Seadogs is one of my favorite games of all time. I feel like I owe it to the Developers to write my first review ever. Seadogs in a nutshell: You start out as a freelance ship captain and work your way up through careers with either the English, Spanish, Dutch (I think) or Pirates, following different story objectives on each path. In between you do various typical piraty things like trade cargo, hire crew, upgrade ships, fire upon and board enemy ships and generally run your typical enterprise in between that are simulated with varying degrees of complexity and realism as one would expect. The reason Seadogs became very special to me is that it, despite its non-AAA nature, creates an atmosphere in which it is very easy to develop your own personal stories within the game without half trying. Getting your first larger ship, finally being able to afford the only expert cannoneer in the whole archipelago, fighting your way out of impossible odds and finally taking over your first ship of the line from the enemy as the sun ist just setting, setting the half-destroyed sails to return to the harbor and fix her up. Together with its beautiful, mesmerizing neoclassical music (which if I remember correctly was recorded with a major orchestra and choir) you will find your character standing on deck or at the shore and just get lost in this little world that the developers created and supplementing it with your own imaginative ornaments of what is going on. If you are looking for fancy graphics, I cannot vouch for whether you think they aged well. But if you are the type who does not rush through character progressions but instead vividly remembers little anecdotes from having played games that were not part of some quest or achievement but only about what you considered rewarding at the moment you played it, then Seadogs will pick you right up like very few games do.
