The best way I could describe this game is "EVE Online, but anyone can join in at any time".
Puzzle Pirates is (I'll be honest, i should be using "was" here) an MMO from the aughts that did Pirate gameplay right. As the title suggests, the gameplay is all puzzles. You don't have stats or anything of the sort: you have you, yourself, and your brain to Explore, Battle and Barter.
As a new swabbie, your goal is to help other crews sail the Seven Seas, attending to different stations to maintain the ship. From when the anchors raise, teamwork is on full power. As a captain, you have to direct your ship and crew as you sail and fight other ships. Everything that happens in your ship melds together to form the core Puzzle Pirates gameplay, and it works marvelously.
The puzzles will kick your ass, however. The rating system is unforgiving: you feel like you can do fine, but the game doesn't think you're stylish: Just doing the puzzles isn't enough, you need to perform combos, complete sequences quickly and not waste too many turns. The puzzle truly starts when you have to think of the optimal way to complete it. After decades of playing this game on and off, I still can't do it right on some of the stations.
Should you not want to do all that ship stuff, you can always live the life of a magnate, owning a shop, perform jobs in a bustling city... if you can find a deed to a building, of course. There's an entire fleshed out market out there, and you can make lots of money that way.
Speaking of money, Puzzle Pirates also has one of the best monetary systems I've seen in a free to play game. Doubloons are what's considered a payable currency: You can buy a bunch of them for a decent price, or you can farm just a bit from jobs (it's really not that long) to get a good amount. Doubloons are how you get temporary badges that let you do more things in the game. There's not much in the game that forces you to buy doubloons, if at all.
Today, this game's servers are still running. However, the number of players at any time can easily turn your head away. Puzzle Pirates has become niche, and its heydays are long gone. You can still play and experience a decent amount of content, but it's the best when you're with a full crew of players.
I am not kidding when I am saying this: Grey Havens, if you are reading this, I want to see a Puzzle Pirates 2. Hell, I want to make a Puzzle Pirates 2. Let's make it happen.
Puzzle Pirates is (I'll be honest, i should be using "was" here) an MMO from the aughts that did Pirate gameplay right. As the title suggests, the gameplay is all puzzles. You don't have stats or anything of the sort: you have you, yourself, and your brain to Explore, Battle and Barter.
As a new swabbie, your goal is to help other crews sail the Seven Seas, attending to different stations to maintain the ship. From when the anchors raise, teamwork is on full power. As a captain, you have to direct your ship and crew as you sail and fight other ships. Everything that happens in your ship melds together to form the core Puzzle Pirates gameplay, and it works marvelously.
The puzzles will kick your ass, however. The rating system is unforgiving: you feel like you can do fine, but the game doesn't think you're stylish: Just doing the puzzles isn't enough, you need to perform combos, complete sequences quickly and not waste too many turns. The puzzle truly starts when you have to think of the optimal way to complete it. After decades of playing this game on and off, I still can't do it right on some of the stations.
Should you not want to do all that ship stuff, you can always live the life of a magnate, owning a shop, perform jobs in a bustling city... if you can find a deed to a building, of course. There's an entire fleshed out market out there, and you can make lots of money that way.
Speaking of money, Puzzle Pirates also has one of the best monetary systems I've seen in a free to play game. Doubloons are what's considered a payable currency: You can buy a bunch of them for a decent price, or you can farm just a bit from jobs (it's really not that long) to get a good amount. Doubloons are how you get temporary badges that let you do more things in the game. There's not much in the game that forces you to buy doubloons, if at all.
Today, this game's servers are still running. However, the number of players at any time can easily turn your head away. Puzzle Pirates has become niche, and its heydays are long gone. You can still play and experience a decent amount of content, but it's the best when you're with a full crew of players.
I am not kidding when I am saying this: Grey Havens, if you are reading this, I want to see a Puzzle Pirates 2. Hell, I want to make a Puzzle Pirates 2. Let's make it happen.