Cutthroats: Terror on the High Seas (1999)

Genres:Strategy, Simulator

Story:The game is set in the 17th century in the Caribbean and unlike most pirate games, it is mostly historically accurate. The game world is covered with settlements according to the time period the player picks at the start (and evolves accordingly as the game progresses) and each settlement is ruled by one of the five new world powers, Spain, England, France, The Netherlands and Denmark. Also some settlements are ruled at certain times by independent rulers, e.g. Tortuga and Belize. These settlements can be attacked by the player, meaning his crew, with weapons the player chose, will land at the town and can then be controlled to burn and pillage it. Other than this the player controls a ship unit upon a map of the Spanish Main and can plot courses to pins which represent towns; however, if an NPC ship is close enough to the player (these ships spawn at the settlements with goals such as trade between towns or to find pirates), the player will be alerted and go into a smaller bird's-eye map in which they can raise flags to either enter diplomacy with the ship such as asking for information, raise nation flags to avoid them, or obviously raise the Jolly Roger to attack them. Ship combat is worked much as town combat with the player controlling his ship(s) with advanced controls such as where to aim cannon, and what type of shot, right down to scuttling the ship or setting it ablaze.Show more

Added by @Miljac

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Stories about this game (7)

@Aaasmund

January 31, 2025

Epic soundtrack, keeps you on edge and makes you humm the soundtrack and catchphrases from the game. Still use phrases like "Reloadin cannons" or "Buy som pearls, buy some pearls for your lady, buy some pearls!" with my brother. I really miss this game, it's a shame it's so difficult to get in a functioning format. Balancing what supplies to take, which colonial powers to piss off, which ships to board or which coastal cities to raid and ever evading the pesky spanish pirate hunters is a blast!

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@darkheath

January 31, 2025

I got my first computer late in 1999. This game came out earlier in the year and I remember checking out the box every time I went into Comp USA and was so glad when I finally had something to play it on. I was excited about another Pirates game similar to Sid Meier's. This game was that. Turns out, it wasn't quite as easy to pick up and play as SM's classic game, but it went a little deeper in trade and land battles. And I liked that extra layer of complexity. I know there aren't many votes yet, but would love to see Cutthroats on GOG some day.

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@MrVendetti

February 03, 2025

After I got my first PC, I spent all my pocket money to discounted games, you know, quantity has its own quality, but usually there was a reason, why they were discounted, so usually they were pretty bad deals. But not Cutthroats! The game is pretty simple : get a ship, get a crew, some cannons, swords and rob other people. Man, I enjoyed robbing those people. Especially the Dutch! Summary: all I wanna say: Send them to Davy Jones' locker!

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@jotiheranbnach

February 15, 2025

Oh my god, YES PLEASE! I played it for years as a child. Had a hard time to find it because I only knew it under its German title: "Unter schwarzer Flagge". Finally found it here as well. Instabuy for me if it gets releases on GOG. So many fond memories....

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@RyudoTenjin

February 06, 2025

Amazing pirate game. Great music, great gameplay. The game's fun, well balanced, got both ship to ship sea combat but also land battles. You gotta manage your supplies, your crew, your ships (You first get one but you can end up having more when you board them). You end up conquering a town? You can appoint one of your crew members as a new governor. It's one of the most fun experiences I ever had with pirate-themed games.

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@naythehorse

March 03, 2025

PLEASEEEEE I THINK ABOUT THIS GAME EVERY FEW MONTHS ITS UNHEALTHY SHIP AHOYYYYY I THINK WE SHOULDNT STAY HERE FOR TOO LONG ... THEYRE TRADURRHHHS ! PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPENNNN

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@dimatodd

March 09, 2025

I played this game for ages and ages along with my brother. We've probably got 300+ hours on it combined. I would have been singe-digits old and later in life, I replayed it for hours as well. I love this game and miss it terribly but it seems to have been forgotten. No other game has quite scratched the same itch that Cutthroats did.

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