Sea of Thieves is a more stylized take, but it also offers great gameplay moments like ghost ships and krakens. I love the ship combat, the underwater diving, the plundering, the tattoos, all of it. It was a breath of fresh air breathed into the rotting corpse of a stagnant series.
It completely revitalized my love for the Assassin's Creed franchise. While waiting for a new pirate game, I've replayed Black Flag loads of times. Remakes and remasters are so prevalent that it feels like new games are taking a back seat. Scurvy, sea-sickness, splinters, and rope burn are all things no one wants to deal with in real life, so can Disney hurry up and let me live out my ultimate pirate fantasy in a video game please? Obviously, the reality of being a pirate is pretty vicious. Traveling to different places, meeting new people, vanquishing your foes in epic battles around whirlpools or over rogue waves, relaxing on the beach and drinking rum - bliss. The stories of adventure are what always appealed to me. Even though they're called a navy, they have nothing to do with the military, they're just UK trade vessels, which is fortunate as it means I can still look up to my pirate stepdad without the heavy cloud of military imperialism hanging over the stories. Turns out he was actually in the Merchant Navy, but that sounds way less cool to a five-year-old.
My stepdad told me he was a pirate when I was growing up and I was in awe.
