Developer: Akella
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
The golden age of PC piracy (and I don't mean the evil Warez kind) occurred in the late eighties with Sid Meier's immortal RPG/adventure/action/simulation hybrid Pirates. A wonderful game that had such an impact it seemed to scuttle any further PC pirating outright. It's been over 10 years since we've seen the likes of eye patches, peg legs and poopdecks and mateys, and that be just a bit too long, says I.
Sea Dogs follows Bethesda's interesting but rather half-hearted stab at the genre a couple years ago with Redguard and it's a much better game. For one thing it isn't linear, for another, it follows Meier's footsteps by being almost completely open-ended. You begin as a young trader who follows in the wake of his mysteriously slain father, and goes off to sea as a trader and wannabe pirate. Early in his career he is captured by the Spanish and imprisoned. He engineers his escape with a few worthy seamen, steals a small ship and makes for the English bastion of Highport. There the adventure falls into your hands. You can prowl the sea lanes preying on unguarded British ships or you can take on a Letter of Marque and work for the British as an errand boy and thorn in the side of the French, pirates or Spanish fleets. At any time you can change your allegiance and start a new career. You can uncover facts about your family, solve quests, or just pillage and plunder your way through the game.
Sea Dogs lets you gain experience points and get better at the art of captaining your ship and crew. You can also gain prestige by performing good or heroic deeds, or lose your reputation by foregoing sworn quests or betraying confidences. Your crew can mutiny, love or fear you. It's all up to you. That is the greatest strength of this role-playing game, the role is yours to play and there is no discernable linear path or ending to encounter or search for. Grab the gold, build or gamble with the rep, do good deeds, wreak vengeance on your enemies, level up and upgrade your ship and crew.