By Chris Picone, 01 March, 2026

Rise of Piracy has the bones of what I hope will eventually shape out to be an amazing game. It's important to note that it's only just released in Early Access and the developer plans to keep it there for 12 months, so I feel like what the game offers right now is a taste of what's to come rather than any real indication of the finished product. 

Aesthetics

Visually, Rise of Piracy isn't amazing, but it's not bad and for the sort of game it is, it's fine. The majority of the game is played top-down over a world map where you watch symbolic ships (each of which represents a fleet), scoot about the place, patrolling various waterways and visiting towns.  The map's zoomable to an extent, and rotatable, but you can't pan past your ship. And the camera controls are a little clunky at the moment, though I see plans on the roadmap to address that. Dialogues and decision-making are all menu-based.  However, you can visit islands for a first person view, and land combat's viewed in a similar manner.  One of the highlights of the game, though, is the ship-to-ship combat.  That's top-down again but thankfully zoomed in enough that you can actually see the individual ships in your fleet in detail. 

Gameplay

Controls are simple enough; right click to control your ship on the map, left click to interact with towns and other ships.  In its current state, Rise of Piracy is a sandbox game. The world's large and dotted all over with towns and patrolling fleets. At first you'll probably start doing a bit of courier work, collecting whatever passengers or mail are in town and delivering them elsewhere, supplementing your income with trade.  Unfortunately, at the moment these are both very simple systems. Each town has something that it makes cheap, so you purchase that while you're there, and drop it off somewhere else you go where it sells for more. None of the other commodities in the town are really bothering with. Likewise the bulletin board system where you accept courier jobs; there's no deadlines involved so you can pick someone up and sail around with them for months until you eventually arrive at the destination, so it's easier to just accept all jobs and collect the free cash as you go. Likewise, there's no ongoing expense system (rations, running costs, wages), so no need to be thoughtful about your actions.  Trade and missions aside, there's obviously an element of exploration, and also diplomacy. You can make friends with nations around you, and they allegedly go to war with each other as well. Meanwhile, you're free to do what you like, either patrolling or blockading and going to war with your favourite nation's enemies, or else being a grand old pirate and plundering who you please.  On that note, combat's fairly tricky at the moment. It moves to real-time though you control the speed. You also control your whole fleet simultaneously and there's lots of options there, from firing off cannons, choosing what you target, but also musketeers, boarding parties, all manner of combat at your finger tips - and all at the same time.  Side note - if you want to skip the campaign and just enjoy real-time ship combat, the game offers that as an option, and also includes a bunch of jump-in scenarios ready to go. 

Verdict

In its current state, I think you would have to be either very dedicated or else want to be part of the community feedback involved in improving Rise of Piracy, in order to have a good time with it.  However, as far as a taster goes, I like where Rise of Piracy says it's going to go. Further customisation is coming, more detail added to things like the interactions with mayors and captains, further depth added to existing mechanics, and even a story mode, which sounds genuinely awesome.  And all the complaints I had appear to be noted in the roadmap already.  So my thoughts are, for now, add this title to your wishlist, give it six months or so, then check the state of things and see where the game's at.  My fingers are crossed. 

Links: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1400660/Rise_of_Piracy/