My first experience with this game was installing the game, then the starforce protection. The starforce drivers called for a restart and then my computer would not boot into windows. This was because vista will not start if it detects unsigned drivers, which starforce has.

Once I had got around this I tried to start the game, was met by a message saying ‘Starforce error’.

Eventually I got the game going and patched it to version 1.5. Now I have Crashes to desktop occuring once every hour.

The gameplay: This game despite its install headache and bugs, is actually a really fun game, and definitely an improvement on sea dogs. The RPG nature of this game keeps you hocked and restarting it after it crashes.

The game bugs: Transferring good between ships breaks frequently, and having a repairs made on your ship gives you 10000 of the resource per percent instead of taking resources, therefore an unlimited money supply.

My reccomendation: If you own vista and don't have an above average level of knowledge on how things work on the computer, don't buy this game.

If you however loved Sea dogs you will love this game and put up with its bugs, but beware Starforce copy protection could be considered to be like a virus and installing it can cause more problems than you may want to deal with.

This is a great game for people who love sea battles and in the time when guns and cannons weren't advanced is a bonus. I especially like the career but of the game because it is like you are living as a real captain. The graphics a great at sea but when you are on land with people it is a but wired. But over all I think that this game is great. Thanks a lot Mighty Ape.

You'll notice that when I review things here it is mostly to give a holler out that the game now works and works well on older systems. With my ancient setup, I usually look to Ape for only two things 1. Will it run with my old gear? and 2. Did the patches ever fix what old reviewers were complaining about?

I've only had an hour play experience with the game so far but I know this title had a rocky start when it was released years ago.

With up to date patches the game runs better than expectations on my system, which at the time, was housing a GeoForce FX 5200 128 MB, one gig of RAM and only a 2.0 GHZ AMD 2400+.

It's an open-ended world like Gothic but mostly restricted to towns and ocean.

If you liked Sid Meier's Pirates! this is a more complex and involved, RPG-like, version of it.

So don't let an old setup or old reviews scare you, it's fixed now and runs smooth. =)