Have you ever wanted to build your own naval empire, fight with brutal pirates, sail glorious ships and experience a lot of adventures and thrill by discovering unfamiliar places? Then continue reading, we have found a game for you!
Your main goal is to establish a new empire, lead it to victory and make it a good, prosperous company! The more you play the harder decisions you will have to make. The first decision that will basically influence the whole further gameplay is a choice of your starting ship. Would you rather be a peaceful merchant and sail a ship with a big cargo capacity or having a fast battleship with a lot of cannons is more a way of your playstyle? There are 3 ships for starters and you are free to choose between Brig, Schooner and Galleon.
If you still think that Winds of Trade is going to be a simple game for you, then stop and give your imaginations a break, as the main essence of the game is still disclosed. Winds of Trade is not something that lets you play statutory and in one direction only. The main wallop of the game doesn’t lie within the legal stuff, but is hidden in the illegal moves you make. Yes, it is completely fine to choose an illegal way and start smuggling, but prepare for additional obstacles as your opponents will not let you win that easily!
Goods legally bought and sold in one area may be declared as illegal in another. Don’t worry, nothing is impossible here and if something is getting you a good sum of money no one can stop you from getting your profits, not even the game itself. There are plenty of goods that you can trade with, such as beer, books, clothes, coffee, cotton, fabric and even typical rum. The thing is that you can smuggle these goods to the areas where the goods are declared as illegal, but be careful with your moves so as not to get caught otherwise get ready to face the consequences of your actions. Smuggling and black market are only one part of the economy and you can still make a profit from normal trading using a common technique; buy low and sell high. But business does not go always well as you can’t predict pirate attacks or wars in advance, so you will have to be ready all the time to fight for your life and property. That being said, Winds of Trade provides its players with a complex trading model, where every city has different levels of industry (sugar farms, distillery, fishery and so on…) and you will have to think wisely before making any transaction in order to make a profit. That gets us to another feature that I have not seen in many games: auto-trading. You are free to create your own trading routes, which can be used by your merchant fleet under a command of hired captains. This thing actually works pretty well and you will definitely get used to this feature later as the game progress and the whole trading process will be even smoother. Another important aspect of the economy is upgrading. If you want to make a bigger trade, you must have a ship with expanded cargo capacity. That makes sense, right? You can either buy a new ship or upgrade your current one. Different shipyards offer different upgrades and while some of them offer more powerful cannons and improved armors, others might have completely different upgrades available.
The fear of uncertainties like natural disasters, forest fires, wars, real-time price fluctuations of goods depending on a demand and supply ratio and many other things makes it very realistic and a high-quality trading simulator overall.
When we review a game, we usually focus on the story part as well, however, this game is one big story itself. A story where one starts with nothing, gets power over the entire market by his clever decisions and wise moves. At the beginning, you have to choose your company name and that’s when your unique story starts. The rest totally depends upon your strategies to get your company over heights and make everyone remember your name. The main thrill is to deal with smuggling and corrupt government. The never-ending suspense makes the game unique and far more superior than others.
The game has a rich and immense soundtrack that mesmerizes you all through the game. The visuals are highly realistic and the real-time weather simulation makes it even more pragmatic. On the other hand, don’t expect a Frostbite engine quality graphics as the graphics serve here another purpose than creating visually intense moments, yet the graphics excluding few visual glitches are more than appropriate and you will find here even some advanced graphic effects such as lens-flare or dynamic lightning powered by powerful Unity engine.
Winds of Trade is a full package of thrill, unique in-game mechanics, fear and adventure. If you have been looking for a well-developed naval trading simulator with an advanced economy and turn-based combat system, you can’t go wrong here!
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