yarrghh!!
Probably the best thing about this game, is its non-linear direction. There's no 'point count' , your experience is managed in a different way. It all depends on the amount of puzzles you do. Puzzles that are no complicated at all, they are just the puzzles we all know with some few tweaks... oh and piratified too of course.
This game is definitely not for those who like to play alone. The social aspect in the game is huge. And this is probably why sometimes it gets a bad review, because people tend to play this game like any other, and thats not going to do it. If you play it alone, it honestly will get extremely boring. You MUST meet other people, get a boat, make a crew (or just join one) and start pillaging. Pillaging is probably the basic task in the game. It gives you everything from it. Puzzles (swordfights, bilging, carpentry, gunning, sailing and navigation) , gold (pieces of eight) , commodities (food and minerals) , but most importantly pillaging gives you the best time you could ever have. You get to sail with other people, interact with them , talk in a piratify way (dont even have to try as the filter changes your words into pirate -if you want-) .
Another thing I must point out is that it is free. You dont have to, and if you are good enough , you will never get to use real money as you can gather all the money you need in-game. Fortunately the MAIN ITEMS you must have , are very affordable in-game (swords, bludgeons). You also have a choice to buy different clothes , items, houses, ships, etc (from the pirate time) and if you dont have enough, or you just dont wanna wait til you make enough, you can easily buy 'doubloons' which is a great system. Each doub is like 20 cents. And they are worth 1000 PoE , which is relatively a lot. However if you dont feel like paying for doubs , you can choose to pay every 4 months or yearly. I believe is around 15 and 40 dollars.
Personally , I love the whole rank option you have in the crews. Just like in real life the higher your rank , the more people respect you and will follow your orders. So if you love to be a leader and give orders, this game is definitely for you. The captain of the ship has the ultimate power of it and pretty much can do whatever he wants on it.
I have a great fond with this game, regardless that is on 2D, well its a fake 3D. And probably the sound is not the best. But the gameplay is just amazing, and the amount of fun you will get from this game is just unbelieveable. There's absolutely no person I have met who hasn't enjoyed the whole pirate thing. It is REALLY fun. Not playing this game, would be a HGUE mistake.