Corsair Cove

If you're keen for more pirate adventures following this summer's remake of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, I've got some good news as there's a proper pirate adventure called Corsair Cove. It's an unusual title, as it centres on a gang of pirates who are shipwrecked on a desert island and have to escape, and it's not the story that's unique, but the journey to get there. As the mayor, you need to build a functioning pirate community. How many pirate games have you played in recent years where you have to build a city? Forget other city-building games, as here, the pirates build on cliff faces, mountaintops, and beneath waterfalls. It's quite addictive.

The first thing that struck me was just how visually stunning the game is. It looks absolutely stunning for a title in this genre. Although this has more in common with SimCity and Cities: Skylines than Black Flag and Sea of Thieves, it's still a bit unfair to make that comparison. I'd rather position it closer to The Settlers, Anno, or Tropico, and if I really had to categorise the game, I'd call it an "Anno-lite". It's quite similar in design in many ways, as you have a limited area to build on and need to make use of all the terrain. On the map itself, there are countless resources on cliffs, by the sea, and on the peaks, and you can easily build suspension bridges, sleeping quarters, and even other structures to extract resources. It's not a complicated game, even though it offers quite a lot of content.

As well as building, you can unlock more buildings and other features through various quests. The more you do out in the world and on your island, the more you'll simply be able to do. After a while, you'll have completed quests and challenges that earn you points, where these can be invested in a technology tree offering four specialisations. These paths aren't north, west, east, and south, but instead emphasise a particular type of pirate. Empire-building, for example, is one such path. Each path offers unique traits and abilities and you'll also unlock new buildings through this system. The missions are colour-coded according to a specific path, which means you can complete them more easily with the right ships and upgrades.

To carry out missions, you can build a ship just like in the Anno series and choose a captain. Naturally, I chose the boomer and the ever-critical Teach, also known as Blackbeard. You've got a bunch of famous and lesser-known pirates trying to survive, and there's entertaining dialogue and a number of well-known voice actors. This part of the game is a highlight; it's reasonably well-written, and professional voice actors bring the characters to life, where for example, there's a character voiced by Kevin McNally, who played Mr Gibbs in Pirates of the Caribbean. He plays a rather similar character here too and if you've ever wondered what a city-builder with decent dialogue would be like, this is a prime example.

The ship you build is initially a jack-of-all-trades vessel, much like in Anno. You can then upgrade the ship in any of the compass directions. You specialise the ship based on what you need it to do - i.e. whether you want more speed, combat damage, or trading capabilities, etc. This changes the ship. There are around 28 ships, and over time you can acquire more. This is also where my main criticism of the game lies, as the boarding and combat sequences are presented as a mini-game.

If you've played Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, you'll know that you don't actually see the combat itself, but instead navigate through menus. The same thing happens here, although it's a card-based dice game where you can't choose the cards. You select cards, and there's also an element of luck involved; depending on your choices, you can then inflict damage. The system itself isn't broken, but it takes away the whole feel of being a pirate game. I would have preferred something along the lines of Sid Meier's Pirates when the battles begin as I think this is a colossal misstep, as the combat system here plays a major role and is used regularly, yet it's unengaging. It's a shame, because the rest of the game is good.

The ships manage themselves out at sea, and in many ways, the ship mechanics, as they work in Anno, lack complexity. Once you're ready to fight or carry out a mission, you have to accept it once the ship is in position. It's a system we recognise within the strategy genre, where everything from XCOM to Total War often loads you straight into a battle from the campaign world itself. I can accept that this is a smaller studio trying to make a comprehensive game, but I can't get round the fact that the battles themselves aren't particularly good. I do, however, like the background still images during battles and the sound effects, plus the cannons sound good and the music is pleasant.

Despite certain shortcomings, this is an innovative title where you can build vertically. It's somewhat reminiscent of Laysara: Summit Kingdom, one of the year's best in its genre. It should be said, however, that the actual building is simple and you don't quite get anywhere near the complexity of Anno or SimCity. Rather, it's a game that, with the help of slightly simplified economic systems, lets you experience stories and adventures with pirates. This is what I think the game does so incredibly well. It's a title that can also be recommended to newcomers, and you don't need to understand complicated building chains. Instead, you have a smaller number of resources used by just a few different buildings, and in that respect, it's like a well-made "Anno-lite". I'd argue, however, that the presentation in Corsair Cove is more colourful and, at times, more interesting.

Somewhere within a colourful, vibrant world full of interesting characters, you still get a capable city-builder. Its vertical building system and beautiful environments make constructing your small communities a real treat. Each mission also gives you a recommendation on what sort of boat you're expected to have. That brings me to what I call progression. If an upgraded boat is recommended, you'll instinctively start collecting points and then gathering the resources so you can build a new boat. You can, of course, try anyway, but more often than not the boat will be blown up and your captain could be out of action for 30 minutes. The progression requirements for the missions guide you as a player, which is a rather clever way of offering the player a certain direction. In addition to the campaign, there are smaller scenarios with their own missions, as well as plenty of side quests. There's quite a lot to do for the money and it's priced like an indie game rather than a big-budget title.

On the technical and audio-visual front, I have no major issues with what Limbic Entertainment offers. I've come across a couple of bugs, such as markers that don't disappear, but nothing that ruins the game. It looks fantastic, with lovely Caribbean environments, lush, detailed foliage, and buildings that clearly look like they're being used by people. One minor criticism is that the animations inside these buildings are a bit laggy. It looked as though they were running at a lower frame rate of around 30 to 60. I would have liked that rate to sync with what I'm using in the game, as when small animations in buildings lag, it looks odd when the rest of the game runs smoothly at over 100 frames per second.

The music is brilliant, and I really enjoyed listening to the theme tune in the main menu. I'd argue that there's room for more pirate music, and given the genre, it does tend to repeat quite often. I like this sort of music, so I hope a few more tracks will be added in future, however, this is a common issue within the genre and doesn't detract from the overall experience.

What you get with this package is a fairly straightforward city-builder that lets you build a world centred around legendary characters. You get to do this in a classic pirate fantasy set in the Caribbean, and the best thing is that the game is perfectly suited to both moderately experienced players and newcomers to the genre. I think even veterans can give this a go, switch off their brains for a while, and build something entertaining without worrying about the difficulty level. I'd like to point out, however, that you can easily increase the difficulty, in which case you'll be producing less whilst your inhabitants need more. The game doesn't necessarily become difficult for an experienced Anno player, though. One aspect that makes the game so relaxing is that you don't have to worry about anything other than whether the population is unhappy. Everything else is there waiting for you, including the missions, and this means you can sort out the logistics in the background, expand your base, do the things you want to do, and then tackle the missions at your leisure. There's no doomsday timer in the same way as in, for example, the newer XCOM titles.

Taken as a whole, the game is a competent city-builder with beautiful art and high production values. It exudes a premium feel, and the experience is somewhat simpler than that of many competitors. You have a choice of difficulty levels as required, and apart from a major flaw in the combat system, it's an experience you should try. For me personally, it's the combat mechanics that really prevent this from reaching greater heights. It's a real shame, as the game could have let you control battles like in Sid Meier's Pirates or included a turn-based mode. Instead, you still have to click your way through these battles, just like in Total War, where it's not a problem to manage the various elements, nor is it stressful. I also liked all the characters in the game. If you're at all interested in classic pirate tales and want to try something a bit off the beaten track, I can recommend this to you. It's beginner-friendly and offers a pleasant journey back to a bygone era. Although it isn't historically accurate, you'll meet figures from history. I can't help but give this a thumbs-up and a good rating.