Build and grow your pirate paradise in Corsair Cove

After escaping your prison transport, you and a crew of fellow pirates settle on a lush tropical island. While you scrape together the basics for survival, your fame spreads and you attract more and more pirates from across the world. Your job: turn this rowdy crowd into a highly functioning pirate fleet that spreads fear across the seas. Meet Corsair Cove, a delightful game by Tropico 6 developer Limbic Entertainment, published by Hooded Horse.

Anno with a pirate hook, Frostpunk with an eyepatch?

Staying true to Tropico's vibes, Limbic brings us a fun and atmospheric city builder that takes pretty much all the best things from Anno and Frostpunk in a low-stress but certainly challenging game, while bringing plenty of novel ideas to the table.

Anno fans will enjoy this one from the get-go. After settling on your island you build up some basic production, throw up houses, and advance the economy with mid-complexity chains while taking care of the growing needs of your pirate citizens. Your island is full of cliffs rich in resources and offers very little ground to work with. This invites the core novelty of Corsair Cove: you build upwards.

That sounds more complex than it is, and the game helps you connect your pirate town with ease. Traversing little bridges, ladders, and walkways is slow, so as you progress you unlock zip-lines, elevators, masts, and more tools to speed up the movement of goods and workers. While it is all easy to build, you lose some precision over where paths end up, so the end result is a pleasing sort of sprawling spaghetti pirate empire. Which, honestly, is a relief: it removes all the stress and pressure of trying to fit everything into optimal grids.

Frostpunk fans and Against the Storm enjoyers will appreciate the endless supply of exploration and events. Once you've built your first ship and loaded it with supplies, you can venture out into the wide oceans. You'll encounter four different corners of the world, each with their own themes and dilemmas. You can trade satisfaction for extra headcount, or risk it all when you're feeling brave. It carries the same basic RPG elements: resourcing, deciding when to cut your losses and bring the spoils home. Most events neatly progress the story.

Where Corsair Cove differs is that the missions are all uniquely designed and laid out across cool biomes you can zoom into, which makes it feel like you're truly exploring the map rather than clicking abstract markers on it.

Turn-based RPG RNG

Another welcome twist is the tech tree. Rather than just spending a specific resource to unlock new buildings or buffs, there's a long list of 'deeds' that earn you points to spend. The deeds are simple objectives, sometimes locked to completing specific challenges with a certain captain.

It's fairly simple. See what the opponent intends to inflict, play a counter card, and a dice roll decides the effectiveness of both plays. I found the system very forgiving and predictable, and occasionally just plain easy. The only event I've lost so far was… a pure gambling event.

I didn't find it boring though, because the decisions you make impact how far you can push your exploration. You can lean into greed and sacrifice pirates, or protect your crew and ship health so you can keep sailing after the event. Where most city builders lock you in hard, this exploration and event system actually builds in gentle pauses, which I very much appreciated.

Rewarding tech trees

Another unique and welcoming aspect is the tech tree in Corsair Cove. Rather than just spending a specific resource on unlocking new buildings or buffs there is a long list of 'deeds' that unlock points you can use in your tech tree. The deeds are simple objectives, or sometimes locked to doing specific challenges with a certain captain.

Four different point types map to four play styles, each unlocking its own vessels and building types. You finish the game by completing all major campaign events in one of these directions, but you can happily alternate between them and unlock everything to get your money's worth.

Jolly workers, boozy mentality and colorful details

There are city builders with more depth and more challenge, and I assume future updates will bring more here too. But the main reason to play Corsair Cove is simply to have fun while building out your empire. The game is a true delight. The map is very well designed and the environment is packed with detail: the occasional manta ray swimming by, seals chilling in the sun, hundreds of birds wheeling overhead. This game is full of life.

The events have a strong polish too. Each scenario has its own 3D artwork and sound design, resulting in an atmospheric and captivating scene. The UI is neat, clear, and has almost no bugs, a rare thing in these waters.

But perhaps the most delightful part is the settlement itself. The game really rewards zooming into each building and area to discover the hundreds of tiny funny details and adventures your pirates are having. Pigs turn up in the strangest places, your crew seems to be perpetually drunk, and every movement of goods can be followed in great detail.

There's virtually no end to the level of colorful detail. Beyond your own island, the entire map has been crafted with great care. Each region can be zoomed into and explored, and it's a testament to the overall quality of this game. The polish is great and the whole thing feels like a labor of love.

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Play this game if you like Frostpunk, Anno 1800 or 1404. And if you enjoyed Against the Storm for the events or Manor Lords for the supply chains, Corsair is even a better fit: same publisher, and Hooded Horse has become something of a kingmaker in strategy games.

The game is out in a full 1.0 release on Steam and Epic, discounted to $29.99 until August 14 and also available as a Day One Release on Xbox Game Pass for PC and Ultimate.