I'd suggest to look at SSE's Minimum System Requirements and make sure your computer meets or exceeds those, as in many cases problems / complaints you see posted in regards SSE are from users whose computers are below the requirements.
My computer is probably considered a "dinosaur" by today's standards, but it still meets or exceeds SSE's Minimum Requirements. And though I adjusted some of the various settings to lower levels, SSE still runs, looks and performs well enough for me to enjoy it.
From what I can tell, VStep (the Developers) care and are working hard to continue to improve SSE. A rather sizable update for SSE was just released a few days ago that addressed many issues and added several new features.
Mainly I play games for the single player aspect. At the time of this post I've only got SSE just a few weeks ago (I have a Steam-version by the way http://store.steampowered.com/app/48800/ ), I've already got in over 100 hours of play-time with it. To me, I typically don't buy a game or sim based on if it has Multiplayer or not. I like a game or a sim to have a strong single-player aspect about it as well as re-playability and most important is that I enjoy it. But if it has Multiplayer, then for me that can be a bonus.
The few times I have played some Multiplayer sessions, it seemed to work okay. It's up to the players to decide how they want to interact with each other in Multiplayer sessions, but for the most part the other players I met online seemed friendly and helpful. I sometimes had fun just sailing around exploring with them. Or you could arrange to do other activities if you like such as having one or more player help to tow another ship to some location, have a race, maybe if a ship is equipped with water-cannons then they can simulate a "putting out a fire" situation, chat with each other and perhaps even make some new friends.
With a bit of imagination, you can really immerse yourself with this wonderful Ship-Sim and almost feel like "you're there" sailing some big ship cutting through the waves. I also find playing SSE can be quite relaxing at times as well. There's lots ships to sail, lots of maps to explore, lots to see and do. Some of the missions can be rather challenging though (I especially find some of the towing-related missions can be tricky, but it's fun), but I find it quite a satisfying feeling when successfully accomplishing a mission.
Is SSE without flaws? No. But what sim or game is? But despite a few glitches that can crop up sometimes or with some things that could be improved on (which over time I feel that VStep will keep working to improve SSE), overall I'm much enjoying SSE and find I more than got my money's worth with it. I'm not even half-ways through the single-player Campaign missions yet, and plus with all of the extra single-player missions (and with more sure to come as the recent update gave SSE a "Mission Editor" in which users can make and share their own missions), I'm sure I'll be enjoying SSE for a long time to come.
As for reading negative opinions about SSE, well I feel "Mad Fred" summed it up pretty good in one of his posts, which I will quote below:
"Some complaints are legit. And in the first instance there were problems with Steam as well, leaving a lot of players waiting to properly start using the game.
Other problems are indeed because people do not inform themselves about the system specifications. And the game does require a bit of 'good pc management' as well. Maybe a bit more than some other games that work 100% out of the box for everyone.
It's debatable, but the majority of players seems to have little problems besides known bugs or missing features that they would have wanted (bugs will be ironed out, a lot already have been). The number of complaining customers on the forum and on the support channel compared to total units sold would suggest it looks a lot worse than it actually is.
The thing with reviews and forum topics is, that 90% or more is always the negative kind. People are quick to complain, but if they're happy, they often don't come here to say that, they simply keep on sailing happily."
