Pirate-based YARRRPG Raven's Cry gets May 7th release date

Raven's Cry is not a game about a sulky goth. I know this because I hoped it might be a game about a sulky goth, and then it turned out it was about pirates instead. Still! Pirates are pretty great, as you may have realised if you've shivered your timbers into Assassin's Creed 4. But wouldn't they be even greater if they levelled up and had actual hooks for hands? TopWare seem to think so, and after months with nary a glimpse of their piratey revenge story, they've returned with some new screenshots and a release date. Raven's Cry will set sail on May 7th 2014.

The news was revealed in a press release, which as a special bonus contained some of the most hilariously translated sentences I've ever come across. "When you look into the depths of a chasm for long enough, that chasm will surely look into your depths" is the obvious highlight, but how about "Christopher is a man trapped in the chains of his own demons"? I don't know what that could possibly mean, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

Speaking of Christopher, he's the star of the show - what with his surname being 'Raven' and all. His game's set in an "open, free-roaming world", with a "complex game skill system and modifications for all the ships in the game". After the disappointingly boat-free Risen 2, and the relatively shallow AC4, there is a giant gap in the market for a proper piratey RPG, even if I have my doubts that Two Worlds developers Reality Pump are the ones to deliver it.

Here's a few screenshots trapped in the chains of their own chasms:

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.