If you’ve had your fill of REPO and are looking for something new, yet somewhat familiar, your search ends here, as RetroStyle Games introduces us to Last Pirates: Die Together. This is a co-op game where up to four players embark on treasure hunting expeditions together, and although it is advertised as a horror game, trust me when I say that it is absolutely hilarious.
What Happens When Developers Give Themselves Complete Freedom?
As someone who is always trying to find games that would be perfect for my community and give us plenty of opportunities for memorable moments, fun, and complete chaos, I have to admit that very few games have caught my attention lately quite like Last Pirates. From the very first ads I came across, the game managed to grab my attention with its sense of humor and chaotic atmosphere that seemed absolutely perfect for my little group of friends.
The concept of the game is fairly simple – together with your teammates, you venture into creepy, cursed locations filled with all kinds of traps, hidden dangers, and extremely unusual monsters that make sure no treasure hunt ever goes quite according to plan. Your main objective is to explore your surroundings, find as many valuables as possible, meet the required quota, and then, preferably in one piece, find a way to escape before everything spirals completely out of control.
Of course, successfully escaping is only half of the adventure. The money you earn by selling the treasure you find can be spent on various upgrades and useful items that will help you during future expeditions. Some of them can significantly improve your chances of survival and help you secure even more valuable loot, while others seem to exist primarily to add another layer of chaos and create even more ridiculous situations between you and your teammates.
This simple loop of exploration, loot collection, desperate escape attempts, and gradually upgrading your equipment forms the core of Last Pirates, but the real fun begins when you throw your friends into the equation. After all, a plan that seems perfect at the beginning usually doesn’t survive the first few minutes.
The controls are very simple, but this is, after all, a game designed primarily to let you have fun. Right from the start, you’re given a cart that you can push around the cursed location, making it easier to collect various items and transport them back to your boat. However, while REPO punishes you for damaging certain items, Last Pirates is considerably more forgiving. Whenever an item is damaged, it leaves behind coins that you can still pick up and throw into your cart. To make reaching certain valuables easier, the game also gives you the ability to stretch your arms. However, this mechanic isn’t quite as simple as it might initially seem, and you’ll need some time to get used to it and improve your precision. The more treasure you collect, however, the more enemies will gradually begin to appear. At that point, you have two options, to either hide and remain as quiet as possible, since enemies react to sound, or fight back using weapons that you can purchase later on, although they will eventually break after prolonged use.
The enemies themselves are surprisingly varied, and the longer you play, the more bizarre creatures you’ll encounter. These range from monkeys that steal your treasure and a gigantic floating captain’s head to hordes of rats, a ghost shark, and even an enormous snake that wraps itself around you if it manages to catch you, forcing you to rapidly press a specific button to escape. The game progresses through different chapters, meaning that alongside new enemies, you’ll also get the opportunity to explore a variety of new locations.
After completing your first expedition, the game takes you to an area where you sit around a table covered with different cards. Here, every player can choose whatever they want, provided you’ve managed to earn enough money, and this is where teamwork really starts to come into play. Will you choose additional health, a weapon, more stamina, or perhaps a cool new outfit? The choice is entirely yours.
One of the funniest aspects of the game is probably player death itself. It sounds morbid, but whenever you die, your character literally splits in half, and your first objective becomes… finding your own butt and reattaching yourself to it. If your missing half has disappeared, it’s up to the other players to bring you a replacement, and sometimes you’ll even receive a little assistance from a gigantic octopus that might toss one your way.
Each new cycle also introduces various interactive objects and activities, including basketball hoops, a guillotine, a bar, trampolines, slot machines, hot tubs, and more. Most of these don’t serve any particularly important purpose other than giving you additional ways to have fun. On top of that, between desperately running away from monsters and searching for treasure, you can simply sit down and play one of the musical instruments scattered throughout the game.
To defend yourself against enemies, you’ll often have the opportunity to purchase swords or even guns. If you manage to kill a monster, it will drop meat that has its own monetary value and can also be carried back to your boat. One thing I personally didn’t like, however, is how quickly the same enemies can respawn after you’ve killed them.
Where Horror Turns Into Comedy
Visually, the game feels like you’ve stepped straight into a completely chaotic cartoon. The design of your characters is intentionally ridiculous and exaggerated, while the ability to change facial expressions, dance, and communicate through all kinds of gestures performed with their disproportionately long arms adds another layer of charm. The appearance of these strange little pirates alone is enough to make you laugh, especially when you see several players simultaneously panicking, waving their arms around, or desperately trying to warn the rest of the crew about whatever danger is heading their way.
What makes this visual style even more effective is the contrast between the adorably ridiculous characters and the world surrounding them. Locations are generally shrouded in darkness, interiors feel gloomy and unsettling, and some horrifying creature could potentially be waiting around every corner. The game constantly plays with the line between horror and comedy. One moment you’re carefully listening for whatever might be hiding in the darkness, and the next you’re watching your friend sprint away in complete panic, flailing their ridiculously long arms or performing an utterly pointless dance in the middle of a dangerous situation.
It is precisely thanks to this contrast that the characters’ goofy appearance never undermines the game’s dark atmosphere, but instead complements it in a surprisingly effective way. Last Pirates doesn’t constantly try to scare you, instead, it uses its eerie atmosphere as the perfect backdrop for the spontaneous and absurd situations that naturally arise between players.
Is It Worth Gathering Your Pirate Crew?
It’s important to mention that Last Pirates: Die Together launches into early access on August 18th, meaning that we’re looking at a game that still has plenty of room to grow and evolve. The developers have clearly been working hard since the demo, and the progress is noticeable through numerous improvements and plenty of new additions.
This is a game that understands very well that not every mechanic needs to serve some deep or meaningful purpose. Sometimes, all you need to do is give four friends stretchy arms, throw a bunch of monsters at them, task them with somehow getting treasure out of a cursed location, and then simply watch the chaos unfold.
Last Pirates: Die Together may borrow a familiar formula we’ve already seen in games such as REPO, but it adds enough personality, humor, and bizarre ideas of its own to avoid feeling like a simple copy. Its greatest strength isn’t the treasure or even the monsters lurking in the darkness, it’s the unpredictable situations that naturally emerge between you and your friends.
If the developers continue expanding the game throughout early access at the same pace and listen to community feedback, Last Pirates: Die Together has the potential to become one of those co-op games you’ll keep coming back to whenever you and your friends are in the mood for a few hours of pure, unpredictable chaos.
So, is it worth gathering your pirate crew? Absolutely – just don’t expect your treasure hunt to ever go according to plan.
