Charming, if a little lite in the wow factor.
At its core, the game is a combination of strategy, RPG and arcade adventure game dunked into a Pirate themed world. Though most of these aspect could be considered -lite, overall the game provides an amazing amount of fun for 20+ hours. Which is good value for money given the price. You should note that despite the slowess of your ship in the early part of the game, once you've managed to get to the other factions, buy bigger and faster ships, upgraded the best weapons, sea combat become so much fun. Its probably the best aspect of the game.
The underlying story varies from fine in parts to very good, the lack of variety or real decision-making leaves immersion on the back seat. Though to be honest this is not main reason to play the game. Whats more land combat is probably the weakest part of the game. Strategy is foregone here in favour of massed mob strikes against hapless enemies. However, the sheer variety of units you can recruits at the end does make killing your enemies somewhat interesting.
Overall I found this title to be more of a good fun distraction, which would probably suit younger players, who havent seen or heard all the pirate gags before. If you are expecting some serious strategy/adventure fest you will be disappointed.
If you desire a distraction from your serious nightly/weekend fix, with an amusing story and a good amount of fun action, you could do a lot worse.