Cutthroats: Terror on the High Seas

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
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Stories about this game (11)
What’s your memory of Cutthroats: Terror on the High Seas?Share your favorite moments and see what others remember about this game.
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user avatar@darkheathuser avatar@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.
user avatar@Aaasmunduser avatar@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!
user avatar@MrVendettiuser avatar@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!
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....
user avatar@RyudoTenjinuser avatar@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.
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
user avatar@floflo666user avatar@floflo666
March 23, 2025
I loved the music and the atmosphere of the game - the creaking hull, the lookout for ships to plunder. Still have "reload them cannons !" and "pearls for the missus !" echoes in my ear whenever I think about it. I fondly remember adding an enormous Ship o' The Line with multiple cannon decks to my pirate fleet. If the game hadn't glitched out (it was quite buggy), I swear I would have been King of Tortuga... drinkin' an' whorin' :-)
user avatar@dimatodduser avatar@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.
Me and my Dad spent years playing this right until i moved out. Funny enough he brought the cd version off amazon thinking he could just install and play but sadly its a no. This game for me is my childhood and would love to be able to sit and chill and play this again.
user avatar@meyaliuser avatar@meyali
April 18, 2025
The first that caught my interest is the pirate-themed game. and then the way it was presented (isometric view). The tactical and strategic depth is quite complex, even for me right now, I guess. The trade vs piracy balance, and how it'd affect people's view on our crew, really got me going back then. I'd really love to play it in high definition display.
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