Rating of
3.5/5
Could Use a Little More Wind in These Sails
Chris Kavan - wrote on 01/03/18
Everyone who is anyone has always dreamed about being a pirate. Not the kind that illegally downloands movies and such, but a true pirate on the high seas, keel hulling and skallywagging about, peg leg, eyepatch - the whole nine yards. Windward kind of lets you be a pirate, or at least a pirate ship. It's a weird mix of Diablo-like loot gathering and Civilization-like city building, but with the depth of neither. Still, Windward is fun in short spurts with friends, if only it had a story to go along with it, it would be a lot better off.
Presentation: At least the game gets things right in this department. The ships look good, the water looks good, the landscapes look good - it's not exactly photo realistic quality here, but for a simple titles run on the Unity Engine, it sets itself apart merely by succeeding and not taking the easy way out. Moreover, both the music and sound effects (cannon shots, drunk passengers, the occasional ship-to-ship banter) are all well done. It's a laid-back sound for a game that involves destroying every other ship around you. While we ran into the occasional bug - usually involving ships moving in a definite non-ship way, overall there were no major problems encountered.
Story: Windward, sadly, lacks any story. You are dumped into a random map, fight random pirates, create new cities, do random quests between said cities, get gold, get raw materials, get ship schematics - upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. There is a lot technically going on, from the sails and hull and crew you have to the many different ships you can acquire and sail, but if you're hoping for a deep experience, look elsewhere.
Gameplay: Fun in moderation. Windward involves picking a team color (even pirates!), sailing to and establishing new cities and completing quests between them. You gain levels, abilities and perks along the way. This can be anything from stronger cannons and hulls to the ability to fire specialty attacks (fire and such) that can do major damage. The game gives you plenty of opportunity to improve your ship. Like Diablo, there is random loot dropped (and even color specific rarity) that gives you better hull, sails, crew, captain and cannons. You can get items that will let you pick up loot from farther away, plumb the depths for treasure and firebomb enemies to ash. You an repair yourself in any city you control or utilize the materials you'll find all over to make hasty repairs on the sea. Maps are randomly generated, but you'll always start on a low-level area. As you progress across the map, enemies become higher level and more dangerous, but also provide much better loot. Don't try to bite off more than you can chew, you will be destroyed.
There is really no consequence for dying, other than losing time. As you progress, you will also unlock better ships - these cost gold, but it's not too difficult to afford them provided you like sinking pirate ships. Still, the main issues is that this is all well and good, but there is no sense of direction. Leveling up and getting new cool things to make you bigger and better is fine, but without anything to truly work toward, it feels empty. Plus, the reason it's good in short bursts is that it does get fairly repetitive. It tries to build up some massive end-game content but really there's little reason to go back.
Replayability: Not so much, unless you want to get all those ships and, apparently, eventually fight dragons (you can get an airship, though it's a headache - only one person was glutton for punishment enough to do it). But other than trying to get marginally better items and such, it's hard to say why people would go back.
Overall: Windward is a casual experience, one that tries a lot of everything, but forgets the main thing: a story to care about. It was still a fun experience, but a bit hollow. If you need a laid-back multiplayer experience, however, it does well enough to pass the time.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: N/A
Gameplay: 4/5
Replayability: 2/5
Overall (not an average): 3.5/5
