10 Best Sailing Games, Ranked
Numerous modes of transportation are available in video games, including driving and flying planes, helicopters, and gliders. However, sailing has become increasingly popular in recent years. There is something captivating about being on the water and controlling a ship, whether relaxing or engaging in naval combat and warfare. With games featuring construction and survival, sailing has been utilized in various ways. Here are the top 10 games that feature sailing.
10. Valheim
In Valheim, players control Viking warriors in the afterlife who must defeat enemies in different environments to prove themselves worthy of entering Valhalla. To traverse these environments, players must craft rafts and long boats.
9. Sunless Sea
Sunless Sea allows players to create their goals, encouraging exploration and becoming whatever type of captain they strive to be on a vast underwater ocean. They may amass wealth or look for glory by slaying monsters.
8. Assassin’s Creed 3
Assassin’s Creed III was a surprise with its naval aspect, allowing players to control a large ship and take it into battle, expanding upon sailing in future installments of the series.
7. Salt
Sailing is the main experience in Salt, where players enjoy the adventure of going from island to island while completing quests and exploring for real loot, like a romanticized pirate.
6. The Flame In The Flood
In this survival game, players sail down a river in a post-apocalyptic world, stopping at various locations along the way to gather supplies and stay alive.
5. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey molded its sailing experience to what it would have been like sailing around Ancient Greece, excelling at mimicking the ships used during that era.
4. Windbound
Windbound is a great mixture of crafting and survival, where players must find items and create their own vessels to survive on a sea filled with islands and creatures.
3. Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Link sails around a flooded Hyrule in this game, which features the wildest art style as characters become more cartoonish than past iterations.
2. Sea of Thieves
Sea of Thieves is a multiplayer game that gives a different sailing experience as players have to work together to traverse the seas and enter combat.
1. Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
Black Flag is the perfect sailing experience, with the Caribbean made for sailing. Between pirate shanties, raiding parties, and exploring the many islands, this game has it all.
Sailing adds a level of freedom, adventure, and challenge to games, making it a popular mode of transportation. These games utilize sailing in unique ways, encouraging exploration, survival, and combat.
There are a lot of different means of travel within video games. There’s of course driving and utilizing any number of flying vehicles from planes, helicopters, and even gliders. But one mode of transportation within games that’s grown increasingly popular over the years is sailing.
There’s something about being on the water and controlling a ship that can be both relaxing while also extremely intense at times, even going so far as to engage in naval combat and warfare. And with games also dealing with construction and survival, there appears to be no limit to how sailing can be utilized in a game. Here’s a list of some best games that feature sailing.
10 Valheim
After having several games with great sailing mechanics, Assassin’s Creed continued this trend with Valhalla. However, it was a different Viking-themed game that actually topped it in terms of sailing. Valheim is about Viking warriors in the afterlife trying to prove themselves worthy to enter the halls of Valhalla.
To do so, they have to defeat enemies in different environments. To traverse the environments, players have to craft rafts and long boats. It’s a game that’s as much about survival as it is about fantastical exploration.
9 Sunless Sea
One of the great things about sailing in real life is that it provides a level of freedom. This game encapsulates that essence fairly well as it allows players to create their own goals with their characters. There’s not one clear objective to the game. Instead, players are encouraged to explore and become whatever type of captain they strive for on a vast underwater ocean.
They could mean trying to amass wealth or look for glory by slaying monsters. Either way, Sunless Sea is a different take on the sailing genre.
8 Assassin’s Creed 3
The naval aspect of Assassin’s Creed III was a bit of a surprise. Naval warfare obviously played a major part in the American Revolutionary War, but that’s never been what Assassin’s Creed is all about. The franchise is about sneaking and assassination missions.
Controlling a large ship and taking it into battle was never an option before, but it’s a good thing they included it in the game. It was a lot of fun and a precursor to how sailing would be expanded upon in future installments of the series.
7 Salt
Sailing and adventure go together very well. A lot of games have complex characters and stories for players to immerse themselves in. The sailing is often secondary either in terms of the plot or the gameplay. Salt put sailing front and center as it’s a crucial and main experience of the game.
Players don’t have to worry about things like survival as Salt allows players to merely enjoy the adventure of going from island to island while completing quests and exploring for real loot like a romanticized pirate.
6 The Flame In The Flood
The Flame In The Flood is a tricky survival game that has a player sail down a river in a post-apocalyptic world. The goal is to stop at various locations along the way to gather supplies and stay alive long enough to reach the end of the river.
It’s a difficult game and is fairly easy to die. What makes things even more difficult is that the river resets itself with every run. This means that the locations the player needs to stop at are different every time.
5 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
In terms of sailing, Assassin’s Creed IV is a very difficult game to follow. It was almost perfect in the way it depicted its naval battles and exploration. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey definitely had an uphill battle to top it.
So it didn’t try. Instead, it focused on Ancient Greece by molding its sailing experience to what it would actually have been like sailing around Ancient Greece. The ships used during that era were way different from what was used during the Golden Age of Piracy, and the game excelled at mimicking it.
4 Windbound
In many ways, Windbound perfectly encapsulates the sailing experience. It’s a great mixture of crafting and survival. Players are forced to find items and create their own vessels, of which there are many kinds. They have to do this while also trying to stay alive on a sea filled with islands and creatures.
It’s so realistic that the wind practically has a mind of its own. That’s the only frustrating part about the game because sometimes the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.
3 Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker
One of the things that make Legend Of Zelda so special is that each new generation of games isn’t afraid of experimenting and going in wildly different directions. And in terms of a departure, none have veered further from the Legend Of Zelda mainstays than Windwaker.
It’s not just the fact that this game has Link sail all around a flooded Hyrule. It also had the wildest art style as Link and other characters became more cartoonish than past iterations. In terms of Zelda games, it still ranks high as a fan favorite.
2 Sea of Thieves
Pirates and sailing undoubtedly go hand in hand. It’s hard to separate one from the other, so it makes sense that a game that is all about becoming a pirate features sailing as a main part of its gameplay. A lot of games focus on the captain side of sailing as they control the ship single-handedly.
Sea Of Thieves is primarily a multiplayer game, which gives a much different sailing experience as players have to work together to traverse the seas and enter combat.
1 Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
It seems as if Assassin’s Creed III was merely a test run for how naval combat and navigation would work in future Assassin’s Creed games. The next game, Black Flag, was the culmination of that experiment. It was also in a perfect location as the Caribbean was made for sailing.
Between the pirate shanties, the raiding parties, and simply exploring the many islands the sea has to offer, this game was the perfect sailing experience. It’s hard to think that a game could ever top it.
