Pirates of the Burning Sea is in a lot of ways like a slightly simplified version of the MMO Eve Online, with wooden ships and iron men in the Caribbean Sea circa 1720 replacing would-be Han Solos zipping around the galaxy. This is just as much an economic game as it is about swashbuckling and letting loose with a round of grapeshot, and while it suffers from a lot of the usual growing pains of a new MMO, it?s a refreshing spin on the genre, offering a multitude of ways to play, and let?s be honest -- it?s got pirates. That never hurts.

The game offers you the chance to play as a member of one of four rival nations: England, France, Spain or the ?Pirate? nation. Four classes are included, as well: the Freetrader, who focuses on the economy and master shipbuilding; the Naval Officer, who is best commanding his ship at sea; the Privateer, who is basically a hired gun for a specific nation; and the jolly Pirate, which in this game is a mixed, jack-of-all-trades class with no national allegiance. It is also the only class that can capture ships at sea, then turn around and use them.

Combat is a crucial component of most MMOs, and Pirates of the Burning Sea performs admirably in most respects. Ship combat is thrilling, especially when playing as a member of a grouped fleet and against other players. The NPC ally and enemy artificial intelligence is sorely lacking, but when you toss a lot of humans into the mix, it gets tense -- and deadly. There are a lot of factors that go into ship combat: wind direction, ammo types, an individual ship?s strengths and weaknesses, a captain?s skill set (is he a great boarder or gunner, or is his forte maneuverability?) just to name a few. The time spent watching your guns slowly reload while your opponent has a clear line of sight to your already battered broadside is as tense as an MMO can get.

Sadly, the sword fighting isn?t as polished -- it?s a tad clunky and chaotic. The animations are sketchy, and it can be very difficult to get your bearings as the camera whirls in and out of position. This is only an issue during shipboard actions, as land combat isn?t as hectic, but this is one of the weaker aspects of the game.

The quests are all private ?instances? so there?s never any fear of kill-stealing; each quest is launched at the port in which the quest was obtained. The quests are clearly defined and there isn?t a ?drop quest? in sight, and as a result it doesn?t suffer from the boring grind typical of many games of this type.

It?s when you hit the open sea that things start to get interesting and potentially frustrating. The Caribbean is peppered with over 70 ports, and you have to travel over open ocean to reach them. This is where the PvP (player vs. player) model kicks in. If you choose to play with your PvP flag turned off you will usually stay immune to player attacks unless you venture in to a marked Pirate PvP Hot Zone, which can open you up for attack from other players.

This is not a game for people that abhor PvP gameplay, because sometimes you are thrown into it whether you like it or not. If a port suffers from unrest or goes into contention, you can be attacked regardless of your PvP setting. This also leads to several high-level players blockading certain ports, waiting for unsuspecting players to leave and come under their attack. Because of this, it is crucial to check the map to see which ports are unstable.

Even if you decide to play with your flag turned off, you aren?t safe on the open sea from NPC enemies. If you?re a pirate, enemy pirate hunters and national patrols are always on the lookout for those flying the Jolly Roger. Conversely, NPC pirate groups sail the seas looking for easy targets, so you always have to pay attention when hitting the open sea lanes; nothing is more disheartening than being underway with a ship fully loaded with materials destined for a port in Mexico, only to lose it all when attacked by a 30-gun frigate.

The game inside the game is built around the idea of the contested port. Most ports suffer from unrest due to player actions, and sometimes the port may be under full contention by another nation, which can cause all sorts of headaches if you have building operations set up inside a port that no longer holds your allegiance. The battles over territory give everything a purpose beyond just obtaining levels in order to sail a bigger and better ship.

As much fun as sea combat is, it?s the economy that drives the game. You could write a thesis on how it all works, and it?s impossible to cover everything in a review. The most important thing to understand going in is that everything is player-driven. Shop owners and trainers provide basic supplies, but if you want the good stuff you will either need to get lucky and scavenge it from a derelict ship or buy it at the auction house. The only way players can deck their ship out with high-grade armor planking, for example, is if another player builds it and puts it up for sale.

Right now the economy is a tad out of whack as new players continue to flood the Caribbean and there aren?t enough high-level players fulfilling demand. As a result, you can expect to pay 100 gold for a couple of nails. Hopefully this will all calm down as more people enter the marketplace.

There are various ways to play the market. You can simply ignore it and use your booty gained from quests to buy what you need, or you can go into business yourself, setting up warehouses at various ports. Here?s the kicker: Each port produces specific raw materials, and rarely will you find one that grants you access to all that you need to build a specific item. If you want to go into high-grade stuff like shipbuilding, it will cost a fortune to get that venture off the ground. You could always go into raw materials instead -- selling iron ingots rather than the nails themselves. There is a wide assortment of materials available and it takes a lot of trial and error to figure out the best way to manage the economy. But it?s rewarding once it clicks and you start selling your goods at a 100-percent markup. Everyone needs black powder for cannon shot, right?

The auction house could use a bit of work. The design uses a blind bid system, which is fine, as at least it provides information on what a particular item has been going for in the past, but the search function doesn?t work as well as it should, and you can?t sort items by level requirement. It works, technically, but you?ll spend a lot of time there and a better interface would go a long way.

It should be noted that Pirates of the Burning Sea is a gorgeous game. On even a moderate system it looks fantastic (outside of the sword fighting animations). You can clearly see masts fall, hulls explode, and the puffs of smoke after cannons blaze. The player avatars are also nicely done and there are enough options that you will rarely see the same player twice. Granted, there are some funky-looking pirates running around, but variety goes a long way. Because that the design isn?t about collecting a bunch of .loot and donning weird-looking armor sets, your avatar is what he or she is, although you can visit a tailor inside a port to change your clothes if you so desire.

There are a few hiccups, many of which can be attributed to new-MMO growing pains. The game remains somewhat crash-prone, and the lag inside certain port cities is unbearable at times. Hopefully Flying Labs will continue to iron these issues out, and it is issuing patches to get things up to speed.

To get the most out of Pirates of the Burning Sea you?re going to have to go all-in. This is not a game for the casual fan, and if you?re looking for a lazy cruise around the Caribbean, it?s best to stick with Sid Meier?s Pirates. This is pure cutthroat, and it is also the type of MMO that gets significantly better the more you play it, as the ins and outs of the design became more apparent. It?s still rough around the edges, and the PvP portion might frustrate some, but that doesn?t take away from the fact that this is a highly satisfying MMO and certainly worth a trial run.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.