All hands on deck, cordial. It’s time to set sail. Don’t forget to pick up a deck of cards for your next battle. Pirates Outlaws is a roguelike turn-based strategy game based on customizable card decks. Let’s see what we have.
If you’ve played card-based strategy games before, this all sounds familiar. Acquire a deck containing cards such as attack, defense, health boosters, and ammo to re-equip. Mainly he has three ways to customize the deck. This means acquiring new cards, leveling up cards in existing decks, and discarding cards you no longer need.
As expected, you’ll have to pay for new cards and upgrades. What I didn’t expect was having to pay to put cards in the bin. It’s a good idea to keep Watch your loot, as you’ll have to spend it on health/hit points, ship repairs, card upgrades, new cards, and more.
You can also customize your player character/hero. This is a little more “expected” action. You need to earn enough XP to unlock entries in the hero’s list. As you progress, you’ll gain access to all sorts of heroes, from default gunners to musicians to undead plague doctors to chickens. Oh no, the main character isn’t just a coward or a guy in his suit who chickens out. It’s the sort of chicken that lays eggs on Saturday night or turns into a buffalo feather. This whimsical touch is a welcome departure from the world of stress and some of the darker entertainment options out there.
Not only are there different types of hero divisions, but there are also several adventure types to play. Island hop for fights, beer, and bartering, depending on the island.
After accumulating 2,000 XP, you can unlock the arena and set sail to battle. For 4,000 XP, you can open the Hook Hart Locker in the Tavern Brawl. If you don’t want to navigate the charts, you can visit the quest section. If you think you need more, check out Storage.
When engaging in battle, be aware that you only have 3 ammo slots. Each card is assigned a value from 0 to 3. This is the amount of ammo you use to play the card. Since it’s a pirate game, there’s a mandatory “punch” card. It doesn’t do much damage, but doesn’t consume ammo. Using some shields also consumes ammo points, so use them wisely. When the round begins, the game will randomly deal his 5 cards from your deck. Each card tells you how much damage you do to your opponent or how many points you protect from enemy damage. You can play in any order you like, but when you run out of ammo and have no more cards at your disposal, you must end your turn by pressing the Y button.
Unused cards are shuffled back into the pile for reuse, but only after all the cards in the deck have been dealt. Exceptions to this rule are certain cards that he can only use once per encounter, such as recovering hit points.
Like most games like this, there’s a lot of running through maps (or charts, in this case), engaging in consecutive battles, and fighting bosses at the end of sections. The game economy may not be debauched in its generosity, but it makes up for it with an almost deliberate willingness to let you win rounds in order to keep playing. Some bosses have triple his hit points than yours, so using your deck wisely is a very good idea.
The papercraft visuals have a comic book feel, which suits the nature of the game perfectly.
All things considered, Pirates Outlaws is very well made and a good addition to your tactical card game library.