New on My Wishlist: Pirate Commander

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 17:27:00 -0400
strategy, survival, pirate commander

In the "New on My Wishlist" series, I spotlight games from my personal wishlist. And no, it’s not exactly your average list: the stuff that lands on it usually takes some serious digging to uncover—and even if these games tend to fly under the radar, they’re absolutely worth keeping an eye on.

Pirates are having a moment again in gaming, thanks to the survival adventure Windrose. But that’s not the only promising swashbuckler on the horizon—the survival-strategy hybrid Pirate Commander stands out in particular.

Quick Facts

Developer

A2 Softworks · RockGame S.A.

Publisher

RockGame S.A.

Platforms

PC

Release

TBA

PEGI

-

Modes

Singleplayer

Languages

English · Multi (subs)

Price

-

Monetization

-

Free saving

-

Okay, okay—now it’s official: Mainstream Outside hasn’t even been live for a month, and this digital rag is already joining the fake-news crowd. 👌 Because technically, Pirate Commander has been sitting on my wishlist since August 30, 2022. So calling this "new on my wishlist" is, strictly speaking, nonsense.

But: I’m not about to launch a whole new format called "Not New on My Wishlist" just for this and maybe a few other games. So in Pirate Commander’s case, I’m making an exception; also because games like this rarely show up on the Caribbean freebooter horizon.

And yep, it’s quite different from Salt 2: Shores of Gold (simple, but wonderful), Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii or Caribbean Legend: Age of Pirates, all of which came out more recently. Anyway, how exactly is it different? That’s what the next section is for.

What’s Pirate Commander about?

The first thing that jumps out about Pirate Commander is its camera work, especially one perspective in particular. Even though the game is rendered in 3D, one of its main views is a side-on cutaway that strips the pirate crew of every last shred of privacy. You get to see the entire ship in cross-section: upper deck, lower decks, captain’s cabin—the whole tub laid bare.

I can see you—every single one of you. (Promo shot)

Obviously, the point of this perspective isn’t to annoy criminal seafarers—it’s a strategic view. At its core, Pirate Commander is all about crew management, resource management, and ship management. In other words: exactly the kind of stuff that requires a captain to keep a close eye on their floating nutshell. And yes, that captain is you, the player. Obviously.

Trauma and micromanagement

When it comes to managing your crew, it’s not just your fellow pirates’ physical health that matters, but their mental state too. The details are still under wraps, but judging by the giant killer kraken attack in the screenshot below, I wouldn’t be shocked if even the toughest bastards needed therapy afterward. Maybe there’s a peg-legged ship’s psychologist on board? Then again... back in those days, they’d probably just hand you a bottle of rum.

Either way, you can talk to your crew members—so you might end up taking over rum’s job yourself. Their mental condition also ties into a morale system, and...