Blackwake - PC & Mac (Steam)

Overview
Blackwake is a massively multiplayer game centered around naval combat. This game is what Sea of Thieves should have been. You can have massive ship battles against other players. You board ships and fight with guns in first person perspective, which gives this game an FPS element. This game will give you many wonderful hours of playing with friends while fighting off other pirates in the open seas.

Raising a Black Flag
Are you ready kids? Aye aye Captain!
This game has a lot of depth. You can have a ship of upto 10 players with each getting their own role. You may be in charge of manning the cannons, which actually feels realistic and feels amazing when you shoot them. You aim through a small opening in the side of the ship. In the middle of a fight, when your ship takes some damage, you and your crew have to be prepared to split up tasks, as one of you will have to go and patch up the ship, while someone else pumps out the water leaking into the ship. And at the same time, remember to keep shooting those cannons at the enemy. You can even board enemy ships by shooting your grappling hooks. Thankfully, the devs prevents online trolls from ruining your experience by making you need orders from your captain, who is chosen by popular vote, to do so. Fights in Blackwake can get chaotic very quickly, but as long, as you are playing with some friends this will be a blast for sure!

Shoot his head off!
Once the boarding begins, Blackwake becomes an FPS. You will have your loadouts with various guns to choose from, such as: a blunderbuss, a musket, or even just a standard pistol. Moments like calmly drinking tea at the heat of the battle to recover some hp while your friends yell orders and requests for help can be funny as well and adds to the charm of the game. One of the biggest positives for this game is that it has made communication very easy. Even if you don’t have a mic, you won’t have many problems since this game has a really well made commo rose similar to that found in the battlefield series. As you may have guessed, this was a great move by the devs as this game requires a lot of communication.

We’re flooding, Captain!
As for the negatives, the only one right now is the fact that the game doesn’t have a large player base, but you can chalk that down to the game being a niche early access game. Don’t expect this to be a problem after full release.

Pirates Night!
Personally, this is a fun game to play in some free time with friends. That being said, you can always find players on forums and such to organize play sessions with, quite easily. Trying to keep the chaos that the combat of Blackwake inevitably descends to with friends is an experience that you will want to keep returning to. The game is incredibly well made with the only problem being its somewhat small player base, but once you can find a few friends to play with, it won’t really be a problem. Recommended!

Reviewer: Sylla