Pirates! Gold (HQ Remake) - Shipwright (2022 Remake)
8Sid Meier's Pirates! was originally released in 1987. Pirates! Gold took the original formula and improved upon it in 1993, turning it into a total masterpiece of Age of Sale simulation.
You start the game a lowly captain with a small ship and crew in the gigantic Spanish Main. You are a small fish in a big pond. Tasked with making your way in a harsh world, and finding your lost relatives, you are free to go anywhere you please and do whatever you like.
This was one of the first truly open world experiences. You can become a pirate and deal with the profits and consequences of that, or you can be a simple merchant making your ports of call fighting off pirates as you conduct your business. You can become a sanctioned pirate, a privateer, using your Letter of Marque to legally pirate foreign vessels that are enemies to whichever country you serve and avoid at least the ire of one country for basically being a pirate.
You can battle on land and sea for whatever cause you please, but you work against the clock as no crew wants to sail forever. Eventually, morale will drop to a point where you are forced to settle the account. After you divide the plunder of your voyage, you'll have to essentially start the game over - hopefully with progress towards your goals, and a little more money in your pocket this time. The world also changes over time and is not static.
This masterpiece is the gold standard of pirate simulators still copied today in franchises like Port Royale, and holds up very well in the modern era. A "plus" version (which appears to just come with the original 1987 Sid Meier's Pirates) is available on GOG.com for $5.99. A very good remake was done in 2004, so that's also a good option for enjoying this game with much more modern graphics.
https://www.gog.com/game/pirates_gold_plus
Original score by Jeffery Briggs and Roland Rizzo ©1993. Various tracks on this soundtrack are Traditional songs, and other were by Johann Sebastian Bach (public domain).
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