Not been playing it long enough to give a real verdict, but so far it's pretty interesting and I'm enjoying it. There's lots of choice/consequence encounters with tons of brilliant flavor text. You don't really dialogue people, you simply choose whether to pursue encounters, the outcome of which isn't always obvious. The game will quite happily let you fuck yourself, many encounters are stat based and offer you odds, so you can take a chance with shitty stats. You can also go out into the unknown and die horribly from the outset.
I've had one (gay) romance so far. I encountered a dapper chap in London and opted to go have a drink with him, which reduced my terror level and started a romance. I got a locket out of it, when sailing I got an option to gaze at it (which reduced terror), later when I got back to London I met up with the chap again, which shed more terror. It thus far seems to be a simple mechanic for sanity control, but I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually stabs me to death or something. It doesn't seem particularly Biowarian, and is fairly inoffensive.
Only issues I've got thus far are:
General trading seems pretty pointless, there's no economy or apparent supply/demand outside of encounters.
You always seem to be getting chased, with generic baddies always hovering around ports; I'd rather combat encounters be fewer and more shocking. Can be a bit grindy, if you opt to fight.
Combat isn't anything to write home about, nowhere near FTL levels. You don't manage crew, simply have to balance stacking illumination, attacks and repairs. I mostly try and evade combat though, which is viable option.
Edit:
I do believe I'm about to get sunk by dickmonsters
Edit2:
No dickmonsters, just some anti social autists and irate monkeys
