![[EARLY ACCESS] Pirates Outlaws 2: Heritage – Promising Early Voyage](https://www.indie-games.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Pirates-Outlaws-2-Heritage.jpg)
Pirates Outlaws 2: Heritage is a roguelike deck-building game that just launched in Early Access, and it takes you to a place called New Elysia, where you choose one of three available heroes and explore several classes they offer. You can also recruit a companion who brings their own cards and abilities. Together you set sail across the sea, where you visit islands, fight enemies, collect relics, and slowly build a deck that grows stronger with every run.
Early Access gives you a large selection of content right away, including about 250 cards, around 80–90 relics, seven classes across the three heroes, four companions, and many customization options like equipment visuals and companion skins. The world you explore begins with the first region called Pirates Bay, which contains islands with various difficulties, random events, markets, taverns, and nine Sea Masters who act as boss fights.
You sail from island to island instead of following a strict path, choosing where to go, and managing the risks of each decision. But you will have to use your rations that you have to replenish over time in the tavern so the management is going to be quite important here. The game also includes mechanics like card evolution, where collecting three copies of the same card lets you fuse them into a stronger version that often gives you a choice in how it evolves.
These features give every run a different shape, and the game becomes less about repeating the same strategy and more about adapting to what you find. There are many ways to build your deck and play the game. You can focus on guns and bullets, use swords to attack, or even use special passive bonuses like rage to give modifiers to your cards. The game has plenty of interesting ideas, like getting drunk, which makes you miss sometimes but hit with extra power. All of this helps keep long-term progression interesting and makes you feel like you are growing beyond just the current run.
Combat still uses turn-based card battles like in the first game, but the added freedom of movement and the new structure make the sequel feel more open and dynamic. For instance, there are now explosives you can place on the deck that detonate over time. There’s also a greater variety of enemies that provide a proper challenge, and they evolve over time each time you visit an island and defeat a boss. Boss battles are quite fun and will make you sweat to use everything you have, since creating a proper and meaningful deck is important, and the game does punish you if you just randomly take cards.
What I really liked is the sheer amount of content it already offers in Early Access. As mentioned, the main hub area is where you unlock virtually everything, and the ability to upgrade things over time is definitely useful. However, the game is slightly grindy, particularly because progression is tied to levels for unlocking new features. There are a lot of factors to take into consideration, so it may feel overwhelming at first. The good news is that the more you keep playing, the easier it gets as you properly understand how the game works.
Even with multiple strengths, Pirates Outlaws 2: Heritage does have rough edges. Since the game relies heavily on randomness, even smart deck-building can be hurt by unlucky draws or relic choices. The Early Access content is also limited to the first region, the three heroes, and the currently available relics and cards.
This means that after many runs you may start seeing the same situations repeat until new chapters and new mechanics are added. Because the world is designed around visiting islands, managing supplies, stopping at markets, or resting at taverns, the pace of the game is slower than very streamlined deck-builders.
The arena mode is a really nice addition, offering a unique, wave-based challenge where you try to survive as long as possible. However, I suspect its primary function is to encourage faster leveling, which is ironic, because the actual progression speed feels slow. The amount of gold awarded for upgrades is quite low unless you manage to survive for extended periods in both the campaign and the arena. I really wish this mode, especially in the early game, was better balanced for easier resource acquisition.
In the end, Pirates Outlaws 2: Heritage is best suited for people who enjoy deck-building roguelikes, pirate themes, experimenting with different classes and card builds, and runs that feel slightly different every time. The experience of crafting strange card combinations, collecting relics, and shaping your route across the ocean will be very satisfying to anyone who enjoys planning and improvising at the same time. While there is a story and you will meet plenty of characters, it functions mostly as a secondary element, as the game strongly focuses on gameplay. Nonetheless, it is a very solid title that has the potential to become even better with future updates.
Review copy provided by the publisher
