Pirates of the Burning Sea Review

Pirates of the Burning Sea is a free-to-play Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) from Flying Lab Software and Portalus Games. It offers players the chance to live in the exotic Caribbean at the time where pirates ruled these waters and try to make a fortune for themselves.

Upon entering the game, you are required to choose one of the four playable factions, Spain, Great Britain, France or the Pirates. Depending on your choice you will be able to pursue one of the available careers, namely Naval Officer, Freetrader or Privateer if you choose one of the three Nations and Cutthroat or Buccaneer for the Pirates. Careers work like classes; they have their pros and cons, give players certain abilities and have their unique skill tree.

The game features nice 3D graphics that look a little outdated especially when it comes to character and NPC models and animation. On the other hand, the various ship models are well detailed and come with a great variety; in fact, many of the vessels are user-created! Naval combat is where the game excels with beautiful visuals and convincing sound effects. Larger ships may have a lot of firepower, but are generally slow and difficult to maneuver while smaller ones, although underpowered, are fast and when used in numbers can cause a lot of problems. Trading ships are big, slow-moving and usually unarmed making them an easy target, but can carry a lot of cargo; if you want to be successful you must bear these in mind!

Swashbuckling is another interesting feature of the game with four different fighting styles and a set of 45 unlockable skills for each one of them. Every style gives your hero proficiency with a specific weapon, for example Fencing allows you to fight with Rapiers and you can use only one at a time. Economy is player-driven and depends on imported and exported goods, making traders (the Freetrader career) absolutely vital. Pirates of the Burning Sea is a game that takes a lot of time to discover all of its secrets but the more you play, the more you realize that it’s something really special, a title you will not easily quit!