Recent reviews by Pwnicus

Only took a decade or so to leave EA. I guess it was worth the wait, although I do miss my old blunderbuss and some of the older "placeholder" systems like learn by doing leveling. While exploitable, it was familiar, as other favorites like Kenshi and Morrowind use the same system to skill up.
Game is almost completely unrecognizable now vs when I first bought it in '14, and feels more... arcadey, I guess? But to a new player, I suppose none of that matters.

Forget the neverending patches and updates, every third battle being in a hurricane at night, etc. Are animated rudders and propellers just too much trouble?

This is what I hoped the naval battles in Empire would be like.

Instant buy on my part, just to support this dev. We finally have crew experience levels!

Don't let the low hours fool you, I love this one as a quick, relaxing game that's fairly easy to get the hang of and definitely gets harder as the game progresses. Grab it on sale.
Most of my hours are on the Switch, and my wife adores the pixel graphics, as do I.

The only game I can really compare this to is From the Depths, and while both are small, actively updated clear passion projects, NavalArt caters much more to the realism enthusiasts.
I don't have much experience with the editor other than download one of the beautifully crafted blank hulls from the workshop, muck about until I'm satisfied with whatever abomination I end up calling a superstructure, and then slap the biggest turrets I can fit on it. Speaking of the workshop, it really is full of everything from pre-WWI protected cruisers to modern arsenal ships, thanks to the new update adding missile weapons.
The all-in-one weapons systems are great in that you don't have to build the guns from scratch, but at the same time (imo) this removes some of the possibilities From the Depths offers. You won't find any railguns, particle accelerator cannons, or lasers here. No airships, mechs, etc. but if a warship building sandbox with custom battles is your thing, definitely check this one out on sale.

i tried

can't wait to play the sequel in 2030-something

One hell of a story, and a very refreshing take on the genre. No swords and sorcery here like the Witcher series, instead it's a more believable historical setting, pure first person grand adventure. Combat is slick once you get used to it, and there is less hand-holding than a game like Skyrim, which I had been hating ever since the gradual dumbing down of TES since TES3 Morrowind.

This is the kind of game I always wanted as a kid playing my SNES.