⭐️⭐️☆☆☆ (2.5 / 5)
I feel really neutral about this game (maybe it just not for me), but it falls short of the fun marker real quick for me due to the reasons below. I wish we could give neutral reviews (HOW ABOUT THAT FEATURE STEAM!)
[b] [u] When I decided to stop because it was just not fun to me anymore, this is where I was at: [/u] [/b]
In Story Mode, I had 3 pirate camps, 2 ships (level 3 & 2), 144 cohesion, 2 trading posts selling rum at a high rate, 2.5k gold, 127 Assigned Pirates, 56 Drifters free to do work, Compass levels (5 Notoriety, 3 Empire, 4 Seafaring, 7 Wealth), 4 gun towers (mostly for just in case future scenarios). By no means having any problems on the island, in fact successful by anyone's standards. I used Arial Lifts, Elevators, and Ziplines to make my island efficient as I possibly could for faster "Fetchers" item transit. The 3 main goal factors in the game (with my current gameplay in) are simple as really just having enough Pirates to do the work, Pirate Camp Satisfaction, and Cohesion ++.
I also played "Uncharted Mode" (which is the other more custom game mode outside the "Storymode") Skull Rock location after I was getting flustered with the Story Mode gameplay. They place one of the 3 starting places in the worst possible locations so your forced to relocate and then wont let you destroy your first camp for some reason loosing 2 needed Drifters (workers). Not long after I realized the future of networking the supply lines/ possible base (Pirate Camp) locations, and thought, "nah I'm good" and now I am here writing this review.
[b] [u] Why I quit playing: [/u] [/b]
I was getting bored and annoyed at the rebuilding / pathing issues. I assumed it would be to build / manage a base(s) for a little bit and go exploring on any part of the water for most of the time (I mean hey its a pirate game!). Instead 85% of my time was base management and 15% sailing straight to locations (not including waiting on sailing time here) to do very short card game combat ship battles (which seemed fun at first, but depleted more after each battle). I would sum this gameplay up as "The economics of fixing supply line issues with the occasional pirate battle".
[h3] Good Aspects: [/h3]
✅ Good Graphics, Voice Acting, Music, Theme, Some fresh and old game design ideas mixed together, 95% bug free, No AI art, All around clean cut design (w/ some flaws here & their like any other game, but the dev's team is still working, I am on their discord channel this is how I know). Reminded me of how games should be released!
[h3] Bad Qualities: [/h3] (at least from my perspective, yours may not be the same)
🟥 You spend 85% of your time managing the building /space issues and supply lines problems and the other 15% having pirate ship exploring/ battle fun (which is just a very short, dice rolled card game battles btw). Normally I like building games and I'm one of those people you want on your team for a building game because I am good at it. The problem lies in their "System" that slowly picks at you over time and makes you say "this is just not fun anymore".
[b] [u] "The System" that causes cascading problems that I needed to address as I played: [/u] [/b]
Most of "The System" issues revolve around building and pathing which is most of this game and I have described below the issues that I encountered (This is a long read so read at your own peril)
One of the problems start when you put a base down (Pirate Camp) you only have access to certain harvestable nodes within that bases range. The problem(s) with the bases range is that you don't know how it will limit you in the future, from resources you did not know you will need without reading through the "Overview" and spoiling the games buildings. Also when placing a base it's range does not show where you are able to place down a gun tower, you have to guess that you can indeed build one their, because their are no visual makers (yes it does display which side you will be attacked from but not where you can can build gun tower(s) that can be in range of that attack).
At quite a few points in the game you are dead stopped due to not knowing how to progress due to its lack of given information. You need Drifters (workers) to do everything from moving resources/ creating resources/ being on the boats, but their seemed to be no way to get them or you can get them and take hits to your "Cohesion" (if you get enough hits and you reach zero the game fails). You need You need tier 2 boats to do some missions but their are not enough tier 1 missions to progress, and your stopped asking why. You need to complete "Deeds" to get points to spend in your Compass (Tech Tree) to progress to get new pirate ships.
Pirate ships and their crew change what resources you need to have access to, which in turn changes the buildings (that require specific "Fertile Land" needs) you need to create those resources, and all of this is unlocked via The Compass (Tech Tree that unlocks all progression). Their is something called an "Overview" (abacus icon) which tells you how and what everything needs but it is like flipping through a book back and forth to figure out something in a non-linked find it yourself fashion (takes the fun out of playing, like using a wiki for playing an mmo).
Eventually you realize how valuable "Fertile Land" (flat land with trees/grass) is and not to build on it, unless its absolutely necessary, and if you do, you might have to relocate the building(s) later. Relocating buildings means moving your Warehouse (storage) and that causes a slew of supply lines connection problems and possibly production speed problems. Now if you have more Warehouse's you will need more gold and Drifters (workers) to man them.
[b] [i] To sum it up: [/i] [/b]
I do not like having my bases look like a giant rubbish pile, I like a clean and 100% efficient bases. This game forces you to make compact rubbish piles on the side of the cliff. They do not make it simple by putting a bounding box shape around the building you are placing and restricting other building from being built in that area, or how and if another building will be able connect properly without their over the top auto connections. The very valuable land buildings have circle walking paths around them instead of straight to and from connections. Now the "Fetchers" (people assigned to the buildings to collect stuff) will walk around the circles to get to places, so if two buildings are connected they go around 2 half circle instead of straight to get to the other side of the 2 buildings, which makes your brain itch watching. Now path length is very important, and in some cases you don't know for example how the path will be ahead of time when you connect a said building to say a warehouse. If you connect one from the top, the "Fetchers" will walk from the top to the bottom and back up. Now if you knew how any of the pathing worked you may not of built your connecting "roads" that way. The "Fetchers" will also walk the shortest distance, which may or may not be the path you built, but their is no way of measuring one path to another in the game, all visual guessing until you have the building built and connect it. One a building is connected the game has "road" / path indicators when connected to other buildings, Green (good), Yellow (not efficient), Red (HA! your not getting that in time for anything). Sometimes the pathing around buildings especially on the cliffsides to a ground source take some crazy for some absolutely no reasons weird extra U's in their. So basically everything is effected by efficient distance pathing and building, which the game seems to suffer from a lack their of even with with "connections" (Bridges, Ziplines, Elevators, Ariel Lifts, Masts) and using Warehouses as mid points to cover large distances.
[i] I might change this review later on, who knows! [/i]
Sorry for the grammar / punctuation / run on sentences >_<
