Being both a ship fan (both naval AND sci-fi) and a steampunk fan, I smiled at the idea of this game and quickly slapped it onto my wish list, which then my friend got for me for Christmas. I really should have looked at the reviews first.

Graphics:
The ship models themselves look nice, but that's it. The skies all look bland and the water has no real detail except for the reflection of the ships and sky. The damage the ships take only amounts to brun marks, tattered flags (the flags that ALL point in the same direction ALL the time) and fire. There are no break models, so when a ship is destroyed, it just sinks. Also, there are NO graphic options. No resolution choice, no graphics scailer, nothing.

Sound:
The sound seems fine except, for me, it is tied to where the camera is in relation to the ship, and if you're off center, the sound ALL comes from one speaker. The music quickly gets boring. Also, THERE IS NO VOLUME CONTROL TO SPEAK OF! The sound literally jars you unless you turn your computer's sound down!

Controls:
You don't get to actually DO anything except control the game speed (slow, less slow), ship speed and ship direction. And it takes several seconds for the game to repsond to those commands. I am not sure if this was an oversight or intended for more realism, but it does this game NO favors. Also, having NO control over your weapons ensures that you will just sit there, occasionally toggling controls and waiting for something to happen.

Gameplay:
WHAT GAMEPLAY!? All you do is pick a battle, pick a side, see a little paragraph about it, and then you are thrown into the battle. NO ship or fleet customization, no weapon setups, nothing. You get what you get and hope that you move just right for ships to think about firing. And then you play the waiting game until soemthing happens. Most of the time, it's either your ships or the enemy ships running away. I have no clue what triggers this, but it happens often. You lose control of that ship and watch it run off to do God knows what, leaving you do fend for yourself. One by one, your ships flee. I would guess it is because of damage, but since there is no way to fix damage or anything, it's just a matter of praying that more of their ships flee than yours; and also praying that they don't decide to stay around and keep shooting, which they are prone to do. Your ships MAY also come running back, but will more often than not, just sit sail by and give your the middle finger. Most battles take the ENTIRE hour and a half time limit (if not most of it) and after it's over, you feel like you just sat there, screaming at a movie and not a game.

All in all, avoid this game and ALL of Toten Game's lineup (reviews on this games mirror the sentiment of this review). There are battle naval combat games available on Steam.

Complete waste of money.

Not only do the graphics look like they were pressed through a potatoe - the game play is slow and repetative.
I was looking forward to controlling a ship in battle. Not simple helm commands. left right midships.

There is no way to speed up the gameplay. It has two speeds. Snails Pace - and slightly faster snail.

It's a junker of a game - and over priced.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY

This game made me feel bad inside. Little to customize, wait... scratch that... nothing to customize even sound and graphics left me feeling empty. A hole opened up inside my soul and destroyed what little faith I had in a universal force for good. I no longer believe in anything because of Victorian Admirals Anthology. Please, for the love of whatever God is left in the universe, do not buy this game. It is a waste of 20 valuable dollars. Think about what you could do with that 20! Buy a Nautilus skin or send your kid to community college! Think about it, please... just think.

Not even worth the reduced prices. I was excited when I saw the screen shots of the ship models... but that turned out to be the only positive about the game. The controls are EXTREMELY limited and there is no setting area to change them. Also, you can only choose to fight 6 or so battles. As for the battles themselves... they consist of the player watching helplessly as your ships fire small puffs of white smoke at the enemy with sound effects which fail to bring about any form of excitement.

Save your Three bucks and rent Master and Commander. You have more control over the battles in that movie with your DVD controller than you do over the ships in this game. What the hell is this POS?

I honestly regret not reading the reviews before buying this game. It is a huge waste of money. Sorry game developers but could you have at least tried to make this game worth the price.

I bought it for three dollars and that is about all it's worth.
It was mildly entertaining for a few hours, but that's it.
You'll probably want to uninstall it after a few plays.
There is not a lot to do other than set the ship's coarse, speed and when to start firing the cannons.
Then sit back and watch what happens.

No customization - including graphics - no tutorial, and not even a hint of a campaign to guide you through how to play means you're on your own when you start. So, I picked a battle, and had no idea what I was supposed to do. I turns out that your only options are telling the ship formations (not even individual ships) to speed up, slow down, go left, or go right. Then, you sit back and watch them beat the crap out of each other. That's it. I walked away from the computer during a battle for 15 minutes and came back because there was nothing for me to do.

It is a fascinating time period, and I'm going to force myself to play the scenarios so I can get some hint of my money's worth. If you're a fan of that period, then $3 might be worth the price, but not more than that.

Absolute garbage of a game.

There is no options menu, there is barely any user interface, the graphics look horrendus, and there is no strategy. All you can control is the movement of ships. Nothing else. You control the lead ship in a column of other ships, and you try and maneuver your line of ships into an advantageous point.

That's it.

Ships fire independently of eachother. You cannot order them to focus fire on one specific ship. You cannot make your columns of ships break and move independently. There is no easy way to keep track of the entire battle.

Don't buy this. Full stop.

Well, I got this game from a bundle and it was probably less than $1.

I fought my first battle that I felt was a victory but there is no victory. So you spend about 1hour to 30mins (depending on the game speed, which amounts to normal, fast, pause), tell your flag ship the speed and where to turn, then you just sit there and watch your ship do things xD

When the timer runs out, you just get a battle ended and nothing happens. You cant do anything but load a scenario and look at it =p

If you are thinking specifically to buy this game for some reason, I'd advice not. If it's part of a bundle, I guess that's ok.

I guess the positive side to this game is the ship models are nice and it doesnt take much storage space xD