Pirate games have been making something of a comeback over the last decade or so. One of the most celebrated Assassin’s Creed entries is Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii continues the crime series’ tradition of popular spin-offs. And Sea of Thieves has enjoyed ongoing popularity since it launched in 2018. Still, with Skull and Bones marking a disappointing recent attempt at a new multiplayer pirate game, there’s plenty of room for competitors. Fortunately, a new free-to-play MMORPG game called Crosswind has just appeared on the horizon, with a playtest available for interested players to check out.
Crosswind is a pirate game that takes place in a reconfigured, alt-history version of the Golden Age of Piracy. It looks to capture the sense of freedom and peril that characterizes the period, taking the form of a survival-focused MMO with PvE and PvP activities that will be continually expanded over the game’s lifetime.
Set in an open world, players are cast as a pirate captain who’s been left for dead and needs to start from scratch to rebuild their career. To do so, they’ll need to explore and collect the resources necessary to first stay alive and then, eventually, thrive with a new home base, crew, and ship capable of facing off against enemies. There’s shooting and sword fighting to engage with, skills to unlock, and gear to equip along the way. There are also larger scale activities like ship combat and customization, fort bombardments, inter-group item trading, and raids to take part in.
Crosswind’s playtest introduces all of these elements through a selection of environments to explore; crafting, building, and combat to try out; an early version of its Tortuga social hub to gather in; and three playable ships to captain.
If you want to check out more details on Crosswind, add it to your wishlist, or sign up for its playtest, head over to its Steam page right here.
Or, if you’re itching for more like Crosswind to play in the meantime, check out our picks for the best survival games and best MMORPG games already available on PC.
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