TLDR: Within the 2 hour refund window I'm beyond impressed with a game I was very excited for, only taking a break to write this because the game deserves it. AMAZING SO FAR!
Thought I'd leave a review from the POV of someone who played 1hr 18 mins, just inside the refund window, and I'm pleased to say that not only is this game fun right off the bat, but it's not at all hard to learn or understand what to do so far. In fact, I'm still in the tutorial, and it's still super engaging and fun!!! I had big expectations for this game (I love pirate themes), but admittedly, while I love the City Builder/Colony Sim genres, I fall off of a lot of them due to their lack of onboarding or overcomplexity in general. This game solves that problem in ways that my favorites in the genre do, it's intuitive, got plenty of tips early on, and most of all fun through that process. I can't tell you how many times I've returned a game because a single ounce of fun wasn't had in the return window offered on Steam, meanwhile I just happened to notice my playtime during a save and was having SO MUCH FUN, I decided the game deserved me pausing for a moment to come provide this feedback.
To anyone who is considering this game, as a gamer who normally struggles to find 'just the right game' in this genre that works for me personally (Timberborn, Farthest Frontier, Frostpunk, to name a few recent ones), I absolutely adore this so far, and can already kind of see that it's heading for even more fun. It's hard to really compare this one to anything, but I will say that the storytelling vibes are very Frostpunk to me, however, the way you build in this game is really more awesome than I thought, and totally unique to itself because of the way verticality works. Instead of the challenge of this game coming from keeping track of a thousand items and/or mechanics, it does a solid handful of things very well, and the challenge instead comes the way it ought to in these types of games, keep your crew happy (clear indicators in what they want), keep pathing efficient (there's a lot of uniqueness to this part in this game), and keep a steady supply of goods that balance crew life/happiness and ability to take on sea battles and defend your territory. The colors and graphics are rich and vibrant, while the level of detail is also immaculate. A fully built town looks amazing to look around through, especially when you zoom in and see that all the taverns and social hubs are booming and full of animation and life.
P.S. If you came for the 'Hook vibes' they absolutely nail it here. I have always wanted the ability to build a pirate town that reminded me aesthetically of the one from the movie Hook. They still make it their own though, while totally carrying that spirit.
