I really enjoyed the game in beta, my kids and I had a really good time sailing around and doing the missions, with the occasional bit of high seas drama (usually us lobbing a few cannonballs in our attacker's direction and sailing away, all good fun).
But I have to say our experience since launch has been pretty terrible. If you're a two-man sloop we seem to barely be able to do any single mission without it being interrupted by some blood-thirsty galleon crew. It just isn't fun.
Playing myself, I would estimate my experience joining other Galleon crews has been 90% negative. No one uses mics. I'm very often insta-brigged for reasons unknown.
So, basically, playing with my own crew requires hyper vigilance and a very high chance of constant setback. Playing with randoms is a bizarre and often oddly hostile experience.
It feels basically like Rust on the ocean.
I'm now reasonably sure the game will drive out the majority of the player base who aren't hugely into non-consensual PvP, which is a massive shame and hugely undershoots the potential of the game.
