Ahoy there, me hearties.  Get ready to stow your gear and check the mainsail as we’ll be shipping out shortly for an all new empire-building, free-trading adventure on the open seas with Tradewinds 2.  I have long been a fan of Tradewinds, Astraware’s original entry in the growing genre of free trade-strategy games, which requires you to sail the seven seas building an empire, trading goods, and generally fighting piracy.  In fact, I have often characterized Tradewinds as one of the best games which I have not reviewed.  Aaarrrrrgh.  I don’t have a particularly good reason for not reviewing it.  My other commitments simply always seemed to get in the way.   So, shiver me timbers, Astraware has finally found a way to get that review out of me after all, and it didn’t even involve walking the plank or any time on the rack.  All they had to do was release a game that tops the original Tradewinds, Tradewinds 2.  Tradewinds 2 features all of the empire building, free-trade excitement that made the first Tradewinds such a grea t game, but this time we have switch location to the Caribbean (sorry, ladies, although you will encounter many pirates of the Caribbean, the most famous Pirate of the Caribbean, Captain Jack Sparrow, is nowhere to be found), with increased features and much improved graphics.  So, let’s weigh anchor and prepare to set sail for lands (um…islands??) unknown, piracy in the open seas, and the chance to build your own empire.

Installation and Registration: Installation follows the standard rules.  Just download the desktop installer and load the demo version onto your device using Activesync (or Windows Mobile Device Center).  The demo will allow you to play a fully featured version of the game for 36 “game weeks”.  When you purchase the game, you will be provided with a unique registration key which is linked to the Owner Name on your device.  Simply input the registration key to unlock the full game.

Overview and Gameplay: Based upon the popular PC game by Sandlot Games, Tradewinds 2 is a strategy game in which you control the actions of a merchant captain in the 18th century Caribbean Islands (you may recall that the original Tradewinds took place in the Far East).  Travel between 20 unique ports, while buying low and selling high, as they say, in order to amass your fortune.  Along the way (in story mode only), you will be given tasks by the various governors at each port.  Completing tasks will win you the favor of the governor, resulting in increasing rewards for the tasks, as well as an increased reputation among the other governors.  Many of the tasks relate to the overriding theme of the character you have chosen, drawing the game into a concise (and often humorous) story.  Beware, however, because these waters are wrought with danger.  Pirates patrol the trading lanes and will attempt to overtake your ship with some regularity. Sometimes, they may even capture an entire port which you will have to rescue.  Defeating the pirates is not always easy, but the spoils of battle (ie: gold, gold, and more gold) can make it well worth the effort. 

Characters: To start a new game, you will have to select one of four characters to represent: Russel Van Gregor, Christine McGowan, Ignacio Verdugo, or Adia Azul.  Each character hails from a different port and has a unique backstory which colors their personality and the progression of the game.  Additionally, each character is familiar with different trade routes, meaning that only certain ports will be known to you at the beginning  of the game.  By progressing through the game, however, you can discover additional ports.  As you advance through the story, you will also find the characters whom you did not select will play a supporting role in helping you complete some of the tasks.

Of course, this would not be an Astraware game unless additional characters were available to be unlocked at a later time.  Once you have won the game as any of the four characters (by killing the dreaded Sebastian LaRoche), you will be given the opportunity to turn the tables and play the game from the other side as Sebastian LaRoche.  In a lot of ways I felt that the whole game could have been a long prologue  to playing as LaRoche, which is significantly more difficult than playing as any of the other characters.  When you play as Laroche, the pirate captain, doors which had previously been open to you will be locked shut, banks will have nothing to do with you, and all of the ports will start the game as an enemy port which you must battle to enter.  I felt that LaRoche presented the most interesting vantage point of the game.

Finally, Tradewinds 2 has positioned itself above the rest of the genre with its patented character generator.  Once you have won the game by defeating LaRoche, you will also be able to design your own character.  Simply select a name, picture, and several attributes, and let the character generator do all of the hard work for you. 

Port Screen: There are two primary screens through which you will interact with the game.  The first is the Port Screen.  You will begin the game in your home port, but can sail to any other port represented on your map. 

Each port consists of a cluster of buildings, in which you can interact with the townspeople, speak with the governor, trade goods and services, and perform various tasks (in story mode).  The graphics of the port have been significantly updated and improved since the original Tradewinds was released.  Nonetheless, I was (perhaps unfairly) hoping for more animation in the ports. 

This genre always disappoints me by its static nature and lack of animated interaction with the game, particularly in the ports screens.  Tradewinds 2, for all it offers, is no different in this regard.  Although I was impressed by the variety of buildings with which you could interact, I was hoping that Astraware, with its penchant for graphics and animation, would dazzle me here, and really set the Tradewinds franchise significantly ahead of the rest of this genre.  Rather than provide  two-dimensional image with and static dialogue boxes, I would love to see the ports rendered in full three-dimensional images.  This would allow you to control a character maneuvering through the streets of the town, and interacting with other characters, a la Broken Sword.  While I recognize that such animation would constitute a significant break from the traditional mold of this genre, it would also add a level of gameplay and interaction which has never been offered in this type of strategy game.

Buildings: Each time you enter a port, you will have the opportunity to interact with the residents by visiting their businesses.  There are seven different buildings in the game, however, not all of them are present in each port, so be careful and plan accordingly.  There is nothing like narrowly surviving a battle, only to find no shipyard in your next point of call.  The seven buildings include:

• Bank: The bank is the safest place in which to store your excess money.  No one wants to be sailing the seven seas with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold on their boat.  Additionally, the bank will pay you interest of roughly 1% on any money you deposit.  All of the banks in the game are also networked together (that 18th century Ethernet at work), which means you can access all of your deposited money from any bank in the game.  To withdraw your money, just visit a bank and select withdraw and enter the amount you wish.
• Moneylender: The moneylender is always ready to offer you a loan.  He will let you borrow up to double your cash on hand.  This is extremely useful when you need to make a big purchase, such as a new ship or preparations for battle.  Make sure to pay him back, however, because nothing is free in this game.  The moneylender will charge you 10% interest on your money.
• Marketplace: This is a game about trading goods and amassing a small fortune.  Of course, the marketplace will be a necessary and important role in the game.  From here, you can check out the prices, purchase, or sell your goods.  When you begin the game, you will only be able to trade in fish, cotton, timber, cocoa, and sugar.  Each time you unlock a new port, however, you will add an additional item to your trading list.  Remember to buy low and sell high.
• Alehouse Some people might argue that the alehouse is the most important building in any port.  Talk to the bartender and buy rounds of drinks for the patrons in order to gain valuable information.  Additionally, in your home port, you will find The Trader at the alehouse.  He can sell you valuable items which cannot be found anywhere else in the game.
• Shipyard: If there were no Pirates in this game, then you would really have no need for the shipyard.  Of course, this is not the case as Pirates patrol every league of the trade routes in this game.  As you progress, you will encounter increased pirate raids and battles with larger and more heavily armed ships.  Each time, you run the risk of damaging your ship.  Unlike the original Tradewinds game, you will not build a fleet of ships.  Instead, you will need to continuously upgrade, repair, and fortify your ship.  From the shipyard, you can repair your ship, buy a new ship, or buy and sell cannons and munitions.
• Warehouse: Anyone who played the original Tradewinds will recall the warehouse.  You can only access the warehouse in your home port, however, it is a fantastic place for storing goods before you trade them.  I use it whenever I find an exceptional price (such as $10 fish) and then hold it in the warehouse until the price skyrockets and sell the whole thing at once. 
• Governor’s Residence: My favorite part of the game are the tasks.   In fact, once I get into a game, I rarely continue trading as I make more than enough money by performing tasks.  Tasks are assigned to you by the governor in each port.  At the beginning of the game, you will only have access to the governor in your home port.  As your reputation increases, however, governors in other ports will begin assigning tasks to you as well.  As you progress through the game, your tasks will become more difficult, but also they will pay more handsomely.  Note that the primary difference between story mode and free trade mode is the lack of tasks in free trade mode. 

Items: As you progress through the game, you may also come into possession of numerous items.  Sometimes you may receive an item as payment for completing a task, other times you may receive it from one of the other people you encounter in the port, or as part of the spoils of a battle.  Items can include:

• maps, which will unlock a new port
• amulets and other talismans which will help you sail and fight
• letters which will assist you in your dealings with the townspeople
• characters, who may join your crew for a limited period of time

I really liked the items you could collect.  They added a fun element to the game, and made it considerably more interesting.  For example, one item you can obtain is a limited-time, zero interest letter for the moneylender.  This had me scrambling to borrow money for a new ship.  Watch out, however, because just like the no-interest loan on your living room furniture or 5- inch LCD, flat screen TV, when the letter expires you will begin accumulating interest again. 

Map Screen: When you are ready to leave port, simply tap Set Sail and you will be transported to the map view.  From here, you can tap any discovered port on the map (the ones with question marks are undiscovered and unavailable to you).  Regardless of how long you spend in each port or the distance between ports, it will always take you one “game week” to travel from one port to another.  I liked this consistency, because it lends a significant amount of predictability to the game.  You always know that regardless of the actions you take while in port or the distance between ports, one turn (consisting of the time you land in one port until the time you land in the next) will always take the same amount of time within a game.  Thus, if an item or character will expire in ten weeks, you can easily measure this as ten calls to port.

Be careful as you navigate your way through the map view.  Often, maneuvering from point on the map to point B is much easier said than done.  Between the two ports, danger will frequently overtake your ship.  As I have mentioned, there are pirates lurking everywhere.  As your reputation and wealth increase, so too will the frequency and ferocity of the pirate raids.  There is no predictability to these raids, they will pop out as though from thin air and attack your ship between ports.

Additionally, you always run the danger of sailing into a storm front.  If your skills are good enough, you may be able to sail straight through the storm.  If not, you could encounter a delay or even get blown well of course.  These unpredictable events really added a great deal of realism to the game.  As anyone who has ever taken a road trip (whether by car, airplane, bus, train, or ship) knows that getting from point A to point B is just never quite as easy as it sounds.

Battles: One you encounter a pirate band, the view will shift to the battle view.  Here, you will see an image of your ship facing off against the enemy.  At the beginning, your enemy will likely attack with a lone, small ship.  As you get stronger, however, so too will he, frequently attacking with up to three or more ships of increasing size at a time.

In the upper left corner, you will see an image for each of your cannons.  This will show you which cannons are firing, their status, and how many cannons you have available.  If a cannon is destroyed, it will have a red line through it for the remainder of the battle.  Destroyed cannons can be replaced at the shipyard.

The right side contains a health gauge.  This is indicates how much health you have left before your ship will be sunk.  If your ship sinks, then your game ends.  It is as simple as that, so make sure you are paying regular visits to the shipyards for repairs.  At the bottom is a display showing any special munitions you might have purchased from the ship yard.  You have an unlimited supply of ordinary cannonballs.  These can be supplemented with chain balls which tear through the enemy’s sails; fire pots, which fire a burst of flame at each enemy ship, and tiki bombs which explode, raining fire, over each enemy.  Use these sparingly, however, because you will have a limited supply of them.  Of course, more can always be purchased from the shipyard. 

At any time, if things are not going your way, you can always tap flee and sail off the screen away from the battle.  This is a calculated risk, however, because at the end of a successful battle, you can salvage a significant amount of gold from the enemy.  If you flee then you will forfeit this opportunity.

In addition to attacking you in the open seas, sometimes pirates will barricade themselves into a port.  A barricaded port will bear the Jolly Roger flag in map view.  In order to enter a barricaded port, you must attack the forts from your ship.  This can be an extremely difficult battle, with up to three fortifications firing at your ship at the same time, however, it also bears the possibility of significant rewards from a grateful citizenry and governor if you are successful.

I was a bit disappointed by the battle sequences.  Although they could be exciting, the battles largely take place with little interaction from the user.  Your cannons will fire whether you are there or not.  Likewise, there is no opportunity for you to take any defensive measures or set any kind of tactics at all.  While I recognize that battles, in many ways, are secondary to the game; I would have liked the opportunity to have some control (aside from deciding whether or not to fire special munitions or flee) over the course of the battle.

Graphics: This is an Astraware game.  With that name comes certain expectations regarding the graphics, and Tradewinds 2 does not disappoint.  The ports are beautifully and vividly drawn images which even include some background animation.  Likewise, the battles are crisply drawn and animated.  In fact, every aspect of this game looked fantastic.  My only disappointment was that it was a largely static game.  As I have said, this entire genre seems to be one which would benefit from significantly increased animation and interaction in the ports and battles.  From the time I heard that Astraware would be updating its popular Tradewinds franchise, I hoped that this would be the one that finally delivered on the potential of this genre.  So, I was a bit disappointed to find an insignificant amount of interaction in the battle scenes and too few opportunities for interaction and animation in the port scenes.  When you look at some of the other games in Astraware’s vast library, such as Broken Sword, it is surprising that they have not seized upon this opportunity.  Instead, they seemed to play it “safe” by following the same construct of static images (albeit exceptionally well drawn images) that have become the norm for this genre.

Saving: Tradewinds makes it incredibly easy to save your game at any time.  From any port screen, simply select the save option and you will be presented with a list of 10 save slots.  Select any of these slots to save your game, and return when it is more convenient.  Additionally, if you really must exit right now (say your boss has just entered your office to complain about how long you spend playing Tradewinds instead of making real money), just hit exit.  Your game will be automatically paused and will resume right where you left it.  I really appreciated the number of save slots.  As many of you know, this is an extremely important feature to me as I often play games in short snippets of time on the train or while endlessly waiting in line for something.  The ability to quickly and easily save a game may seem like a small feature, but it greatly enhanced my experience with the game.

Conclusion: It is always difficult to follow up on a popular franchise.  This is often apparent in movies where the sequel does not live up to the original movie.  Fortunately for us, this was not the case with Tradewinds.  I absolutely loved the updated graphics which were a significant improvement over the original Tradewinds.  Nonetheless, I was hoping that Astraware would take advantage of the opportunity to shatter the self-imposed confines of this genre by adding significantly more animation to the ports and battle scenes.  This would also allow better user interaction rather than the mostly static images and dialogues which make up the game.  Nonetheless, Tradewinds 2 is an easy game to learn and a fun game to play, which makes it stand out in the crowded field of traders which makes up this genre.  So, prepare to hoist the main sail.  Follow the second star on the right, and then it is straight on ’til morning in this tropical trading adventure.

Vital Statistics:

Name: Tradewinds 2

Version: 1.0

Platform: WM 6 

Also Available:  WM5, WM2003SE, Smartphone, Palm

Developer: Astraware

Price:          $19.95 (on sale for $14.95 for a limited time)

Available From: Astraware

                           JAMM Store

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