Gadgetory

hey everyone this is Steve from gamers Nexus Donna and today we're talking about windward a high-seas fusion of strategy forex MMO and RPG elements it's a call back to Sid Meier's pirates for those of you who remember that game just without some of the worst game mechanics ever not that there were any of those in Sid Meier's pristine pirates game windward puts players in control of a single ship which they captain freely throughout a piratical procedurally generated world the player does have some control and designating faction placement within this world if they so please before jumping into it the world is populated with four major starting factions and two additional factions the Pirates and a crime network you discover later all of these groups are vying for control of the conveniently square sized sectors on the map these are effectively zones for functional and playability reasons and the house cities and create points of engagement within the game which we'll discuss momentarily players can trade explore fight and quest their way to faction control of each sector of water and doing so unlocks abilities and zones as progress is made to this extent everything in so far should sound pretty familiar to really any MMO although this I really don't want to bill as an MMO because I do not consider it to be one or any really strategy game that's been out in recent years but that's not a bad thing because when this game was originally in Sept 'add it was sort of a challenge to sid meier himself who stated in a GDC panel that game designers and developers should borrow ideas from games to improve upon them and this is a direct response to that panel when dword implements its MMO like mechanics in a less offensively grindy way and this is because as we define those Chris Roberts in a previous video grinds are really something that is undesirable as a player it feels as if it's forced upon you in order to make some progress it's a a reward for a punishment when word is more freeform in its execution of quests killing and control of the waters it's also a single-player but does have multiplayer allowances and this lets players pick and choose points of progression as they get a feel for the game single-player and multiplayer modes are both available and multiplayer doesn't necessarily require player interaction with others so you can simply coexist in the world while making independent trade trade runs if that so pleases you strategy emerges primarily in combat where you cross the T as they say and this is because the ships have cannons only on the sides because that's where ships put their cannons and they must broadside opponents in a fashion that causes the most amount of damage while sustaining the least amount of damage from the enemy's broadside so you normally really can only do this by effectively crossing at e so you're firing at their front under back-end or their rear panel quarter panel area so that they really can't return fire in an efficient fashion some mortars and other more mobile guns become available later in the game but that's the gist of it I had tremendous fun attempting to cause maximum damage to enemies while sustaining minimum cannon wounds to my own ship and this seems a very basic mechanic for really any type of combat in any type of game but the uniqueness of broadsiding it makes for navigational challenges while in the middle of combat and that's something that I really had a lot of fun doing I also had a lot of fun with the trading for instance you can visit different towns and check the rumor mill to learn where you can buy and sell coffee for the highest profit margin something like that and as this is done the towns will actually level up unlock more progression options for players new ships new colors things like that and we'll also look larger on the map we first started covering windward a few months ago it is an indie title made by two Sharan and we followed their early announcements of the game and found it really promising as a concept especially personally I liked Port Royale and I've also played pirates we ultimately published opinions from our video editors playthrough at PAX East this was done live on the show floor of PAX East a few months ago and it was Keegan Galax first interaction with the game I had already played it I decided to let him play a game for once instead of just filming me talking to people so he called the game relaxing quote-unquote and noted that he almost completely forgot about the chaotic show that was going on around us as is the nature of PAX this is really a statement to windward and I'd agree with him on the fact that it is a pretty relaxing game the game can be billed as a more casual title I hesitate to slap that label onto it because it's got some negative connotations associated with it I don't necessarily consider myself a casual gamer but I did immensely enjoy the ease of drop in drop out gameplay afforded by windward it feels very freeing that I can just play for a few minutes and stop and not feel like I'm gonna be totally lost next time I start playing the game can be picked up for a few minutes at a time or four hours at a time both with ease as you get drawn further into the neverending tasks of trading exploring building new cities gaining map control and buying new ships you only control one ship at a time but you can hire allies in the form of npcs to help you complete tasks and take over cities and things like that the allies are very inexpensive almost to the point that it sometimes feels like it is off balance but I actually found this played out very well the ease of access to get allies makes for a better single-player experience makes for a more accessible game and makes for more fun without the stress of a lot of other games that requires so much effort to make such little progress the game feels akin to some tabletop strategy games and instances related to map domination it's a constant tit-for-tat with pirates who really don't stop acting a nuisance until a zone is entirely controlled by your neighbouring faction as you gain control of cities within the inner portion of a sector cities closer to points of ingress may get attacked by pirates and be reclaimed hiring NPC or Allied PC ships for assistance makes for a fun bout of RTS inspired attack and defend commands which you can issue though I want to heavily emphasize that this is without the micromanagement and other intricacies of a true RTS it's really all about you it's all about your ship your ability to navigate and broadside and things like that but you can still task your NPC followers with attacking and defending towns which should help in maintaining control strategy is present in just about every aspect of the game but isn't so deep that it becomes overwhelming the game is a truly accessible title that's enjoyable to most types of gamers I would imagine and based on our own experience but is perhaps not the best for hyper-competitive folks who maybe only want to play things like csgo it is absolutely worth a look though and we awarded windward with an Editors Choice Award and our written review linked below in the description for its high gameplay value and really fairly reasonable price point about $15 anymore than that I would begin to question its value but where it sits now is perfect when word is relaxing easy to pick up and easy to play between work projects and then dropped for later and it offers mechanically intuitive but fun implementations of combat and mercantile nothing is really inherently brand new here it's on the unity engine it's using a lot of borrowed mechanics from other games but why redo something that's already working and what matters here is that it is a somewhat unique setting there's not a lot of pirate and mercantile games out there anymore Port Royale is long overdue for yet another game but it's still more complex than windward is and for that I have to give when weird some attention learn more about windward and the full review link in the description below subscribe to the channel if you like this video and as always we love that you all watch the channel I will see you all next time you