I bought this game 2 weeks ago and I had a good time with it. Although it is a rather short and esy game, it is free roaming and kind of like an rpg. Your character (sadly there is no customizing his appearence :'() ages throughout the game and this effects how quickly you fight. Also, the more higher ranking you get with either of the factions in the game (Spanish, French, Dutch, or English) the easier it is to recruit men and the more land you get for when you retire. The action is ok. The pre-duel phase in battiling is quite simple. All you have to do is fire a couple broadside cannonballs into the enemy ship and then crash into it to board it and start the duel (or if you want to keep the ship then you could just crash into it without damaging it). A ship battle is decided by a captain vs. captain (you) duel. You use the number pad to control your attacks or blocks. The person who loses loses the battle. So you could capture a Royal Galleon with a little Sloop as long as you won the duel (a feature I didn't really like). But, that is one reason that the game is easy. I liked it for the replay value though. Say you beat the game with the English (the easist faction in my opinion) then you could try to beat it with the Dutch (the hardest faction in my opinion). It is bfun though in a sense that you can do whatever you want to. You can hunt for treasure, raid cities, attack only spanish ships (there is a lot of them), or just trade between cities. It is all your decision. Sid did a great job on remaking this game from the old version.
Rating: 9/10
Rating: 9/10
