Interesting game, though ship combat is relatively basic, it's still awesome. Not too far into the game I just decided screen it, I'll run at a 3 higher level frigates and a man of war, this was way before I'd upgraded most stuff, but fighting in between a big and small island, some hunters turned up, I was about one hit from stopping the last ship after a ridiculously long battle. It is fun for sure, the real world stuff as people have mentioned is crap and for some reason has an awful fov, is really jerky and odd. It's really jarring due to how badly it's been done.
I am finding I spend way way way too much time in the boat blowing crap up, and really not much time doing missions.
Coming across a couple man of wars mid battle was pretty cool, came in mid fight and got blew them away. Probably the best battle, was a huge skirmish I got into not far into the game with the first real storm at see, the squals, and the twisters, was awesome.
The water is really amazing, the blending of colour as it hits the shore is impressive, as is if you're swimming back to your boat looking through the waves with varying levels of ability to see through the water, it's incredibly impressive.
The only thing missing is waves on shore. You can stand on a beach with a rough ocean and the waves don't hit the shore at all, they just stop a certain distance out, apart from that the ocean looks fantastic.