To the Open Ocean

The main aspect of Pirates of the Burning Sea is sailing and combat at sea. The oceans are filled with AI-controlled ships belonging to different factions, and you can make a living just by plundering suitable vessels around the waters. Ship combat is very detailed and easily the best part of the gameplay: there are around 50 different ship types available, and each can be outfitted with optional extras. Small craft have the advantage of speed and manoeuvrability, while the bigger ones bring devastating firepower to the table. Different ammo types allow you to cause damage either to the hull, sails or crew of the target vessel. Damage to the sails degrades speed, killing off crew softens the target for boarding and damage to the hull can sink the ship.

Sailing around the Caribbean, looking for suitable targets to sink.

Up close the ships are very detailed.

Your own ship has a value - Durability - that determines how many times it can "respawn," in case you are sunk or taken over. Pirates can also commandeer boarded ships, but these only have Durability value of one - so if you are sunk while using one, you are sent back to the port without your ship. Either way, getting sunk (or boarded) means you lose your cargo. If you end up losing your last durability point and have no other ships available, you can always fall back to the "newbie" starting ship. You can naturally have ships in reserve that double as a way to travel around quickly - you can instantly travel from the docks of any port to the port where you have a ship docked, so strategically placed ships can cut down travel times across the map.

In addition to the ship-based gameplay, you can adventure on land. Sadly, this is by far the weakest part of the Burning Sea. Character animation appears stiff, players and NPCs skate across the landscape and the visual quality of these areas varies quite a lot. Melee combat is very similar to all the usual mainstream MMOs - target enemy, hit some action keys for attacks, watch the enemy hit points go down. The only somewhat original idea is the concept of balance - some attacks are designed to drive the opponent off balance, while some finishers specifically take out opponents that are driven off-balance. In any case, the combat feels very awkward - mostly due to poor animation.

Cutthroat Economy

One facet of PotBS that really stands out when compared to the current MMO competition is the economy system. The game very much follows the player-driven sandbox model made popular by EVE Online, where everything is player-made. While you can buy some items off NPCs, they are of inferior quality, and are generally not worth bothering with. Instead of using the character to craft different things while grinding up your "crafting skill", you act as a "business tycoon", and just direct the gathering and manufacturing operations.

In practice you manage industries like lumber mills and shipyards and those do the actual manufacturing. Each character is limited to ten plots related to manufacturing, and you can store up to 72 hours of "labor" even while offline, and then use the stored up labor (and doubloons, to pay the wages) to produce things. Manufacturing also ties to trade - each raw material is available only in limited areas, and each nation has its own auction houses for doing business, so there is plenty of lucrative trade to be done between different nations and ports. It remains to be seen if there are any unfixed loopholes, but in general the whole economy and manufacturing system seems very well thought out and complex.

Yarr! Boarding a French merchant ship for some loot and experience.

Rounding up the loot after a successful sea battle.

The economy system also ties to the Player vs. Player (PvP) component of Pirates of the Burning Sea. Each nation controls a number of ports, and as a by-product, access to resources in that area. Most of the play area is "safe" and you can't attack other players. However, players can complete special Player vs. Environment (PvE) missions to accumulate "contention points" towards a port. When one nation as a whole has built up enough of these points, the port becomes a PvP zone. Initially it's open to limited PvP where Pirates and Privateers can attack (and be attacked by) ships from other nations around the port, but the nations cannot fight each other yet. If the owner of the port cannot take control at this phase, the zone then becomes open for full PvP. After a period of open PvP, a "Battle Royale" (a 24 vs 24 ship battle) takes place, and the winner takes control of the port.

I'm not sure how well the PvP and economics works in full practice, but on paper, there's plenty of depth here.