and again, it is about all there is for it these days. The game is great for those into this sort of thing. Don't be put off from the negative reviews as I was for so long. It lacks a great tutorial, but if you DO complete it, you are rewarded with a ship, rank, and money. If you have any love for Age of Sail, pirating, or just want a game that can be both relaxing and insanely intense (trying desperately to reach safety in a port while 3 pirate scum are chasing your trade ship) jump in and give it a try. As most people hover around the popular ports anyways, you WILL find other players just fine.īut hey, the game is relatively in-expensive. It's rough enough knowing all those sharks exist in the world without having to run into one every 5 seconds. I cannot imagine why more players would make that better (personally). I gotta be honest- when I play, the server is anywhere from 250 players to 700. Lastly, I know everyone complains at the low player count. Slowly invest yourself into the game to see if you like it. Watch videos by Michael Sharpe on youtube. But it forces you to become the same way. Players present an awesome challenge in PVP in a way that AI never could. There are Realm vs Realm, PVP, and PVE options out there for people. Listen, the game is rough, both in difficulty and around the edges. I now have a few million, about 8 decent ships, a workshop in tortue making cannons and I have finally (finally!!!) figured out how the economy works vis a vi contracts, etc. I will do this eventually myself, but at present I am enjoying scraping my way up solo. Many would prefer to do the safer/smarter bet of joining a clan for protection and assistance. Obviously, this playstyle is not for everyone. I have gotten better and better and both fighting, and escaping a gank situation, simply by embracing it rather than fearing it or avoiding it entirely. I heard ganking was an issue in the game, especially for new players, so what do I do? I go into the hornet's nest in order to practice the art of avoiding being ganked. See, I am the type who prefers to start as hard as possible to truly learn the ins and outs. I am playing as the US but I have made my main base/hub deep in the Carribean where I have to be very cautious due to the abundance of the Pirate faction nearby. Not so easy to pick up and play for just 30 minutes. But here I am, a Noob, playing SOLO against all advice. While it is fair to say they are mad about changes, etc, it is not necessarily fair to say the game itself sucks. It means that they are so overly invested into it that the slightest change would send them into a rage.

I see a lot of reviewers saying the game is garbage yet have 5k hours in.

It might not be the best way, but it is better than I thought. But the more I play the more I see a logic in the way the game is laid out.

Have I noticed oddities and design decisions I find questionable? Yes. That would be the first selling point for Naval Action There simply is no other game like it on the market today. The last game that I played in this time frame was (aptly enough) Age of Sail II by Talonsoft in the early 2000's (unless you count things like Empire/Napoleon Total War). I have always loved the Age of Sail, though I am far from an expert on the matter. At 55 hours currently, I feel that I have played enough to offer my opinion of Naval Action.

Naval actio