Sea Dogs: To Each His Own

Sea Dogs: To Each His Own - Pirate Open World RPG Game Cover

About

"Sea Dogs: To Each His Own" is an open-world pirate RPG set in the Caribbean of 1654. As Charles de Maure, you can choose your own path, whether it be as a ruthless pirate, a savvy trader, or a state-working noble. Build your reputation, amass wealth and power, and navigate complex relationships in this vast and dangerous world. The game features challenging naval warfare, ship customization, and the opportunity to explore a richly detailed world filled with opportunities and consequences.

Genres & Tags

Role Playing

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Sea Dogs: To Each His Own - Pirate Open World RPG screenshot

57%

Audience ScoreBased on 374 reviews

story41 positive mentions

graphics26 negative mentions

The game offers a unique and immersive pirate experience with deep character stories and engaging quests.
Naval combat is well-executed, providing a thrilling experience with various ship types and tactical options.
The game has a rich sandbox environment, allowing players to explore, trade, and engage in piracy at their own pace.

The game suffers from numerous bugs and crashes, making it frustrating to play at times.
The tutorial is excessively long and poorly designed, often leaving players confused about how to progress.
The English translation is often awkward and poorly executed, leading to misunderstandings in quests and dialogue.

story
326 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
81%
6%
The story in "Sea Dogs: To Each His Own" is described as engaging and immersive, particularly focusing on the protagonist's journey as a nobleman navigating a pirate-infested world. However, players frequently criticize the quest structure for being overly linear, riddled with bugs, and burdened by tight time limits that can lead to frustrating failures. While the narrative has depth and potential, many feel that the execution is hampered by poor quest design and a lack of clear guidance, making it challenging for players to fully enjoy the experience.
- “The strongest point of sd:teho is the character story of the protagonist, which the game concentrates on heavily.”
- “In teho, most story missions outside of the sandbox directly tie into Charles' narrative of a pampered Parisian becoming a fearless captain of the Caribbean seas.”
- “The more I play this game the more I see the brilliance behind it, the storyline is well written and to employ it successfully into a sandbox game like they have is worthy of praise.”
- “The main story is difficult to follow and overall the game is confusing for new players.”
- “The story is awful and impossible to decode at times.”
- “Most quests have time limits that you are not told outright.”
gameplay
92 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
73%
7%
The gameplay of "Sea Dogs: To Each His Own" (sd:teho) is characterized by a mix of outdated mechanics and frustrating design choices, leading to a challenging experience that may appeal primarily to hardcore fans of the genre. While the sailing mechanics and naval battles are praised for their realism, many players find the land combat clunky and the overall gameplay hindered by poor tutorials, bugs, and a lack of clear guidance. Despite its charm and depth, the game often feels like a chore, requiring significant patience and effort to navigate its many issues.
- “Sailing across the massive expanse of the Caribbean, exploring gorgeous and unique islands, and getting yourself into all sorts of swashbuckling trouble provide some of the most rewarding and memorable stretches of gameplay I’ve experienced all year.”
- “The mechanics and combat are great, dialogues are one of the best I have seen in a while, and this is in comparison to Witcher 3 and things like that.”
- “A lot of effort was clearly put into these quests to make fun and engaging gameplay, and there are really only a few quests I haven't liked.”
- “The gameplay is highly frustrating because if you do a quest in a different order than intended, you won't have enough money to progress past the tutorial stage and purchase a boat.”
- “The game has a knack for crashing at the most crucial moments, and frequent bugs during both naval and land combat make it an incredibly frustrating gameplay experience.”
- “The game does not explain its mechanics very well, making the combat system very frustrating.”
graphics
79 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16%
51%
33%
The graphics of the game are widely criticized for being outdated, with many reviewers noting that they resemble those from the early 2000s, specifically around 2002-2006. While some players appreciate the nostalgic charm and can overlook the poor visuals, others find them significantly detracting from the overall experience, describing them as "eye-soring" and "mediocre." Overall, the consensus is that the graphics are a major drawback, failing to meet modern standards and often feeling clunky and unpolished.
- “If older (yet still very decent looking, sea battles especially) graphics do not put you off, if you're looking for a spectacular storyline with twists and turns, and rum is your favorite drink - buy it.”
- “While the graphics hold, the selection of ship types is sufficient; I imagine some would love to mod clothes, armor, and generally stuff.”
- “The graphics are good, sailing has a relaxed realism to it, and land and sea combat are generally good.”
- “The outdated graphics, the land areas, the antiquated animations, the crappy interface, even the many bugs... well everything has been copy-pasted from sd:coas - literally.”
- “Warning: expect graphics of a 2005 game, as this is built on an old engine (a huge progress has been made though).”
- “The graphics are garbage, more appropriate for a game released in 2002.”
stability
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
96%
The stability of Akella's sailing games, particularly "Pirates of the Caribbean," is widely criticized, with players reporting frequent bugs, glitches, and random freezes that significantly hinder gameplay. Many users have experienced issues such as corrupted save files and unresponsive quests, leading to a consensus that the game is currently unplayable for many. While some hope for future updates to improve stability, the overwhelming sentiment is that the game is a "buggy mess" that detracts from the overall experience.
- “Despite its shortcomings, 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was at least charming, and its jankiness could be excused by its age; after all, it's a 19-year-old game.”
- “The game freezes randomly quite often; it freezes when you minimize the game (alt+tab or when another app forces the game to minimize), an issue present from the beginning of the series.”
- “I have to edit the review; the game in its current state is unplayable, 3 freezes in 15 minutes?”
- “The time I spent in it was an absolute waste of time, and due to glitches and crashes, over half of the time I spent 'playing' was actually spent restarting and trying to bug fix it.”
music
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
65%
23%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many players criticizing it for being repetitive and lacking variety, particularly in city and combat themes. While some users appreciate specific orchestral soundtracks and the ability to replace music files, the overall sentiment leans towards disappointment, with suggestions for a music DLC to enhance the experience. Despite a few positive mentions of certain tracks, the general consensus is that the soundtrack detracts from the gameplay.
- “One final tip: check out the orchestral soundtracks of sd1, sd:ct, and sd:coas; they are great!”
- “Beautiful ships, nice soundtrack, exciting skills system, interesting quests... the most I like in this game is to board a ship and capture it!”
- “So thanks to the Steam forum, I managed to raise the funds required to have a ship with crew and supplies, as we set sail from port while listening to some epic music!”
- “The music is alright, but terribly repetitive.”
- “Gods help you if you're moving through scene changes, because the music starts over every single time; there is no continuity whatsoever, and it's seemingly random which particular tune gets started up when your next screen loads.”
- “The music is bad and repetitive, and the game is pure torture until you get even the basic gameplay elements unlocked through the story.”
grinding
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The grinding aspect of the game has been widely criticized for being excessively tedious and frustrating, particularly for new players. Many reviewers noted that the slow combat, repetitive quests, and the need for extensive grinding to progress detract from the overall enjoyment, making it feel like a chore rather than an engaging experience. Suggestions for improvement include offering difficulty settings or reducing the grind to enhance accessibility and fun.
- “I've spent the majority of my time going around in what could only be described as a circle, and a very tedious one at that.”
- “The game is very unforgiving, and especially the very beginning of the game is extremely tedious for new players to figure out.”
- “Takes everything great about the Sea Dogs series and turns it into a tedious grind for no other reason than padding out a weak narrative that gets jammed down your throat.”
humor
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
86%
14%
The humor in the game is a mixed bag; while some players find it amusing, particularly through quirky dialogue and unexpected moments, others criticize the poor translations and bugs that detract from the experience. Fans of the genre appreciate the humor, especially in the fencing system and the use of absurd swearing, which adds a comedic touch. Overall, the humor can be hit or miss, depending on the player's tolerance for flaws in execution.
- “Although I like the fencing system here, which is quite challenging and funny if you slow down the game before a fight.”
- “However, Sea Dogs is really interesting and funny!”
- “At one point you get told 'you'll turn into a worthless pile of crap,' which made me laugh.”
- “No, it's not funny.”
replayability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
20%
60%
Players note that replayability significantly improves once character stats reach around 30-40, with some mods, like the Gentleman of Fortune, enhancing the experience to an infinite level. However, it may take around 100 hours of gameplay to fully enjoy the game, leading to mixed feelings about the time investment versus enjoyment. Despite its bugs, many still find the game fun and more playable than its predecessor, AOP2.
- “It kicks in after about 100 hours once you reach decent skill points in navigation and cannons, and becomes more playable.”
- “After stats get to around 30-40, the game becomes much more playable.”
- “It kicks in after about 100 hours once you reach decent skill points in navigation and cannons, and becomes more playable, but those hours will chase you in nightmares.”
- “Far superior, and with the Gentleman of Fortune mod, infinitely replayable.”
atmosphere
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
40%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its romantic and immersive qualities, with a richly detailed world that enhances the main story. Players appreciate the unique spirit it brings, particularly in the context of pirate-themed adventures in the Caribbean. Despite some criticisms regarding other aspects, the atmospheric experience remains a standout feature that captivates many.
- “All of its shortcomings are worth it for the incredibly romantic atmosphere, the detailed and deep world, and a surprisingly well-written main story.”
- “If you love pirate games set in the Caribbean, the atmosphere is just right!”
- “But this game is one of a kind, that none of the other games can provide; it has an amazing atmosphere and spirit, and it has so many things that we can talk about for hours.”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
75%
The game's optimization is criticized for requiring significant code revamping to achieve full speed, as it appears to retain original error line numbers, indicating a lack of updates. In contrast, another user highlights a version of the game that has successfully resolved these issues, boasting no memory leaks and improved performance through modern tools and techniques. Overall, while some players find the optimization process complex, others commend the efforts of those who have effectively enhanced the game's performance.
- “Interestingly, there is a guy, with this same engine code, that has solved everything that was mentioned above; the game has no memory leaks, is fully compiler optimized and compiled with newer Visual Studio, uses the newest FMOD, allows fullscreen task switching, and much more.”
- “Hats off to whoever optimized this game, you did the one thing AC4:BF could not!”
- “It might seem complicated at first, but the blade's weight, length, curvature, and balance all affect its performance.”
- “I eventually worked all those out for myself, and now compile/run the program with full speed optimization, but that required much code revamping. This is clearly not done in the game, because the line numbers for errors that are output to the logs are identical to the original.”
- “Interestingly, there is a guy with this same engine code who has solved everything that was mentioned above; the game has no memory leaks, is fully compiler optimized, and compiled with a newer version of Visual Studio, uses the newest FMOD, allows fullscreen task switching, and much more.”
- “Hats off to whoever optimized this game; you did the one thing AC4:BF could not!”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy is perceived as exploitative, with many users labeling it a "cheap cash grab."
- “It seems to me like a cheap cash grab.”
- “Cash grab.”