Best Games About Sailing

Both in video games and in real life, maritime travel has always been more exciting than merely walking, driving, or galloping to one’s destination. One usually has to pay more attention to the sea; for it’s a fickle mistress, as the old sailors say. Video games whose core gameplay revolves around sailing have thankfully captured this personification.

The high seas tend to be more exciting as open worlds compared to landmasses which mostly just let their players be. Hence, a lot of games have made the oceans their playground, and the best among them provide a deeper understanding of sailing as the game’s main activity. Players ought to get their sea legs ready because these games will float their boat.

Updated January 1, 2024 by Mark Sammut: The specifications have been added for every sailing game.

13 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Metascore: 87

Assassin’s Creed has always thrived on exploring and fighting through rich, quasi-historic locales, and Odyssey is perhaps the pinnacle of these great qualities. The title puts gamers in the heart of the mountainous, awe-inspiring Greece circa 431 BC, where they control a Spartan mercenary and build them into an unstoppable fighting machine of bronze and muscle. The game is a thrilling fusion of stealth, exploration, and rewarding ARPG gameplay, enhanced by its most fun means of travel; sailing.

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While not quite at the forefront as, say, Black Flag, the seafaring experience is even more refined and entertaining here. Given the various Greek islands scattered about the huge landscapes, players will be engaging in this activity quite a bit. Yet, there’s rarely a dull moment to be had, with its range of seafaring quests and bounties, versatile sea battles, as well as in-depth ship customization.

12 Salt

Steam User Score: 76%

Lavaboots Studios taps into that primal desire to explore and plunder in a simple, yet effective manner with this relaxing romp. 2018’s Salt presents a vibrant wilderness of glistening seas and enticing islands for players to search — balancing calm pacing with rich, gripping gameplay. While light on the action front, Salt proves rewarding with its steady yet steep progression throughout.

The game tasks adventurers with building a raft from scratch with little at hand, starting with cobbling together a raft and ending up with a large ship and many riches. Within this lush, procedurally-generated world lies over 50 quests, hundreds of items to collect — as well as to trade with friends — and different pirates, merchants, and cultists to interact with.

11 Sea Dogs

Metascore: 71

Akella’s Sea Dogs shines as a truly deep, gripping role-playing romp; especially given its age. The whole experience clocks in at well over 100 hours, assuming seafarers wish to leave no stone (or boulder) unturned. Players take to the seas as an ambitious new captain looking to leave their mark on the blocky, polygonal world, as they seek to gain control of various islands.

Despite some fairly dated visuals, Sea Dogs was ahead of its time in more ways than one; not just in terms of scope, but its branching, versatile story paths. Players can choose to attack or outright capture forts scattered about either flying solo or by enlisting the help of others. They may pledge allegiance to one of three factions, or simply go rogue and carve their own path.

10 Sid Meier’s Pirates!

Metascore: 88

It’s nearly 20 years old at this point, but Sid Meier’s Pirates! still has its dedicated fan base. One can even say that it was ahead of its time since it was one of the most ambitious and involved pirate games of the 2000s. Players assume the role of a dashing young lad whose family was enslaved so he was forced into piracy to rescue them, or not and just be a scum of the high seas.

The sailing is quite barebones — as is expected in a 2004 game — but it played a big role in how the players progressed and it’s also the majority of what they’ll be doing. Gamers need to take into account wind direction and other factors because if they sail too long aimlessly, progress will be sluggish. Time is also a key gameplay mechanic here since the protagonist will age. Not many other games incorporate that kind of unique mechanic anymore, but this one shows would-be prospects how it’s done.

9 Windward

Metascore: 61

Windward is perfect for players who want a simpler sailing perspective that offers a wider view. It’s a top-down naval simulator game where players control their ship and guide them through the procedurally-generated game world. That quality of the game world alone makes it infinitely replayable.

To give players more incentive to explore, their ships were made more modular and could be upgraded and customized to better take on larger leviathans. Players can even re-shape the terrain to their liking by bombarding plots of land and their reputation also plays a part in the game world.

8 Sailwind

Steam User Score: 91%

This recent sailing voyage by Raw Lion Workshop is promising to be sure, though it remains adrift in early access even after two years. Sailwind is a simulation where players get to control a small ship as they sail around an impressive simulated and picturesque rendition of the ocean.

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The game also has survival elements; players will need to feed their characters with fish and take logistics into account. It’s not as swashbuckling as those oft-forgotten pirate adventures, like the long-anticipated Skull and Bones, but there’s a certain therapeutic appeal to Sailwind and similar games.

7 Maelstrom (2019)

Steam User Score: 91%

Most of the time, naval battles are sluggish and tense deathmatches of luck, but Maelstrom begs to differ. It’s a fantasy warship action game so it has plenty of excuses to disobey the typical ship physics with which players are used. Sailing is thus a bigger part of the combat since it’s more fast-paced and not just about who packed in the bigger guns and the fiercer crew.

Ship customization is also a huge part of the experience here, and something that will motivate players to progress further. Of course, let’s not discount the game’s charming and vibrant fantasy graphics. Players get to choose between Orc, Dwarf, Human, or Undead warships as their faction or theme of choice.

6 The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Metascore: 96

Considered one of the most divisive Zelda adventures for its cute and stylized visuals, this GameCube game captivated many who delved into the land of a flooded Hyrule. Residing centuries after the acclaimed Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker has players assume the role of young Link, as he explores the vast, cell-shaded seas and islands in his pursuit to grow as a hero and confront Ganondorf.

With the aid of pirate captain Tetra, as well as a magic baton called the Wind Waker, Link sets out to answer his calling and complete his quest in this near-30-hour journey. Despite its simple aesthetic, this ’02 romp was ambitious and deep for its time. It managed to keep gamers enthralled with its sharp combat and sailing mechanics, which managed to be both serene and exciting. It effectively captured the fantastical Zelda spirit while carving its own path that few have followed since.

5 Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag

Metascore: 88

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is easily among the fan-favorites in the rather saturated Ubisoft franchise and it’s easy to see why. It’s really just a pirate game under the pretense of assassins and creeds. True, players are sometimes forced to go back to assassinating and creeding, but the majority of the map is water and there’s a sharp focus on ship customization.

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It’s also a single-player experience where players can sometimes just focus on the sailing and piracy part by putting off the assassin questline. More importantly, Black Flag became an interest check for a bigger property like Skull and Bones, though sadly, the ship seems to have sailed already for that one.

4 Dredge

Metascore: 85

Black Salt Games’ Dredge is a unique experience that blends fishing sim elements with Lovecraftian horror. On paper, that might sound like a ridiculous idea that would result in a campaign defined by tonal whiplash; however, the execution works as the whole experience has a constantly threatening air.

Set in a dark fantasy world, players spend their time exploring the waters in search of fish to catch, and they have to be careful to not stay out too long as darkness brings forth a host of terrifying challenges. When the sun sets, the monsters come out to play, and they are ripped right out of nightmares and will inspire panic. The actual sailing mechanics are not particularly complex or deep, but they are competent enough to remain interesting throughout the story. The villages are also packed with fascinating NPCs.

3 Raft

Steam User Score: 93%

Raft is first and foremost, a survival game except its schtick is that it takes place on the sea where players commandeer a rickety raft. They must then turn their raft into a floating fortress by collecting resources from nearby islands and landmasses.

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Maintaining the raft isn’t a walk in the park or a swim in the pool, of course. Sharks here are hungry and smart and they will nibble at the raft from time to time in a water-locked vendetta. Since it’s a survival game, players will also have more fun if they bring their friends to help with the workload (or the suffering).

2 Sea of Thieves

Metascore: 69

Sea of Thieves currently has the throne when it comes to games about sailing; it’s a hilarious and light-hearted multiplayer experience about piracy and naval combat. Since it takes place mostly in the ocean (with a few island respites), the game is famed for its most graphically gorgeous simulations of water.

Players can even just sit back and admire the turquoise treat and briny blue while their comrades scatter on the deck from enemy gunfire (though that’s not a recommended mode of play). In any case, Sea of Thieves will have players busy running after booty while singing their own Caribbean shanties; it’s a more immersive voyage compared to other games.

1 Sunless Sea

Metascore: 89 (iOS)

Speaking of immersion, here’s a survival/RPG sailing game with a generous splash of Lovecraftian horror. Sunless Sea is one of the most unique sailing games right now; it lets players loose into the unknown, exploring, looting, and scraping by in a meaningless existence while they try to stay sane amid all the nightmares of the deep and the dark.

If things turn desperate, then no worries; some crewmates are more than willing to sacrifice a literal arm or leg to keep everyone else fed. Probably. Most likely. They signed up for it anyway. Sure enough, it’s not as relaxing as most sailing games, but the story and atmosphere will surely make any Lovecraftian horror fan mad with excitement, or just mad in general.

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