Review - Pirates Outlaws... Sink or Swim

 

Image courtesy of Fabled Games

This is going to be a relatively short review, mainly because it's a relatively short game.

    That's not to say that you can't pour hours upon hours into Pirates Outlaws, because you certainly can, but in terms of a storyline ushering you from a start to a finish... That's not really what's going on here.

    Pirates Outlaws is a deck-building roguelike with a clear pirate theme. It is divided into multiple sections, or isles, that must be unlocked through playthroughs. Only one is ready at the offset, but it has varied choices as you sail the sea that make each run unique while you fight your way through thugs, drunks, and bosses to achieve treasures lying in wait.

The Good

There really is some good here for such a small little indie.

    The art style is incredibly unique. The characters look like little paper cut-outs mishmashed together to create a character, and that works well for a game that isn't afraid to keep things simple. That said, as simple as it's kept, there really is a lot of variation in the small pieces that make up the Pirates Outlaws puzzle.

    For one, the cards are varied. There are literally hundreds of options that pertain to multiple scenarios you will come across in the game. Not only are the options in battle diverse, however, but so are the main characters used by the player. These "heroes" are each distinct from one another, and utilize their action points in different ways. Some specialize in guns and long range combat, while others use melee-style attacks and trickery through their cards. No matter who you play as, your ship will have 100 action points at the start of each run that need to get you from beginning to end through some conservation (although there are taverns along the way that can bring your AP back up to snuff). All the while you will be using one chosen character to champion your cause, but there are actually sixteen different ones that can be unlocked and played with.

    I say unlocked, because Pirates Outlaws is only going to start you off with one. The rest, like everything else in the game, need to be earned through gaining "repute." Repute is your reputation, ballooned through multiple runs and progressing farther and farther in each set of isles. The farther you go, the more repute you gain. The more repute you gain, the more options are available to you so that you can go farther on the next run. It's a cycle that works for virtually any roguelike you run into, be they deckbuilders or hack n' slash, and these game studios have to invent clever ways to keep their players returning. Fabled does that with Pirates Outlaws. It certainly can be addictive.

The Bad

Addiction to gameplay loops aside, there really is not very much to do in Pirates Outlaws.

    There is not really a story. Oh, there's the semblance of one that they cobbled together through having little "missions" relating to each hero card, but they're so generic it doesn't really illuminate anything. The cards don't even have names, so how much can you really have invested in the storyline of "The Gunner" or "The Explorer" as you try to navigate the waters?

    Not for nothing, but another aspect of the game's issues relate to the fact that Fabled didn't even bother to have the characters move. It's a deckbuilder, so I'm not really needing there to be swashbuckling and leaping over the rail, but I still think there could have been something to indicate that your character was alive and doing something when a card is played. No matter the card, there is no reaction from the character or the enemies until they disappear off the screen in death. That was a bit disappointing.

    The sound for the game is a bit repetitive. There is really only one song in the entire thing, no matter what set of isles you're playing in, and while it does ring like a genuine sea shanty... one would think that the variety of the characters mentioned above would extend to a variety of notes in other places as well. This is one of the reasons that the game can get a little boring.

    While some may be able to sink (pun intended, thank you) dozens of hours into Pirates Outlaws, I found I could only do several before getting the gist of the game and coming to the conclusion that there would be no definitive ending anyway. There are just other deckbuilders out there that do more with the same amount of resources, and do it much better. Roguebook is a good example, although the best deckbuilder I've ever played has to be Thronebreaker.

 Could be Better

I was hopeful for Fabled's initial venture, because I like how much heart and soul was poured into such a simple game. Maybe when they release their sequel out of its early access stage they'll have learned how to pump a bit more feeling, story, and song into the clash of pirates. God knows it's too late to change that name by now... oof.

6/10

Better than Some

For my own tale of swashbuckling adventures on the high seas, check out Fracture