Assassin’s Creed Pirates Review

Over its last two iterations, the Assassin’s Creed series – primarily known for letting players climb on historically significant landmarks and get stabby in different time periods – has increasingly become known for something unexpected: 18th century sailing and naval combat. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, with its focus on Caribbean piracy, embraced wooden ships to the point of making them central to gameplay and plot — and now we have spinoff Assassin’s Creed Pirates, which is set entirely aboard them.

You won’t find any climbing or free-running in Pirates, but it does boast a series of beautifully rendered, fully 3D Caribbean seascapes to explore, with treasures to hunt for and battles to fight as you sail freely between mission markers. Telling the story of Alonzo Batilla, a brash young captain who rubs shoulders with lesser-known historical pirates like Sam Bellamy and La Buse, it takes players through a small handful of plot-driven missions (some of which can be quite long) supplemented by a whole slew of side activities.