First impressions..
It's an obvious "port" from an oriental setting. The Engrish is a bit tough to wade through and when you dock at a European city, you get a splash screen that may as well be Hong Kong.
I was hesitant in continuing for the first hour or so when I was getting to know the lay of the land. However, two things changed my mind a bit.
First was when I set sail into the Med and saw all the ships moving about. I had upgraded to a warship, loaded it with cannon, basic cannonballs, and a few extra sailors. The first little 2-mast smuggler I went after and mowed through with my 4 master had a figurehead (ship add-on... think "magic armor" equivalent to fantasy based MMOs) and other goodies. It also seems like this could be a pirating pvp heaven considering the amount of people playing. From what I understand, attacking a player vessel will flag you for pvp and you will be attacked by guards. To remedy this, all you must do is sit still for 3 minutes (somewhere) and if you're not attacked, you drop your pvp flag. Maybe easier said than done but it is interesting that it makes it possible to burn it off fairly quickly if you're not jumped.
I can't say the tactical battles are hugely involved, but at least it has some of the basic staples for the era. I've not experienced a multi-ship battle, and if it's possible, I'd imagine it would be immense fun.
Secondly, it's free. What more can I say? I can put up with the 'Engrish' & rough edges since it's fun (if you like the tall ships era
) and it costs you absolutely nothing.
Overall, I'd say give it a shot if you can readily download the 1.12GB zip file (Gamershell, I love you) and spend a couple hours finding your course. What do you have to lose?
Note: I joined the Magellan server as did Iceman. I have no idea how to send a private message to someone unless they're in sight, at least until I plaster their message boards with questions.
My first character (of a possible two it seems) is named 'EngrishBob'.
