The first game is an absolute disaster by the developers own admission.

The current game is an absolute disaster

The third game will probably be an absolute disaster if it ever exists.



why are they talking about the third game when the second isnt even close to finished? (deadlined for december, not even happening with three wishes)

why are they releasing the second game on top of the first games store page?

why are they carrying on "updating" the first game instead of learning from it and moving on to pastures new?

why change a game name, blaiming it on people calling it "hands on d*ck" when littaraly no evidence of the such exists on the store page while still haveing HoD in the title and having Hands on Deck ALLLLLLLLLLL over the store page?

F*ck if i know, all i know is spend your money elsewhere.
Find a studio who will own up to being in early access, find a team who work well together or find a quality game you atleast have a chance of enjoying. Do any of those 3 and youll be just fine.



As of writing you are paying for a VERY alpha demo of the sequal, not including the original full game as the store page states, not including the third that will probably never see the light of day but is still being advertised as if youre getting 3 games for the price one.

For an overveiw of the kind of updates to expect of this sequal please see this video (not produced by me)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvd2ilemvWY
the developer would have you believe this is not what to expect because a new team is working on the second game, i however suspect this team doesnt exist and is being used as a way of convincing people that this version will be improved but that is purely speculation based on what i have seen so far.

TLDR
Warning, you may not get a complete game at all from this perchase, this should be released under early access.

Back in the day I used to have this demo disc for my Playstation, I think I got it with a Playstation Magazine or something. On one of the discs was a game titld "Overboard", which was a funny little platform game about a (pirate?) ship. I really liked the game and I wanted to buy the game but I was very young and simply did not have the money.

You've probably guessed it "Hands On Deck" is heavily inspired by "Overboard", in fact it almost looks like the exact game but sadly it's simply not as great (yet), which would be OK if the game was still in Early Access, which it's not apparently.

Hands On Deck's graphics do look a bit smoother than the classic game but aside from that 'Overboard' had a lot more details.
Overboard was a pretty fast game but 'Hands On Deck' seems to take a much slower approach making it less fun to play. Also, one of the most fun parts about the original game was the fact you could lose your 'pirates' in the water after you had been hit and you could pick them up again before they would drown. Hands On Deck seems to have removed that feature so all you got left is a barebone version of the classic 'Overboard', which is a shame because it could have been much more.

Amazing for one reason, in that it single-handedly ruins action RPG's, pirate games, the isometric perspective, and the mouse and keyboard control scheme all at the same time.

This is a bad unfinished game. The graphics are medium but the gameplay is just bad. I can recognize how the dev wanted to build the mechanics and then started thinking of a game to build around it, but kind of cheesed that part of the game and so this is the result. It's unfortunate because it looks like it could have been so much more.

http://played.today/hands_on_deck.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEWQOe0lJDY

Initially, I managed to play the first level of this game, and that was as far as I got before I received the message, "Unfortunately, this is how far you'll get for now.. However, you are now a part of something that we believe in and we won't stop until this game has reached it's full potential. We are going to release a new chapter every Sunday". I waited for a few weeks and went back to the game. I was able to get a tiny bit further on the next attempt but ran into another roadblock. I've done every quest, walked around every square foot of the game area, and I can't find anyway to continue on. I was wiling to forgive the poor controls and bad user interface, but it's extremely frustrating that the game is unfinished. Do not waste your time with this game. It has promise but not in it's current state.

Not sure how this is still for sale. Couldn't figure out to do anything more past the few quests you get at the beginning. After that, looked at the key commands and couldn't figure out how to build or do anything. Glad this just came in a bundle.

I know it's less than a dollar, but this is an unfinished alpha that should be in Early Access or—since it's been unfinished for 3 years now—delisted from the Steam Store.

There's a lot of ambition and work here—far better than I could currently do on my own—but it's tough to get though. I'm a huge pirate fan, so I'm constantly searching for good pirate games. This unfortunately isn't one of them. Sadly, it could have been, if finished and polished.

HoD is so bad it's hilarious. The map rotates with the player, which is incredibly confusing. You constantly have to hold Shift because there's no way to toggle running. Menus don't close when you press Escape, only when you press the corrosponding button. Quests consist of doing something boring a great number of times (hit the dummy 20 times, gather 25 logs). You can't rotate the camera so if you're moving south you can't see anything coming. The list goes on and on.

The best part, however, is combat. You awkwardly have to pose yourself in the direction of the enemy to aim, you can't actually select them. And then you press 1 again and again and again. That's right. Your basic attack isn't the left or right mouse button, it's the number 1.

You wouldn't be able to make something this bad even if you tried.

OMFG

this is GARBAGE rather then a GAME, I couldnt even last 5min playing this abomination

and asking even 1$ for this is outrageous and disgusting.

avoid it like it cancer

I don't even know what to say about this one, it is one of those things you just have to see to believe it. Well I guess I will say one thing: it is a crime that it even exists, it is that bad. And the achievements are nicely broken as well.