Buccaneers! is a budget piracy game done right

Anyone who’s had to physically stop me from banging on about Black Sails will confirm that I love a bit of piracy. Games mostly don’t do it justice at all, either making “piracy” shorthand for “mindless omnicide for no reason” or slapping a parroty theme onto a generic action game.

Buccaneers! isn’t primarily a piracy game, but they’re one of its four factions. It doesn’t try to be more than a naval combat and light action RPG either, let alone the “real” pirate game I dearly want, but I can’t hold that against it either. If I was being reductive, I’d call it a budget hybrid of Sea Of Thieves and Sid Meier’s Pirates By Sid Meier Aged 33 And 3/4. It’s probably unfair to set such high expectations, but the core design is compelling and enjoyable enough to merit it.