I had no idea what this game was, I was sold by other reviewers praise of this. I did play Sid Meyers Pirates! (The 2004 one) when it was new and can see why I never heard of this game. I can absolutely forgive the graphics, but the gameplay in this one is just awful. You really can't aim or do much of anything to hit with the cannons. Somehow the AI knows the trick though, so you're just hosed. Outside of GOG, no one even knows about this game and other games pull more search results. A walkthrough was the best I found, but it honestly did little to help understand the game. The game itself gives next to no tutorial (a few random townspeople give you advice on the "what" but not the "how"). Even making sure you only face off with other very small ships like your own, the combat is tedious and slow thanks to basically lobbing cannons in every random direction whenever it feels like firing. You could learn around the games flawed design, master its weird mechanics, and maybe get something out of it. Personally, I'm just going back to Pirates! as it was so much more fun than this clunky mess.
