Reviews

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  SCarterE

  Jun 18, 2016

  It's not GTA. It's more like Steal This Book: The Game. You're trying to survive at street level. You're a week away from starving to death, and your morale is even more tenuous. As the name "Pirate" might suggest, there's some resemblance to the old Sid Meier game in that there's no central gameplay. As you move around the map freely, various tasks each appear as their own minigame. The art design combines daringly low-res pixel art with a color scheme that's easy on the eyes. A level structure keeps it from being overwhelming at first. A fun, lightweight game with more relatable conflicts than other sandbox crime games.
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  Moonchild

  Jun 19, 2016

  so an oogle simulation is cool and all but what the fuck is up with the controls!?
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  Ezra

  Jun 19, 2016

  A more subtle, toned-down kind of crime sim. Easy to learn, fun to play, very great game imo. Now someone tell me how to get past level 6.
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  bridgeofblues

  Jun 21, 2016

  This game is a very interesting twist on the sandbox open world crime genre. Instead starting empire for wealth and power beating misusing people, instead your shoplift skateboard, smoking weed. Your not just criminal your Urban Pirate! What is Urban Pirate that well strange abstracted code of morals of living outside modern society while partying hard as you can and being much of menace as humanly possible! The game take romantic view pirates which where greedy men and women wanting as much booty and wealthy as possible, as same time historically they value there personal freedom and in had a very democratic nature about election there captains and each man of getting fair share of the plunder. This democratic idea gave rise to the short live Pirate republic state on Nassau against during the same time period of rise of absolutism. This romantic idea of breaking from social class to claim your own freedom for the sole sake of freedom and joy and will fight with flaming passion against thought that will rob it! Even with you character noble if not short term view of freedom. The first half of the game sheep Island slowly open up the mechanic so not to throwing to much at you at once as well see are character slowly get more of grip of there new existences as Urban Pirate The second half introduces more mechanics as we lead are own Squat to show how we are the captain of own fate! Mechanically speaking the inspired by quite few of old school 80s game like skate or die frogger and paperboy and even Sid Meier Pirate in how the game core gamplay focus around several mini-games. May of games themselves show us the carefree nature of are Urban Pirate. The old school graphic are simple but perfect for the setting and feel the game is aiming for. This carefree rebel without cause that love freedom for freedom sake instead of harden criminal. All there actions end goals are spread this idea of personal freedom in this true chaotic sense. My only true complains are there was no level to push the weed growing and selling aspect of the game and the missing part of the manual on rival gang riots and disguise. And the games end what feel like at true halfway point! We master all the mechanics and then it just ends! Bottom line is I greatly enjoy this game fun punk street charm and interesting take on the crime genre with interesting philosophically ideas behind it.
• 

  jaedaen

  Jun 22, 2016

  TL;DR - This is a very fun and unique game that's definitely worth checking out, though it does seem to need a bit more polish. Remember when you were 13 and found the Anarchist's Cookbook on some shady BBS (or website)? I know that it was very exciting for me, because even though I was a nerdy and well-behaved little kid, it was fun to imagine an alternative me putting those tricks to use on the street. Well, this is that game. You shoplift so you don't starve, you grow, smoke, and sell weed, you make molotovs to defend your squat against over-zealous riot police, and you skate in a minigame homage to NES's 'Skate or Die'. I play a lot of games, and this was a real breath of fresh air to me. It's essentially broken down in to several very simple minigames and a fairly simple meta-game on top of that, which basically boils down to: Avoid cops, don't starve, and stay sane. Action success is usually determined by an RNG. The pacing of the game is nice; it eases you in to new game mechanics just at the right time. This was the carrot on the stick that kept me interested, because there is admittedly some tedium here that is caused by the cruel RNG gods (something that needs to be balanced by the creator, in my opinion). For example, there is a bonus mission objective in which you have to abstain from smoking weed for the duration of the mission. Well, the cops raid the local squat randomly which denies access to it, and staying sane depends upon your ability to visit the squat to socialize. If the cops show up every single day (which has happened to me several times), you are out of luck and must restart. Another bonus mission depends on your ability to shoplift successfully X number of times. Again, if the RNG is unfavorable, you have to restart. Both of these missions took 5+ attempts for me, which is extremely frustrating, given that it was not my lack of skill that necessitated this. Additionally, despite the fact that both of these mission objectives were labelled as 'Bonus', they were anything but, considering that I needed to complete every bonus objective to move past level 5 (There are 11 levels, BTW). In a weaker game, these points would have been frustrating enough to cause me to stop playing, but I was invested enough to see it through to the end. It was oddly addictive, despite the frustrations, and I quite liked the minimal yet engaging story. This to me feels like a game that is more than the sum of its parts. It has a heart in there, and I can't say that about most games. As a side note, all of the pirates are blue (none of the other characters in power are), and are profiled by the police and searched without due cause. I assume this was intended as some social commentary on racial profiling. At any rate, give it a shot. It's cheap, and you know about Steam's return policy right? Just return it before 2 hours are played if you don't like it. It's certainly not for everyone, but to me, it's a little diamond in the rough.
• 

  Flame Haired Adonis

  Jun 23, 2016

  tl;dr: For me personally, the fun of this game does not outweigh the frustration of the game. Glad to help an indie developer, but not glad to play the product. [b]PROS:[/b] [*]8-bit retro graphics [*]Fun concept [*]Opportunities in-game scale to progress [/list] [b]CONS:[/b] [*]Retro gameplay means frustrating gameplay in some instances [*]RNG (at least seemingly) based shoplifting, socialization, income, and events [/list] This game frustrates me in a real way. When you get caught stealing, which seems to happen more and more frequently, you then run in a vertical scrolling stage with only left, right, and jump buttons [url=http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/471380/ss_7c45f7876f59012c2b88cde0aaad3cef0a6d16c5.1920x1080.jpg](like this)[/url]. This seems nigh unwinnable to me, and I've only successfully escaped the police one a couple of occassions. For me as a player, if I roll poorly on the RNG for shoplifting, I almost always get caught. When you get caught, you are fined 50 bucks which you are supposed to pay at the police station. If you don't pay it, because who has 50 bucks in this game, then the next time you're caught shoplifting you go to jail. Jail makes your sanity plummet (it drops -1/day, -2/day if you're starving. 0 = Game Over, 10 = Capped) and sets your action points capped to 3 (from 5). With 3 action points, you can steal for food, so that you can eat, or you can socialize (if the squat isn't being raided by the police which happens far too frequently). Assuming that the cops are not raiding the squat, you can get anywhere from 1 to 3 sanity and 0 to 1 food. Keep in mind that you lose 1 food and 1 sanity every day. So, many days, if you just socialize, your day will be net zero sanity and negative to food. Being that you only have 5 action points a day and lose health and sanity every day, this is really a resource management game with an overzealous dice roll mechanism. If that's your thing, get on it. If it's not, consider another game.
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  Zirkalaritz

  Jun 26, 2016

  Hobo Simulator: the strategic crime RPG, now with minigames! Simple controls, mechanics on point and a reasonable difficulty curve. Cool aesthetic and humour if you like this kind of theme. Having lived as a part of a punk squatter commune for a couple years, this game hit close to home and my opinion is totally biased, but that should not stop you from taking a look at this game. It's awesome.
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  Bip

  Jun 27, 2016

  This game is the spiritual son of the Atari E.T. and Forklift Truck Simulator 2009. He has the graphism and the sound effect from his 80's mother and he's entertaining like his father... Don't buy that shit. Ask the dev to pay you for playing this crap...
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  static

  Jul 18, 2016

  As a long-time punk and anarchist, I wholeheartedly approve of this game. Stick it to the man as only a (dumpstered) bagel-eating squatter ninja can! Scam, conspire and party your way through an urban jungle controlled by uncaring capitalist pigs. What more could one want in a game? The in-jokes are hilarious! Many thanks to the developer for the love letter to all the anarcho-punks, squatters and crusties of the world.
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  Seal King

  Aug 8, 2016

  Fun game if you like the genre
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  Hylo

  Aug 27, 2016

  Very short game. Only 11 levels or so. I beat it in an afternoon.
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  lnxpnk

  Mar 10, 2017

  A game that reminds me of my youth, but I shoplifted comic books, not food. [b]I appreciate the dev's patience and effort to provide Linux support[/b]
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  Junk Masterson

  Jun 27, 2017

  Not sure what I was expecting, but I obviously should have been expecting a steaming pile of buring cat excrement, because that is what I got. I feel ripped off even at 50% off. Short of free, this game is not worth the price nor the 3 seconds it took to install it.
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  kingston11

  Nov 8, 2017

  Addictive, fun. Great mini games. Good vibes and great soundtrack worth it for that alone!. Highly Recommended! The game is challenging at first (I guess like being broke on the street) and you may end up hanging yourself a few times before you get the hang of it. The story and mini games are well worth it though so stick in there.