I have been playing the beta for a little while now (I'm a level 17 Buccaneer now). I found the game pretty confusing at first. It felt very random and like there was little I could do to influence the outcome of battles. I found that very frustrating. The tutorial helped a lot, but I would like to suggest that you also include something that covers what the different character attributes are and how they affect things. It took me forever to understand the difference between resist and armor (you could also just add a mouse over like strength, agility, and will so that you have a rough idea what they do/affect). I wasn't sure that I was going to continue the game at first, but the storyline carried me far enough to really get into it. In fact, the one thing that propelled me forward was probably the WORST pun/reference ever in the Funky Bunch quest. It was so truly terrible (I still groan when I think about it) that I couldn't even laugh at first. However, it did carry me forward to see what other groaners there are in the game.

I am definitely into it now an I think the strongest aspect of the game is the storyline. Bravo. Seriously... and adding in companion commentary really helps to flesh out the role play aspect of the game. I do enjoy the combat overall now, but it can get really annoying at times. In particular, fighting the nikeeta (spelling?) when it would trigger "second chance" 3 or 4 times in a row (almost every time it missed) was ridiculous. I thought those kinds of things were supposed to only happen once per round? I would like to see some sort of a bazaar and/or ways of obtaining gold earlier on in the game. I can't see how one could afford to upgrade your ship without doing a lot of grinding. The pacing of the game overall appears to be good with a few odd battles here and there being somewhat "out of touch" with your groups abilities.

That is until I hit Valencia... it took a sudden turn in another direction for me there. It may just be the first quest there is killing me (collecting a disguise by attacking armada ships). I get heavily outnumbered by high health mobs when boarded and in ship to ship I'm outgunned. Suffice it to say that I spend a lot of time at the life fountain there right now. :( Interface-wise, it is also pretty good. I like a lot of aspects there, however, the chat box is annoying. I'm used to being able to just hit "O" at any time to make it come up or go away, "R" to reply to whisper, etc. However, those don't work all the time (depending on what you're doing) and I've found that it can interfere with pressing buttons. Other than that, its fairly intuitive and well laid out. That's really it for me so far. All in all, kudos. I think you're well on your way to a winner here.