Sid Meier's Pirates!

How does he bloody do it? What is Sid Meier's secret for creating such damn addicting open-world games?

What makes this such a great hit is that it has just aged so damn well. You can play it with all of its mechanics intact today without a problem and it will still be infinitely engaging and challenging. A must play for all fans of Civ, although the gameplay here is substantially different and requres many levels of skillfullness: You need to know about logistical management of carrying cargo, food and crew-members, using ships wisely when attacking at different winds and currents, having a know-how of when to attack which town, and having good coordination when sword-fighting. You manage a privateer fleet and you can take off to the Carribean and do whatever you want: Trade peacefully, pillage towns, take up ships, search for hidden treasure using maps, fight as a pirate or HUNT pirates for ransom, take up missions for important governors, and whatever you do makes every single game a huge, larger-than-life adventure. Although the map you play on(the Carribean) is always the same, there are always random events happening to towns as they are played in-between political spheres that makes every single playing experience distinctly different, ala Civ.

After everything that has come to this point, this is is a game that truly distances itself from the others and brings with it the most powerful, all-consuming reality.