Such a beautiful looking game. I never did get it and not sure I will without single player. I just don't really understand why the effort is put forth to produce an age of sail game/engine only to make it a multi-player focused game. I guess because I don't do much mp and prefer single player but a sim like this just seems made for single player. If it were a single player game I could see this game becoming a classic that is still played and enjoyed twenty years from now. Maybe someday but I just can't see myself buying this unless it had a single player focus. Servers and internet may never always be around but a pc plugged into electricity running a DRM free game could be enjoyed for decades.

I don't disagree that it was a missed opportunity for a story driven single player campaign, but I can tell you the exhilaration of doing battle with a human opponent is truly fantastic. There is a lot of AI still on the PVP servers and there is a PVE (only vs. AI) server running as well so there are other options so perhaps if you ever see it on sale give it a thought.

By far one of the best early access games I've purchased (alongside Space Engineers).

This is a screenshot from one of my first large port battles (many patches ago before GB and USA formed an alliance). So many sterns to rake and not enough guns reloaded! I think three or four ships blew up in that battle and a great time was had by all. Don't even remember who was attacking and who defended just that we all had a fun time. Multiplayer can truly be an absolute blast!

I recently sailed from Kingston/Port Royal in Jamaica, to Belize on the Yucatan Peninsula. It was a quiet voyage but I kept my eyes on the horizon as there had been reports of pirate frigates on the prowl to my south. Took the opportunity to snap some screenshots which I then edited for effect. This game is even prettier in abstract!





This was a shot from before the mega-wipe patch that I had also did some messing around with.