A niche game, but not bad at all!
How many years now has the MMO community been stuck with 2 different MMO systems?
How many countless threads have there been about EQ clones, Wow Clones, and can't we go back to the UO days?
Well this game has finally done a few things that may move the market.
1. Character Custimization does not include grinding loot so you can look like everyone else. Actually quite the opposite. Clothes and other items are up for sale from real players which leads to.
2. A player run economy, everything is craftable and is meant to be made by the players. (havn't we all wanted this from the start?)
3. Risk with reward, you know how many times you can die in those other MMO's. Who cares, you lose a little xp or maybe one random item, but nothing is ever too severely out of reach. You can lose a ship pretty easily in this game and be a out a lot of work. Eve is decent, and I know insurance barely covers the ship cost, but thats why I loved Eve anyway.
4. PVP - yep it's in here, there is even huge areas that you don't even need to turn a flag on in to get some PVP action.
5. Ship based combat - Absolutely the most realistic ship to ship based combat I've seen, everything from keeping in range to staying on the other side of two ships so you can only take direct fire from one. Fast ships racing in to chain shot your sales in hopes to slow you down for an easier kill.
6. Hand to hand combat. Its there too, granted it's not completely fleshed out to the extent of other games, but the ability to pick from real world fighting styles and to get skill combinations that don't involve AOE, DOT, Tank, Kite, is just a breath of fresh air.
7. Group based ship and hand to hand combat, I know it should go without saying, but the group based combat even allows you to control NPC's actions is a really neat feature that hasn't been implemented in many games.
8. Crafting, everything is made by players, the system is deeper than first glance reveals, it's very rewarding and time based, so players don't have to be playing nonstop grinding material to make a axe of deathshock +400 (chance on crit) lob head off.
9. Fast, but not sandwich making travel time. Every you travel, you need to be on the lookout. And yet you still have to plot the best course due to wind constraints and other factors (red areas)
10. Community community community - With the exception of Hero's Journey, I have never seen this kind of player and dev interaction. Most games get too big for their own good and stop listening to players and start revamping just because they can. also societies bring co-operation to the forefront and will play a huge roll in your success or failure.
11. Looting system is extremely nice, You can not stop till you blast a ship to pieces, or you can settle for half of whats in a hold and let them off the hook. Havn't many been asking for a better looting system for years?
To be honest, this game may not have the depth of say UO, but UO didn't have the depth it has now at release either.
This game is definitely not as bad as most people make it sound here.
Give it shot