It's About Pirates Game Review: A $10 Pirate Roguelike Worth Your Crew?

What Kind of Game Is It's About Pirates?

Pirate games usually demand a long campaign and even longer patience. It's About Pirates takes the opposite bet: compact, loud runs where your ship keeps firing, loot drops fast, and a hammerhead shark can be in your face before the first minute ends. If you are weighing a budget impulse buy, this It's About Pirates game review separates what the store page actually promises from what one recorded playthrough really looks like.

The pitch is a survivors-like with a nautical skin. You blast through relentless waves of enemies, scoop up loot, and upgrade your ship between fights. Elderwoof Games developed and published it, and Steam lists the release date as November 6, 2026. IGN's game page describes it as "an action-packed single-player pirate roguelike," which matches the store's own framing of build crafting, deadly weapons, and named captains.

Steam's user tags tell the same story from the community side: Action Roguelike, Bullet Heaven, Bullet Hell, Naval Combat, Top-Down, Isometric, Stylized, Colorful, PvE, Score Attack, and Singleplayer. If you have played a bullet heaven before, the loop will feel familiar — you steer, the guns handle themselves, and the decisions live in what you buy and equip.

Steam Snapshot: Reviews, Price, and Release Details

Numbers move fast on a freshly launched indie game, so everything below is a dated snapshot rather than a live reading. All values were observed on the Steam store page on 2026-11-09.

The same capture showed two discounted bundles for players who like variety: It's About Pirates x Soulstone Survivors at $26.74 reduced to $22.47, and It's About Pirates x Endless Rails at $18.74 reduced to $15.27, both advertised as 10% bundle savings. Treat those as historical observations; the store page is the only reliable place to check what is live.

That review split is the most useful signal here. A 34-review sample is tiny, so the percentage is descriptive, not a verdict. Still, a Mixed rating on a $10 roguelike usually means the core loop clicks for some players while something around the edges — content variety, pacing, or polish — annoys others.

How a Run Plays: Auto-Aim, Loot, and Build Crafting

The store page confirms two aiming modes: automatic and manual. Auto-aim is the relaxed default, letting you focus on positioning and dodging while your broadsides pick targets. Manual aiming rewards players who want to line up harpoons and mortars themselves.

In a community let's play recorded by a French-speaking player, the auto-aim behaved accurately enough that the creator rarely corrected it, and the ship fired from side-mounted cannons on a cooldown. That same run showed the rhythm the game is built around: steer in S-turns, lure pursuers toward floating bombs, dash out of trouble, then spend the loot that drops.

Between days, a shop screen opens on a short timer. The player in that video repeatedly ran out of time to read every option, which is either tension or annoyance depending on your taste. Spend cash on weapons, officers, stat upgrades, and crew, then set sail again. According to that playthrough, leveling up restores hull health — a forgiving touch that keeps sloppy runs alive longer than you might expect.

Weapons seen or listed include basic cannons, harpoon launchers, mortars, flamethrowers, and deployable flame barrels, with upgrades stacking damage, crit chance, range, reload speed, and elemental effects. The store credits "over 140 items to shape your build," which is the number that will decide whether build crafting holds your attention past the first few hours.

Meta Progression: Captains, Factions, and 150+ Ship Parts

Runs feed a wider progression layer. Steam advertises 30 adventures, 10 distinct captains, 6 factions with unique abilities, and more than 150 ship parts discovered through play. Sails, wheels, hulls, and flags appear in the customization layer, and gems earned during runs are spent on customization in the referenced playthrough. Any mechanical combat effect of the 150+ collectible ship parts is for reference only until verified.

Factions matter mechanically, not just thematically. The let's play showed a faction skill called Calypso's Wrath that improves as you collect that faction's items, which nudges your shopping decisions toward a coherent identity instead of random grabbing. Officers — a harpooner, observer, and medic in that particular run — plug into the same system by boosting stats like looting, repairs, reloading, and navigation.

Beyond the campaign-style adventures, Steam lists an Endless mode, Steam Leaderboards, Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, and Family Sharing. There is no multiplayer tag and IGN labels it single-player, so plan on sailing alone.

Player Experience, System Requirements, and Buying Tips

What the recorded playthrough liked

Community impressions from that let's play were genuinely mixed, and the positives were specific. Auto-aim felt accurate. The magma turtle boss made for a decent set piece with telegraphed hazards and destructible cover. Fire barrels and harpoon upgrades gave visible power spikes. Regaining health on level-up bailed the run out more than once. The music, in that player's words, sounded like a pirate theme crossed with a spy movie.

Where it dragged

The same player hit friction. The second adventure reused the same enemies and environment, which raised concerns about long-term repetition. Sirens and mines wasted time without paying out loot. The dash took so long to recharge that it had to be saved for emergencies. Wildlife — eels, manta rays, sharks, crabs — often outnumbered actual pirate ships. Those are one player's observations from an early run, not a consensus, but they map neatly onto a Mixed review score.

System requirements

Steam's listed minimums are modest: Windows 10 or newer, an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600, 2 GB RAM, a GTX 1050 with 4 GB, DirectX 11, and 1 GB of storage. The recommended tier asks for Windows 11, an i5-10500 or Ryzen 5 3600, 4 GB RAM, an RTX 2060, and 2 GB of storage.

Practical buying tips

• Play the first adventure with auto-aim on, then switch to manual once you understand enemy patterns.
• Prioritize crew and hull upgrades early; the let's play's worst runs came from skipping vitality.
• Do not treat sirens, mines, or wildlife as income — in that run they dropped nothing.
• Check the store page before purchase for the live price, discount window, and Steam Deck status, since the figures above are frozen at 2026-11-09.

For the authoritative source on features, requirements, and updates, see the official It's About Pirates Steam page. IGN's It's About Pirates game profile is a useful second reference for platform and genre labels.

FAQ

Is It's About Pirates worth buying?

It depends on how much variety you need for ten dollars. As of 2026-11-09, Steam showed a Mixed rating with 67% of 34 reviews positive and a $9.98 introductory price. If you enjoy bullet heaven loops and short runs, the value is there; if you need fresh biomes every run, community reports suggest waiting.

Does It's About Pirates have multiplayer or co-op?

No. Steam's tags list it as single-player, and IGN describes it as a single-player pirate roguelike. Leaderboards are the only competitive element mentioned on the store page.

How much content does this It's About Pirates game review cover?

The store advertises 30 adventures, 10 captains, 6 factions, over 140 items, more than 150 ship parts, and an Endless mode. The let's play we referenced only reached the second adventure, so late-game variety is not something that footage can confirm.

Does it work on Steam Deck?

Steam listed Steam Deck compatibility as Unknown in the 2026-11-09 snapshot, and a September 2026 announcement on the store page discussed the game "on the Deck" without a verified rating. The developers do recommend playing with a controller, and Xbox and PlayStation pads are supported.