Windward is a game that is currently available for $1 in the Humble Bundle along with 2 other amazing games. I installed Windward and I booted up a single player game and 5 hours later I find myself still playing this game, why? Here's why.
I'll start with the plot. You are a ship sailing in the high seas in search of loot. Start with a tiny little ship and work your way towards a massive brig. Trade, fight and ferry your way to progression but watch out for the pirates! When you start a new world it will give you the option to join one of the factions presented to you on a map. Almost everything in the game is procedural giving near infinite replay ability.
So now that you have a ship it gives you a choice of quests or combat. You decide if you want to ferry passengers to Lonconcroft or Defend Yafoslav from pirates; The game gives you a sandbox to explore. The quests are procedural and every town will have at least 3 quests for you. You can also hear the rumors about what town needs what and buy cargo like crafting tools or produce to sell to that town. This can net a decent profit. You can also buy new upgrades like cannons or crew for your ship
The game has a talent system. The skill tree gives you access to different traits and the higher talent level you get the more stuff you can unlock and do. You can earn xp by completing quests or sinking enemy ships. The game also has stats for items (like Borderlands). You can choose whether to equip the item based on its mobility, armor, damage etc etc.
Combat can be done in numerous ways. Pirates will spawn in the region your in (the game splits the areas into regions you can fast travel or just travel to due to the game engine restrictions) and try to attack you or capture towns. You can also start a combat instance which takes you into an area not on the map. The objective is to take over all the pirate held towns, guard towers, lighthouses and themselves. With only one town in control when you get there it's advisable to bring a friend. Once you captured a town you can buy guard towers and lighthouses from the merchant and place them on the coast to protect that town. When you've cleared all the pirates it displays a scoreboard with stats on how well you did and gives you the option to stay or head back to the faction region. You can also travel to pirate held areas on the region map and that will have an effect on the map. While in combat you can repair you or your friends ship with wood. Wood can be obtained from crates floating about in the ocean but almost all of the time crates can be collected after defeating an enemy or if an ally has been sunk. Barrels can be purchased to deploy effects such as a poison cloud or fire (which can be countered by throwing water barrels which can also put out fires on your ship thus healing you a little). Fog barrels can be deployed to confuse towers or enemies (fog can be unlocked via a skill). Of course you have to use resources (again found in crates) to be able to make the barrels. Did I also mention how you can fight dragons? Yeah this game is pretty awesome.
Factions all have land but occasionally them go to war to try and capture each others. You can participate in this war if you wish or just keep trading/questing. There are 11 ships in the game (with more on the workshop). The way it works is if you defeat 10 of the same ship type you earn a blueprint. you can then buy them in towns with coins. Towards the end game you can buy flying hovercraft! Towns have paint you can buy to customize your ship, even emblems are sold to make your own fleet!
Overall this game has impressed me and is definitely one I will keep playing for a while, it's going in the good game section. I can't stress how good multiplayer is. The official server always has friendly faces and people opening raids oh and you can do pvp!
No comments:
Post a Comment