Nautical Combat Video Games

[JadedDM]

Anyone have any recommendations for good video games that feature nautical combat? I'm talking ship to ship battles, boarding and repelling, and so forth. I know there's Sid Meier's Pirates!, which I already own. I also remember an old SNES game called New Horizons that I'm tracking down. But is there anything more recent?

[Jayngfet]

Well Assassins Creed: Black Flag is basically the go to answer these days, since it's new and has basically all of those things in spades.

[Winthur]

I was hoping to be able to recommend the Silent Hunter series, but I'm sure you mean classic ship-to-ship stuff and not being an U-boot commander.

There was this Pirates of the Carribean game that was PotC in name only (you played as captain Nathaniel Hawk, and I think Black Pearl appears sometime in the game) and I remember it as being okayish.

There's also Sea Dogs.

[JadedDM]

I was hoping to be able to recommend the Silent Hunter series, but I'm sure you mean classic ship-to-ship stuff and not being an U-boot commander.

There was this Pirates of the Carribean game that was PotC in name only (you played as captain Nathaniel Hawk, and I think Black Pearl appears sometime in the game) and I remember it as being okayish.

There's also Sea Dogs.

Ah, yeah, I should have specified I meant ancient naval battles. Like the Age of Exploration or earlier.

Are you referring to the PotC MMORPG? Or is this a different one?

Sea Dogs looks like what I'm looking for. Thanks, I'll add that to my list.

[Winthur]

Are you referring to the PotC MMORPG? Or is this a different one?

The latter. I had no idea PotC has an MMO.

The game I'm referring to is kinda like the concept from Privateer (you own a ship and you sail around doing piracy or merchant stuff, upgrading and supplying your ship all the while), though not as memorable.

[JadedDM]

Is this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_the_Caribbean_%28video_game%29) the one you are referring to, Winthur?

[Winthur]

Is this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_the_Caribbean_%28video_game%29) the one you are referring to, Winthur?

Yes, that is so.

But it's not that great of a game - it just happens to fit your criteria. Just give it a try.

[TaRix]

New Horizons does exist on the Wii's Virtual Console, if that's an option.

The Uncharted Waters series (it is big ol' franchise in the East) has an MMO as well. Fun, but like all free-to-play MMOS, rather grindy.

Kalypso's Port Royale (3's the latest) is available for PC and modern consoles, but combat doesn't necessarily figure into it often. Economic warfare tends to get better results and profits.

Koei's PTO series might also work for you; it's set in the WWII Pacific front. PTO 4 was more action oriented and was for PS2.

Koei also made the two "Warship Gunner" games for PS2, where you design and pilot your modernish ships through combat missions.

[factotum]

Well Assassins Creed: Black Flag is basically the go to answer these days, since it's new and has basically all of those things in spades.

Depends how realistic you want your combat to be. The main issue with AC4 is that, although the ships are all sailing ships, there doesn't seem to be any advantage or disadvantage gained from the direction the wind is blowing--you can even sail at full speed directly *into* the wind, which is an impossibility for even the most modern sailing rig, much less an 18th century barquentine! Oh, and your ship is ridiculously powerful, too--in real life a ship that size would be reduced to matchwood from a single broadside from a three-decker, yet you can survive several in the game, *and* generally do enough damage in return to sink the enemy.

Oh, and boarding actions are obviously made much easier by the fact the character you're playing is superhumanly fast, strong and durable...

None of that takes away from AC4 being more fun than a barrel of particularly whimsical monkeys, of course, it's just not what you go to if you want anything remotely real-world.

[Jayngfet]

Technically speaking the wind does matter, it'll push you and slow you down if you don't factor it in properly, but yeah, it's not that great.

AC4's naval system had a number of cool ideas(great waves, water spouts, ect.) but despite Ubisofts insistances it didn't really capture the feeling of being a historical pirate in the west indies. Which bums me out since I spent half my life in that area and half my childhood in piracy museums or reading on the subject.

I can appreciate it as a good pulpy fiction story about ninjas and ancient ruins and treasure on every shore, but the appeal for me about piracy was always the tightly packed mass of men barely scraping along in a hold full of moldy hard tack and stinking livestock. The extreme conditions and weird ways they'd adapt were honestly the best bits.

I mean, at least let us get a good below deck look at the Jackdaw! How can you modify your ride and not bother to pop the hood?!?

[Brother Oni]

There's Pirates of the Burning Sea (http://portalusgames.com/potbs/), which is a MMO based in the Caribbean during the Age of Sail so it's a little bit past the Age of Exploration. It's free to play though, so you don't really lose anything by trying it out except for download limits.

The only other naval combat game that I know of and hasn't already seen listed is World of Warships (http://worldofwarships.com/), but that's only just finished its first round of the closed Alpha, plus it's outside your requested period.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

You could give Leviathan Warship (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxxnq5YAVHw) a try.

[Talderas]

Anyone have any recommendations for good video games that feature nautical combat? I'm talking ship to ship battles, boarding and repelling, and so forth. I know there's Sid Meier's Pirates!, which I already own. I also remember an old SNES game called New Horizons that I'm tracking down. But is there anything more recent?

Battlestations: Midway and Battlestations: Pacific. The latter is the more recent one. It's three dimensional and you get to control subs, PT boats, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, and even aircraft carriers. It also has missions where you're piloting fighter craft, bombers, torpedo planes, etc.

[Cristo Meyers]

You could give Leviathan Warship (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxxnq5YAVHw) a try.

This one's also on sale on Steam currently: $3.39.

There's another called Naval Warfare that's on sale for $0.39

I've not played either, but at that price they're at least worth investigating.