Not bad... but needs a few fixes.
I enjoyed the game a lot. It was simple, the music and voice acting were nice, and the art good. But all that made the game average, with nothing really standing out and making you go "Wow!". It was challenging in spots, but not frustratingly so.
There were a lot of control issues, and game designs problems, that could have been better improved upon:
- The Play button: I deducted a point from this because it really bothers me when you accidentally hit this button and it automatically erases your progress in the game. You need to rework this by having a feature hat warns the player that it is about to erase their save to begin a new game. This is a must do feature. I accidentally hit it twice, and had to start from scratch 3 times because of it.
-Autozoom: The Autozoom feature is pure crap. I always have to turn it off. I don't like fighting with it, and that's all I ever do with it. It would also be great if you could save this option, instead of always having to turn it off whenever you load up the game.
- Starting level faster: I don't like to wait for the level information to unfold, the sooner to battle the better, imo.
- Better instruction: This should be self explanatory. On the forum boards some people are not sure how to activate the captains specials. And level 8 needs better instruction than just "destroy this ship". Whenever the mission changes from destroying all ships, like in level 8, you need to tell the player that he needs to reach a certain destination, like that island. It took me a few tries to finally figure it out. It was annoying. Always make the objective of the mission crystal clear to the player.
- Ship controls/glitches: Most of this is fine, but sometimes when you try to select a special it doesn't always register when you click it. Also, the ship spazes out when you get to close to one of your own ships, and redirects itself in a different direction from where you planned it. Another common problem is that the simulation, or approximation lines, of fire aren't always accurate. The last problem in this area is ships distance when onboard duels are started. Some of them start when your still far apart. It almost seems random...
- Recruiting men: I'm not sure why you limit it at just 100 men per recruit. It seems rather tedious not just to get the number of men you need for your ship, or ships, in one go. Minor complaint, but it just nagged at me.
- The "Vile Murder": This last ship should have been available a few level before the end. It's nice to have, but once you beat the game you don't have much incentive to go back to them, even with the most powerful ship, just to wail on weaker ships.
- Ships: on the subject of ships, you have been able to buy more than one of each kind. It may have made the game easier, but still...
- last bit: Need more environment like islands, or something that will ad more strategy. Could do with land forts with cannons firing at you. As is, it was kinda plane just fighting other ships, and being in the middle of an armada.
Anyways, nice game. Hope you make a sequel for it.