Build Vertically and Manage Your Supply Chain in Corsair Cove!

Its not every day that you get a city builder that actually does something interesting, like building vertically up. Who would have thought that stranding some pirates on some rocks in the Caribbean, and telling them to build stuff would actually work.

Corsair Cove is precisely that, also plus Civilization, and Satisfactory.

I'm a big city builder fan, I grew up on SimCity, I've played every iteration and spin off I could ever got my hands on. Long after the failure of SimCity 2013 I've continued to play it. I enjoyed my time with Cities Skylines, and I'm actively awaiting LEGO Skylines, and for someone to actually improve Cities 2.

I gave Corsair Cove a shot just by happenstance. It was a free demo on steam and I thought to myself, sure why not. Now the entire aesthetic seemed to be pretty solid, and it clearly looks like the developers actually thought about how the aesthetic of the game would inform its logic.

I did end up having a great deal of fun with Corsair Cove. One of things that really stood out, was the fact that the game is effectively a single player adventure game with a surprisingly deep (ish) story, where your actions are actively working through the game's plot. It effectively start off the game like a campaign mode, and the game teaches you the basics. It takes you through the plot, the people, and quite a number of simple systems, that get really complex when everything gets tacked on to each other. I did find the campaign to be interesting, and it is something that I do think I would have liked to play out, but I would need to play this alone for a few weeks.

However, the game's systems are extremely wide. I originally played the game a couple of months ago, and I recently came back to record footage and get some screen grabs, only to be completely lost in what I was supposed to be doing. Don't get me wrong, the quest line marker was still up, there were some indications that some things were wrong and need attention, but I kind of just sat there and I felt a sense of overwhelm. I don't believe this is the game developers fault, I do think that this is kind of a game where you've got to play it through and really commit a couple of days to really learn and get deep within the systems, so that when you put it down and return to it later on you are able to just proceed where you left off.

It is kind of like Civilization in that regards. At this point, I can pick up Civ at any point and I can run a game or play a game from a saved state without thinking much. I think that is where Corsair Cove will really shine, but it does require you - the player - to really get into the deep end.

There a few major things I'd like to point out. The first being that the game is divided up into a couple of game modes. First you have the city building portion, and second you have the exploration portion, where you tell your various ships to go explore, kind of like Civilization. You will battle against computer controlled opponents as you make your way through the story. Battles may be engaged at open ocean or at the various ports on the islands.

Battles usually consists of a static background, with some text through up there for good measure, and selecting what you do from a series of cards, then rolling a dice to determine how effective those cards are. Some cards repair damage to you, or cause damage to your opponent, some cards loot your enemy. I will admit, I was very confused throughout the battles, and I felt the dice rolling was a bit confusing, so I just picked random cards until the battle was over. It took me a few tries with my first few battles to get the hang of it, but I would regard it as one of the more weaker parts of the game.

A lot of the game really comes down to supply, demand, and managing supply chains. Ensuring that game pieces are placed in a way that serves the most amount of consumers within a range. Creating the fastest and most efficient path between the various resource deposits across the island map, and ensuring your citizens (your pirate squad) do not revolt against you by supplying them with enough work, beer, and coin when the moments arise.

The art direction is suburb, and I do love how intricate the various builds are, especially when they connect to each other, and make this sprawling mini city, which almost looks like tree houses on cliffs. I do think this is where the game shines, like it legitimately looks and plays quite good. You can always zoom in on the various items and you can see the environment reacting to the buildings placed. I think that was something I spent more time that I care to admit, that I was just wondering about on the map looking at how everything really connected. This is actually something I always look out for in city building games.

And since I've downloaded the demo, the game's performance has been stellar. In the beginning there were some issues, but with the most recent build I think the developers have locked it down and it is fantastic to experience.

Despite what you've read in this piece, I do enjoy Corsair Cove. There was a lot of work put into the aesthetic, the music, the effects, the entire package as a whole. If you play city builder games, or enjoy management games like Factorio, or Satisfactory, I think you'll get a kick out of this game, not because of anything I've said here, but simply because its a breath of fresh air. One which I do hope will convince the developers to keep pushing forward, because Corsair Cove is a genuinely fun game, even if, at times, it is a bit rough around the edges.