My first experience with this game was installing the game, then the starforce protection. The starforce drivers called for a restart and then my computer would not boot into windows. This was because vista will not start if it detects unsigned drivers, which starforce has.
Once I had got around this I tried to start the game, was met by a message saying ‘Starforce error’.
Eventually I got the game going and patched it to version 1.5. Now I have Crashes to desktop occuring once every hour.
The gameplay: This game despite its install headache and bugs, is actually a really fun game, and definitely an improvement on sea dogs. The RPG nature of this game keeps you hocked and restarting it after it crashes.
The game bugs: Transferring good between ships breaks frequently, and having a repairs made on your ship gives you 10000 of the resource per percent instead of taking resources, therefore an unlimited money supply.
My reccomendation: If you own vista and don't have an above average level of knowledge on how things work on the computer, don't buy this game.
If you however loved Sea dogs you will love this game and put up with its bugs, but beware Starforce copy protection could be considered to be like a virus and installing it can cause more problems than you may want to deal with.