I did not realize this, but there are a lot of pirate-themed games on Steam. I discovered this little piece of trivia because tomorrow, September 19, is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and that means—you guessed it—it's time for a Steam sale (opens in new tab).
Some of the games in the sale are straight-ahead pirate games, which others are more of a stretch: Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire (opens in new tab), for instance, is a party-based fantasy RPG from Obsidian, but you're exploring islands aboard a big saililng ship, and so it's in. (It's also half price.) The Tropico (opens in new tab) games are also in there, as are Solar Sails—pirates in space!—and something called Girls' Civilization 2 VR (opens in new tab), although it's not actually out yet.
My favorite of the bunch, though, has to be V ARRR (opens in new tab), an HTC Vive game about defending your ship from pirates. User reviews on Steam are mixed, but the title alone is worth the purchase price. (It's on sale for $1.)
Here are some slightly more serious suggestions:
- Sea of Thieves (opens in new tab) ($28/£25/€28, 30 percent off—you can also get it for 50 percent off on the Microsoft Store (opens in new tab), if you're willing to put up with the Microsoft Store)
- Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag (opens in new tab) ($7/£6/€7, 67 percent off)
- The whole Monkey Island (opens in new tab) collection (69 percent off, price will vary depending on which games in the bundle you already own)
- Maelstrom (opens in new tab) – (it's a free-to-play naval battle royale, but quite good)
- Sid Meier's Pirates! (opens in new tab) ($3/£2/€3, 75 percent off—This the newer one by the way, but if you want the OP experience, it's also on sale (opens in new tab))
- Abandon Ship (opens in new tab) ($18/£14/€16, 30 percent off)
There's quite a bit more—there really are a lot of pirate games on Steam—so it's worth a browse if you're looking for something new to play. The Steam Pirate Sale is live now and runs until 10 am PT/1 pm ET on September 21.
