Pixel Piracy, as the name suggests, is a game involving pixels and pirates. The pixel refers to the graphical style and the piracy…well…it’s a pirate simulator. You go around plundering ships, hiring crew and exploring islands. The goal of the game is to take out four pirate leaders so that you’re the most infamous one left. It’s not that simple though, you have to start at the bottom and work your way to the top. Upgrading your ship, gear and weapons is key to overcoming your foes. The game starts off slow and requires considerable time to master. It’s not easily accessible in my opinion and requires a lot of work to get familiar with. You’d better watch playthroughs on YouTube before even starting. While the learning curve is significant, the game is very rewarding if you’re willing to put in the time. Unfortunately, that might be its biggest downfall because it’ll appeal to a very specific kind of gamer.
The most addictive aspect of Pixel Piracy has to be the ability to customize your ship. You start off with what I would call a rowboat. It’s very basic and through the process of plundering enemy vessels and buying items from local shops next to taverns, you can make it into a proper galleon. You can also build it into whatever design you choose. The game allows you to place each block individually so your imagination is really the only element holding you back. Just make sure you have a way to get out of your ship and board enemy vehicles or venture onto land. Also make sure you save up to get weapons like cannons as taking out larger foes becomes impossible without them.
When I first started playing Pixel Piracy I didn’t like it at all. I couldn’t understand what I had to do and it took at least five hours until I finally got the hang of it. However, with that experience under my belt, I started a new game and used my resources—mostly coins—properly. The systems of the game might appear rather simple at first but they’re quite complex. You have to hire a crew and make sure they remain fed and happy. This is probably the most challenging aspect of the game and takes some getting used to.
Normally when you have games that require a lot of time to fully master their features, you’re at least given a tease of what’s to come in the beginning. For example, a lot of titles start you off with all abilities and then take them away. Kameo: Elements of Power is a great example of this. You begin by having all abilities and then you have to gain them back one by one after they’re taken away from you. Maybe having a proper galleon in the beginning with all upgrades which was lost to one of the four pirates you have to take down would’ve improved the experience and given players a goal to look forward to. Not knowing what to expect in the future and what you can do is a critical flaw in Pixel Piracy. Many gamers will just give up out of frustration. Adding that little scene in the beginning would’ve elevated the experience considerably and given a clearer picture of where the title goes when you’ve finally gotten the hang of it after a couple of hours. I hope the developers read this and add that scene in. It would not only strengthen the narrative but also give players more focus.
The combat feels odd and is probably my biggest complaint with the game. You can board ships and take out enemies by yourself or send your crew members to do your dirty work. However, when you choose to engage enemy pirates yourself, the combat can get confusing and unpredictable. I have yet to master it but I think it relies on a token-based system. You must purchase quick short attacks and other moves from vendors and use them in combat. I figured this out too late and died a lot. I wish the combat was more like that of a normal platformer rather than this overly-complicated one. I want to jump around, kick pirates off ships, and slice them with my cutlass. I don’t want to stand next to them, press a button over and over, and hope that they die. Having a simplistic and more visceral combat system—as visceral as a pixel game can be—would’ve made this an even better title. Maybe in a future update they can give us a choice?
Summary
Overall, Pixel Piracy is a great experience only if you’re willing to put in the effort to master it. Many gamers will not do this because the opening is so basic and doesn’t tell you anything about what to expect in the future. Maybe having an extensive tutorial in which you build a massive ship in the beginning and then use that in combat would’ve made it better. The title’s inaccessibility is its biggest problem. However, if you can look past that and come prepared by watching playthroughs or reading guides, Pixel Piracy will keep you hooked for dozens of hours. The open-world setup is phenomenal and there’s so much to explore. I just wish the learning curve wasn’t that steep.
Be sure to check out Pixel Piracy on Amazon
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.