Honolulu Blue
05-03-2005, 07:16 PM
Does anyone remember the old Impressions Game "High Seas Trader"? This game reminds me a lot of that one. I liked HSD, and I like this one also.
Anyway, I'll explain the new game to you all. You start as one of five different personalities (each with their own special items, giving various advantages within the game), or you can customize your player and have an icon that looks something like yourself. In all cases, you start with a sloop and a small amount of money in the Caribbean in 1700, and your goal is to become the biggest, baddest, richest pirate out there.
There are several items available for trade and the usual principle of these sort of games - buy low and sell high - applies. The twist here is that some pricey items are sometimes banned in some places, so if you try to trade them when they're banned, they'll get confiscated. One can also make money by defeating pirates, liberating towns, and doing missions for governors.
Combat against pirates is very basic. There's no movement as such - just your ship against their ship(s). There are four types of ammo - regular cannonballs, which do a little damage to one target; Fire Pot, which does a little damage to all targets; Chain Ammo, which does substantial damage to one ship; and the devastating Tiki Bombs, which do a lot of damage to all targets. Cannonballs are assumed to be free (except for the cannons themselves, which can be purchased and do occasionally get knocked out by the enemy), but the other ammo types have to be bought one by one at the shipyard. Basically, what you do during combat is decide which ship to shoot with which kind of shot. "Age of Sail" it's not, but it does the job. After you win by sinking the enemy, you'll get the cash amount of spoils. No, you can't capture ships in this game.
Attacking towns is similar to attacking pirates, except the guns tend to be tougher than the ships, and they fire a lot more. There can also be ships in the harbor. Liberating towns yields cash and sometimes gems. Gems can be sold for a good price, but they take up cargo room.
The governor's missions is probably the bset part of the game. At first the missions were like those in "Pirates!" - go here, do this, defeat this bad guy, etc. But midway through the game, they got surprisingly twisty. A simple delivery might involve talking to four different people, buying some unrelated items, and defeating a pirate or two. The rewards range from peanuts to huge, but most are worth doing because you'll get rewarded in the end (and all the missions do, eventually, end, if you don't die first). Doing missions for governors allows you to speak with other governors in other towns, allows you to purchase different products, and unlocks ports.
Each town has some buildings, but not all towns have all buildings. All towns have a marketplace to buy stuff and a governor's mansion. Towns may or may not have a shipyard (to repair ships, buy ships, or buy ammo), a bank (to store money & earn interest), a moneylender (to borrow money and pay very high interest), and an alehouse (to get tips from the bartender and/or the patrons, for the cost of a few drinks).
The music and sound effects are nice and pleasant. The graphics are cartoony, some of the dialogue is irreverent (and occasionally funny), and you might think it's a kids game. But like "The Simpsons" and "The Oregon Trail", this game is too good for kids.
"Tradewinds 2" was developed by Sandlot Games and it is available from Yahoo! Games and some other places.
Anyway, I'll explain the new game to you all. You start as one of five different personalities (each with their own special items, giving various advantages within the game), or you can customize your player and have an icon that looks something like yourself. In all cases, you start with a sloop and a small amount of money in the Caribbean in 1700, and your goal is to become the biggest, baddest, richest pirate out there.
There are several items available for trade and the usual principle of these sort of games - buy low and sell high - applies. The twist here is that some pricey items are sometimes banned in some places, so if you try to trade them when they're banned, they'll get confiscated. One can also make money by defeating pirates, liberating towns, and doing missions for governors.
Combat against pirates is very basic. There's no movement as such - just your ship against their ship(s). There are four types of ammo - regular cannonballs, which do a little damage to one target; Fire Pot, which does a little damage to all targets; Chain Ammo, which does substantial damage to one ship; and the devastating Tiki Bombs, which do a lot of damage to all targets. Cannonballs are assumed to be free (except for the cannons themselves, which can be purchased and do occasionally get knocked out by the enemy), but the other ammo types have to be bought one by one at the shipyard. Basically, what you do during combat is decide which ship to shoot with which kind of shot. "Age of Sail" it's not, but it does the job. After you win by sinking the enemy, you'll get the cash amount of spoils. No, you can't capture ships in this game.
Attacking towns is similar to attacking pirates, except the guns tend to be tougher than the ships, and they fire a lot more. There can also be ships in the harbor. Liberating towns yields cash and sometimes gems. Gems can be sold for a good price, but they take up cargo room.
The governor's missions is probably the bset part of the game. At first the missions were like those in "Pirates!" - go here, do this, defeat this bad guy, etc. But midway through the game, they got surprisingly twisty. A simple delivery might involve talking to four different people, buying some unrelated items, and defeating a pirate or two. The rewards range from peanuts to huge, but most are worth doing because you'll get rewarded in the end (and all the missions do, eventually, end, if you don't die first). Doing missions for governors allows you to speak with other governors in other towns, allows you to purchase different products, and unlocks ports.
Each town has some buildings, but not all towns have all buildings. All towns have a marketplace to buy stuff and a governor's mansion. Towns may or may not have a shipyard (to repair ships, buy ships, or buy ammo), a bank (to store money & earn interest), a moneylender (to borrow money and pay very high interest), and an alehouse (to get tips from the bartender and/or the patrons, for the cost of a few drinks).
The music and sound effects are nice and pleasant. The graphics are cartoony, some of the dialogue is irreverent (and occasionally funny), and you might think it's a kids game. But like "The Simpsons" and "The Oregon Trail", this game is too good for kids.
"Tradewinds 2" was developed by Sandlot Games and it is available from Yahoo! Games and some other places.