, find a way to add two more levels of ships. Perhaps a Galleon as a level 5, the Frigate now as a level 4, the Brig now as a level 3, and a Barque for level 2? Just my thoughts.

TL;DR
As I said, the graphics are nothing to whine about, even though they're not amazing. Given the style of graphics, my compliments to the graphics designer! You did a wonderful job incorporating old-age graphics with new-age smoothness. While the gameplay mechanics are solid, they do lack a bit of variety once you've played the game through once or twice. I highly recommend that the developer continue to develop and expand upon this game; Even with keeping the current graphics (There's really no need to change them, they're pleasant to the eyes and bring back a feeling of nostalgia for us "older" gamers (You know, the ones who helped change the diapers of the younger gamers who are crying like orphaned infants about the graphics being wretched), which helps lend value to the game and make us honestly willing to pay more), you'll be fine. Just add a bit more variety to the game, get a better promotional video, and you'll easily be able to rake in $8 - $10 Canadian/American for the game in my opinion with (mostly) happy players!

Cheers, and best of luck to you with your wonderful days-long-since-past reminiscent game! I'm still filled with nostalgia from having played it last night! :)

julieandjasonvalero
julieandjasonvalero

I was wanting to play a game like this, but some Mother Fucking asshole did not make this game right. On the Main Building I was trying to upgrade to lvl 3 and the resources to upgrade is 96 wood, stone was around 50 or something and tools 32. Also on Main Building shows your limits and my limit was 80 resource to all items. I was stuck trying to find a way to somehow get 96 wood or pass 80 from my limit, I build double or triple of every building to see to pass the resource limit and also send my pirate ship out to raid and I had no luck. Now spending my money on these Idiot's Really Fucken Robbed me of my money and yes, I should of look at other peeps reviews. I don't know how steam works or lets these Fuckers sell there fuck up shit that don't work. Steam you need to test there game before you sell there stuff because this is ripping people off. People who made Pirate's Life take those bastards out and not let them sell there shit again.

Drackthar
Drackthar

Honestly just get Tropico 2 if you want a good pirate city builder game. This game is just a worde version of that.

The UI is awful, the music is repetative, the resource management is often wrong (telling you that you have none when the carriers are just too stupid to carry).

Seriously just get Tropico 2.

Membersheep
Membersheep

If you like to replay the same game over and over again on the same map with a time limit of 1-2 hours per game, then this is for you.
Honestly, the concept is good, but not that much variety from buildings and units.
Also always playing on the same map and the time limit makes it really boring. A campaign would have maybe the 5€ worth it, but without it this game is just 2€ worth. Won't recommend to buy it. Music and Sounds aren't made that well too.

0per8tor
0per8tor

I voted yes, but this has to be the first time i've ever wished a game was in early access. It has the bones to be a decent pirate sim but thats all. You will find no meat here, not even a half way decent tutorial. All you will find is a game that plays EXACTLY the same every single time and there is only a few hours to be had to experience the entire game for the most part. Idk, I was left feeling like I played a vaguely concieved game in just a few hours. With that said, the amateurish visuals coupled with an excellent jobs system for the villagers (Once you teach yourself how it works) make it a surprisingly fun few hours.

So i do recomend this game if only for more people to ask the devs to put out an UPDATE.

poopyffingers
poopyffingers

all the ppl bitch when i play this game nothing bad happens the graficks are not good but the ok for the type of game not much to do its a bit boring but i no alot of games that are betetr than this

Seyaku-Brad
Seyaku-Brad

This game isn't bad....I wish it had more description of how to start, I went about 20 minutes trying to figure out why I could build anything, or why I built a galley but nobody ate at it (needed the eating area) and I get to a point where after
about 2 hours I have almost filled up the island with nothing to do but pillage. Are there bigger maps? Do I expand my territory?

Durid
Durid

The only thing impressive about Pirate's Life is how many bugs and frustrating mechanics the designers were able to fit into such a basic and pointless game.

Half_Pierogi
Half_Pierogi

It's Banished but pirate themed and not nearly as good

paul_fawcett
paul_fawcett

Dull, Limited Game PLay. even £3.99 was to much money for a game with no imagination

Tallowhand
Tallowhand

Cluttered, yet spartan. Unintuive mechanics. Middling art. If I could, I'd ask for my money back.

LordRick
LordRick

I think this game has a lot of potential to be a good game. I would pay for an addon if they added more maps instead of just the one. They could also add more buildings for pirate happiness, ship building, ect. It would be nice if we could pick where we send our ships to raid too. A little more descriptions with mouse overs would be nice too. But overall, you definitely get your $5.00 worth in the current build.

illusiontek
illusiontek

for 5 euro?no!!!2 euro maybe the worst game ever

firestorm.1339
firestorm.1339

Great game, simplistic yet addictive. Everything is nicely linked to allow quick progression. The only thing that really annoys me is the mouse control, changes speed and is not accurate.

Hotdog Vendor
Hotdog Vendor

DONT BUY THIS GAME!!!
Almost any current flash game will offer more game play and less bugs.
Tried waiting to see if devs would fix stuff and add some actual content.
That was a bad choice now Steam wont refund me even thou I have less then 2hrs played... :(
Never going to open this crap game ever again.
The game only has 1 map and its not even that big. Crashes all the time and the video shows 100% of the content dont expect to do anything more at all then what you see in the video. Honestly I cant see why Steam lets this trash through.

Букавелли
Букавелли

1 year no any updates and news about game

YoMama
YoMama

Like a Piratey version of Banished, but without any updates since May 2015 you'd be better off playing Banished and not wasting your time on this.

Anonymous
Anonymous

At $4.99 I wasn't expecting much. When I was able to play the game without it crashing it was interesting, but it got boring pretty quickly. The mutineering without any reason or anyway to make the pirates happy again was annoying. I would ask for my money back but steam shows 5 hours of game play which you can do while buidling up but with no instructions to go on, leaves you kind of shooting from the hip sort of speak. You have a totorial but it seems to be very short and doesn't give you much but simple introduction to how to do some basic building. The game doesn't seem to open right away and it will play in full screen and periodiclly it would close. Again it's $5.00 so don't get high hopes if you buy this game.

warlordc903
warlordc903

Boy was this a disappointment. I was hoping this was going to be like the Tropico 2 pirates game, but it was soooo not. Cosmetically it kind of is, but game play felt tedious, repetitive and boring. This game looks abandoned as well, which is always unfortunate.

Like I said cosmetically it is like Tropico 2. You build a pirate island kingdom then send your ships on missions. You get special items from your raids that allow you to then upgrade buildings, leading to better ships. Sometimes things go wrong on raids and you lose guys. There doesn't seem much you can do to make your odds in these offscreen battles any better.

I put 3 hours into it and really 3 hours too many. I even came back after a update, but yeah it was still terrible. Hopefully one day we'll get a better spiritual succesor to Tropico 2 because that game is awesome.