Disclaimer, I am yet to play the single player, as the game was bought for me by a friend and I've exclusively played in multiplayer. The Multiplayer is nigh on intolerable, and seems to nearly always end in near stalemates despite my friend greatly outpacing my skill. Troop movement across trenches is broken, they will often pop out of trenches to continue through to another trench, by which they will shortly die without the protection of the trenches. Supply caps are very low, and while I understand the intend being to lead to shorter games, it really just means that multiplayer games will see both players running out of supplies before anything of considerable not can happen, and the game will inevitably end with little action. All in all, it emulates the great war well, but that does not make an entertaining game.

Quite possibly the most charming game I’ve ever played. The art style is absolutely gorgeous, it’s absurdly clear that not a small amount of effort went into giving this game a truly endearing aesthetic, reminiscent of 19th century scrimshaw, its UI is easy to navigate, and intuitive.

The gameplay is unbelievably enjoyable, a mix between Crusader Kings 2, Sid Meir’s Pirates!, and FTL, it’s easy to play and learn, but can be challenging in the ironman mode. The Ironman mode is not a true permadeath, but limits you to saves on exit and autosaves at set intervals, which is very reasonable considering how punishing the game can be on first play. It’s very easy to get yourself into an unwinnable scenario very quickly if improperly prepared, and you will die several times your first time through, but will quickly learn just how to navigate the world.

The play environment is another aspect of the games charm, with the music and sound effects being incredibly fitting to the environment, and with beautiful sea shanties sung with much care to accuracy, and endears the player to listen in, in fact, I would be glad to pay a couple more dollars for the shanties alone. The sound effects as well are interesting, though unlike the shanties, become dull after a few hours.

Combat is simple and card based, similar to a paper playing card or board game, with special abilities earned through leveling up, and doing quests. The combat will put you in a few unwinnable scenarios at the beginning, and doesn’t scale particularly well to level, though it certainly tries.

The story is sweet, if a bit short, with interesting cutscenes from the perspective of the player (Ishmael from Moby ♥♥♥♥). Its very short if rushed through, but scales very well to leveling, it is by no mean the selling point of the game, hopefully the future will hold more story content.

The ship additions feels very much like the system upgrades in FTL, though more complex, and at times frustrating. The port mechanic is very nice, though it would be a bit nicer if future ports could be built with game progress, or if existing ports could be upgraded.

The primary point of the game though, is whaling, which the game does very, very well. It makes hunting whales and finding whaling grounds incredibly enjoyable, it has two systems for hunting them, allowing your crew to do it without you, which is very inconsistent, and often kills your crew unnecessarily in slightly more difficult scenarios, as well you can lead the hunt yourself, and enjoy the excellent combat mechanics of the game. With time, the combat becomes much easier, especially once you fully upgrade your ship and crew, though continues to feel very rewarding.

All in all, the game is very enjoyable, but at the moment has limited replay value, and around 24 hours of gameplay total (I’ve personally gotten all achievements but one, which is discovering all whaling grounds, with a little over 20 hours played). While replay is limited, it is absolutely fantastic to share the game with friends and play together. The full $18 for the game seems a bit steep as it sits, though if more content is to come, it would definitely be recommended to get on sale, or when the price drops. It’s something I would gladly recommend to anyone wishing to experience something truly unique, if you have a few extra dollars to spare.

Campaign is locked behind a DLC... DLC only comes around once a year without too much story.

Not bad though, just not something you can put too much time into. Good to play with a few friends.

Worth it to pick up for a few bucks on steam sale.

Not much to do in it, Probably wont be able to play it too long.

I've played a lot of games with large men donning banana hammocks with flailing schlongs, but out of all of them, this is the best. Move aside Skyrim!

9/10 (I'd give it 10/10 but I accidently ended up arms deep in a goats anus)