If you're interested in Age of Sail themed combat, then you should absolutely try this game out. The game has recently changed design philosophies and shifted away from a very historically accurate approach to one that prioritizes more balanced a fun gameplay.

The recent tank in reviews of the game is extremely unfair- the game has had a cult follow of self-titled "hardcore" players who have turned dozens if not hundreds of potential new players away with their seal-clubbing and assurances that the game is only meant to belong to "hardcore" players like them.

If anything, I hope that the current changes will encourage new players by giving them a leg to stand on while driving off a lot of the super angry "hardcore" players who are upset that they cannot faceroll people who don't have over 1,000 hours.

If you've been on the fence about playing or suffered at the hands of the aforementioned toxic environment I described, now is the perfect time to get back into the game.

You'll see in other reviews people making derisive comments about the game being reduced to something like "Sid Meier's Pirates!" and that the developer team has expressed some really passive-aggressive comments. That's far from the truth. The development team seems to have had a major wake up call and realized that catering to a very "hardcore" and toxic community was suffocating their game and preventing new blood from having any sort of fun.

Give Naval Action a shot. The development team is really trying to get their game back on track and unfortunately part of the problem is that they've spent the last three years fostering a community that seems bent on keeping the game closed off.