Frank Richardson

I waited to give my review because I wanted to give the game a fair shot. I've played since the beta and purchased the pre-release so I have a ton of hours in this game already. Probably something like 40 hours. After the first 15 hours you've basically beaten the part of the story they've released so far (because the end of the story leads you to believe theres more coming as they said there will be), you've built the best ships, and you've customized your ships to death. Other than that, there's really nothing else to do besides play the same 3 PvP and Co-op events for the same loot again and again. Within the story thus far, you do get the opportunity to fight other players in "takeover" events that ultimately begin your journey as a drug lord, setting up drug trades at the ports you fight in. Sounds cool... but it's not. It's actually more work than fun, as once you have these ports in your control, you are left having to "fund" them with your silver coins in order for a timer to begin filling up a pieces-of-8 bank. Pieces-of-8 are another special currency in the game used to buy stuff in the black market. Also sounds cool... but it's not. Because you then have to sail to each Port once those banks fill up and gather your pieces-of-8 to take them back to the pirate den.... all while being attacked by swarms of rogue ships. If you have all 79 ports, that would basically take you 3 hours to do. As it is, with the 19 ports I have now, it's taking me almost an hour to gather them all and fight the stupid endless rogues. For most adults, that's sometimes all the time we get to play games. Nobody wants to spend that time endlessly picking up money from ports and thus unable to enjoy anything else in the game like story or missions or pvp. I could go on about how poorly thought out the PvP is, or how repetitive it is, or how useless it is to even get off your ship in this game, but I won't. That too seems pointless because ubisoft is so stuck on themselves they actually think this is a "AAAA" game and anyone who thinks otherwise is just wrong. I'm just completely disappointed in this game so far and considering they started production in 2013(!!!!!) this feels like just another thrown together project to collect revenue through micro transactions..... yes.... micro transactions are here too. I'd give this 2 stars if it wasn't a pirate themed game. But since it is, I'll be nice.