Rise of Piracy

A dormant genre gets a fresh coat of paint

Rise of Piracy is a solo-developed Early Access naval sim from IrishJohnGames, published by MicroProse Software, that casts players as a small-time pirate captain building toward command of a fleet. It leans hard into a genre that reviewers repeatedly point out hasn't had a real new entry in years. "Having just finished all the tutorials and played a bit of the campaign, I can say this game is a breath of fresh air for the pirate genre as a whole. The fact that the developer has added options to tilt the cannons further up or down to aim exactly where you want, adjust how much gunpowder you pack to increase or decrease shot distance, and even change how the cannons fire so you can gauge your range with a single shot is impressive. When was the last time a pirate game had any of these features???????" wrote one reviewer. Another framed the appeal through nostalgia for a different, older favorite: "In my childhood I played a game called \"Cutthroats: Terror on the High Seas\" from 1999. This game contain many elements of this good old classic. I searched many years for an remake but never found one - till now!"

The ambition of the design is a recurring theme in the positive reviews, several of which describe the game as effectively several genres stitched together. "It feels like three games in one: a third-person naval combat game, a grand strategy game, and an RTS. The only thing it's missing is turn-based strategy ship boarding," wrote one reviewer, who also praised a smaller detail: "One of my favorite features is the ability to create your own custom flags that actually fly from your ships." Another reviewer, comparing their first hours to a full campaign's worth of systems, wrote: "This is an impressive game, especially considering it's from a solo developer. The amount of game modes and systems blew me away. Tutorial starts you off in a top-down strategic view of the map, where you can navigate to different settlements, hideouts, engage with factions, intercept other ships, collect treasure maps, and interact with the games various systems." A reviewer who came in as "a fan of this style of game, Sid Meier's Pirates, Pirates of the Burning Seas, Naval Action" described ship battles and the RTS-style land assaults that follow them as their favorite part of the loop.

A developer reviewers trust to fix it

Almost every positive review, and a fair number of the critical ones, credit the game's momentum to how actively IrishJohnGames is patching it. "This game has huge potential, and the dev is working at breakneck speed, churning out multiple hotfixes a day while discussing with the community. Is this game buggy and rough around the edges? Yes. Am I worried about it remaining that way? Not in the slightest," wrote one reviewer, comparing the underlying structure to "Mount and Blade one the sea." Another reviewer who watched development from early streams described the pace directly: "I bought the game yesterday on release day, and by then it already was up to hotfix 7. Now, today by the time I get home from work, we are at hot fix 10! Fixing glitches, bugs and exploits." A reviewer self-described as "a pirate game addict, Sid Meier's Pirates superfan" who had followed the "passionate" solo developer through early streams called the game "enjoyable AS HELL for someone who's into pirate games," while adding plainly that "is it rough around the edges and somewhat clunky? Yes."

Where the jank actually bites

The negative reviews, and the more measured positive ones, converge on a specific set of systems that reviewers say aren't holding up yet. Land battles draw some of the sharpest criticism. "I'll change my vote when ground combat is fixed. You can take ship loads of pirates, and the entire batch will get massacred by some savages. A group of 50 natives, who have fought with sticks and stones their entire lives get attacked by dozens of my well armed pirates, and they cut them down," wrote one reviewer, who added that the avatars in these battles are "so small I can barely see them, if I'm lucky and they move." Naval gunnery drew similar frustration from another reviewer: "I must have missed the part where I asked for gunners who can't hit the broad side of a planet! I'll be dead-bang broadside practically point-blank and they either delay their shot (it misses) or they somehow pivot their guns 45 degrees fore or aft (it misses)."

Wind, a mechanic reviewers expected to matter given the setting, comes in for repeated criticism as decorative rather than tactical. "The sails dont even turn with the wind... That was the first thing I noticed starting out and its very immersion breaking," wrote one reviewer, who separately noted that "Ship combat is boring and ive had multiple fights where the enemy starts out with all their ships on fire." Other reviewers flagged more fundamental bugs. "This is an early alpha at best. I knew it would be bare-bones, but this is janky to the point of not being worth the time. Every mechanic and system, every single one, feels incomplete. This is ignoring the gamebreaking bugs such as your crew vanishing or duplicating, RTS orders not actually processing, text failing to load, ship boarding not consistently engaging, etc," wrote one reviewer, who was uncertain whether the rapid hotfix pace "bodes well or not." A shorter but still critical review flagged a shallow ceiling to the current progression systems: "This game has a long ways to go before it is worth it. In about a days worth of play you are maxxed out. Ground combat leaves much to be desired and ship to ship combat is very simplistic."

Verdict

Rise of Piracy is a promising, clearly ambitious Early Access naval sim being built by a single developer who has earned real goodwill from reviewers for how fast and openly he's patching a genuinely rough launch. Its ideas are its biggest strength: the layered cannon customization, the blend of top-down strategy, third-person naval combat, and RTS land battles, and the sheer novelty of a real new entry in a genre that reviewers say has been stagnant for over a decade all point to something with a lot of room to grow. But right now it plays like exactly what it is — four months into Early Access, with land battles reviewers call broken, gunnery that frequently defies its own aim, wind and sails that don't do anything mechanically despite looking like they should, and bugs ranging from vanishing crew to a progression curve some players say caps out within a day or two. It's worth buying now only if you're prepared to treat it as a work in progress and ride out the jank alongside a developer reviewers trust to keep fixing it; anyone wanting a complete, polished pirate sim today should wait for a few more months of patches first.