Roguelikes are a great way for indie developers to create an engaging and replayable game, propelled into the wider gaming populace through the success of titles like finally getting a sequel, permanent death and regenerated runs can be balanced to earn a devoted player base. One such game is Pirates Outlaws, which uses roguelike mechanics alongside deckbuilding strategy.
Pirates Outlaws is from developer Fabled Game Studio, and was first released for mobile devices. The player is tasked with sailing to glory in a pirate-themed world, hopping from encounter to encounter within a series of different themed settings while earning treasures and boosting their reputation. Now, the title has received a PC release.
Rather than the free-roaming action of other pirate-centric games like Nowhere Prophet. Players will need to balance their deck well, allowing them to come up with strategies on the fly to try and get through battles quickly on their way to the boss of the map.
Where Pirates Outlaws finds success is by keeping its gameplay as fast as it can be. Its battles are quick and breezy for the most part, allowing the player to hop from island to island without spending too much time on any particular encounter. Whereas games like FTL: Faster Than Light allow players more time to immerse themselves in the game world, Pirates Outlaws keeps the action coming.
This was a clever choice for Pirates Outlaws, which lacks the world-building to give its setting gravitas and instead focuses on light-hearted fun. Elements like permadeath don't wear out their welcome too fast, as when a run ends in failure the player can quickly pick Pirates Outlaws up and go again without losing much by way of progress.
That's not to say that Pirates Outlaws lacks the brutal difficulty that keeps roguelikes engaging. Like all good roguelikes, a playthrough of Pirates Outlaws leads to failure more often than success, with the player needing to try again and get a better hand of cards, or get to the bottom of how to exploit a boss for maximum damage via debuffs, to make it through to the end. Meanwhile, the game's different enemy types and possibility of picking up random relics mean that the encounters along the way never turn into a chore.
This variety stops players from getting too discouraged. The main gameplay loop of Pirates Outlaws exists to build up gold and reputation points to get unlockable elements to expand the scope of the game further. These fall into new player characters with different perks and card sets, and different areas to explore. The player can swap the crystal clear waters for an Eastern Sea or the frozen seas of the north to change up their locale - providing they have proved themselves and gained enough reputation.
This level of variety helps the game stay fresh, with the player mixing up their tactics depending on their playable character. While some are centered around ranged attacks and quick reloads, others focus on close combat, all the while fitting different character tropes such as heavy hitting tanks or even mysterious plague doctors. The unlock rate for these characters may feel like a bit of a grind to some, however, as it can take some time to access them all.
It's here perhaps that Pirates Outlaws could find its biggest problem. If a player doesn't immediately gel with the game and its core gameplay setup of repeated play to unlock more options, then it's unlikely that they will stick with it for long. It may be more accessible than most roguelikes due to its quicker pace, but this means that it rests heavily on its mechanics rather than other elements like storytelling or atmosphere, which could leave some s to be less tolerant of its flaws.
However, all in all Pirates Outlaws is a very strong roguelike that concentrates what works about the deckbuilding genre into one neat package. Its card-based strategy should be speedy enough to keep players engaged, while veterans of roguelikes in general could find much to enjoy about its varied character designs and vibrant world - particularly if they're looking for a different setting but the same general gameplay of the likes of Slay the Spire.
Pirates Outlaws is available for PC and mobile devices. Screen Rant was provided with a PC code for the purposes of this review.
Pirates Outlaws
- Released
- August 28, 2019
