The catamaran simulation, this game's raison d'etre, is nothing short of wonderful. The chop of the sea, the storms, the way the boat hits the beach — I could practically taste the salt! At one point, my craft took an unplanned nose dive into an oncoming wave, jerking it to a stop, and I felt impatience for the wind to get me moving before the boat was swamped. Yes, the boat can actually go completely underwater. When it surfaced, my character gasped for breath. In short, atmosphere is what this game does best.
What's unrealistic seems intentional. For instance, I don't believe that the wind can ever push your boat backwards. And the speed you can achieve while tacking into the wind seems unrealistic — especially for a craft with a sail made of grass! (You can upgrade the sail, but I never found the need to). Without these kinds of forgiving fibs, I can imagine that the game would have been a lot more frustrating.
Unfortunately, there isn't much to the game beyond sailing and managing hunger and inventory. The crafting experience was not nearly as rich as the sailing. There are a lot of things to make, but they aren't interesting or challenging to put together, and many aren't necessary. There is some exploration, but it's neither difficult nor extensive. You visit the required number of islands per chapter, you kill monsters with your makeshift weapons, you climb the required number of very similar towers, and aside from some navigation around various marine obstacles, that's the game. I was disappointed, for example, that the hang glider you can make isn't really useful. If the effort put into the flying mechanics remotely approached what was put into sailing, maybe they could have done something with it. The rock climbing was reasonably well-executed, but it's next to useless for exploration. The veneer of a plot is also thin.
That said, if you're a fan of the sea or sailing, and don't mind that the simulation is highly forgiving, think about picking this up!
