As a quite experienced player of CoAS, I can say:
Yes, it is THE best game in the series, BETTER than latter "To Each His Own" and a couple more similar fan-made "sequels".
Yes, it has all one would want from a "pirate life simulation" game: sea battles, ship and crew management, trade and escort missions, land missions and fort sieges, intricate quests and treasure hunting, Aztec gods and undead sceletons, 5 factions to play for (England, France, Spain, Holland and... ta-dammmm - SUDDENLY pirates!), very cool skill system and tons of cool loot, including unique high-level items, and more, and more and more... And everything is in a sandbox FREE world, you can do whatever you want, even not bothering about quest lines.
System Requirements on GOG are WRONG: the minimum (and THE BEST) OS to play is WinXP, on Win7 and newer you'll have constant glitches, abrupt game close-downs and so on.
EDIT: And there's NO 3 'different classes' as GOG description says. Merchant, Corsair and Adventurer choice defines ONLY your starting ship, gold and gear. Quest lines are defined by your nation, more precisely, you may be whatever nation you chose (it defines your starting location and how other nations treat you), and you can earn the trust of another nation's general-governor and start the national quest line of his nation.
Post edited January 06, 2017 by Alfrodull