Currently my favorite game to play of the last couple weeks, easily in my top ten all time. I kinda like this game so this is a bit long. To summarize, this is a great game if you like arpgs, ship battles, or group play. This is not a game that really supports a single player playstyle.
The first thing I want to say is that if you only play the single player you will be really gimpingCurrently my favorite game to play of the last couple weeks, easily in my top ten all time. I kinda like this game so this is a bit long. To summarize, this is a great game if you like arpgs, ship battles, or group play. This is not a game that really supports a single player playstyle.
The first thing I want to say is that if you only play the single player you will be really gimping yourself. The second thing is that this is a freshly released ARPG, much as D2 and D3, I think that the potential of this game is vast. In the last four days I've seen the developer online communicating with the playerbase, on discussions forums, and on the subreddit. The community of windward is one that works together and at odds of one another for pure fun; the initial factions easily swapped and online it can be amusing to watch the pvp as some people may switch sides or go pirate and fight all sides in a zone.
The depth of windward is in its progression. Upgrading the gear on your ship is one type, however so it upgrading the ship itself. In fact I would go so far as to say that the ship upgrade really makes the "gear game" a non-issue (and therefore not a grind). This is the first ARPG where I got to a high level without ever feeling like I needed to just grind out mobs/quests (not to say that you don't, but I didn't notice it).
Killing ships and trying to get enough money to get to the next ship I want was a ton of fun, the multiplayer aspect of it in the early and mid game was fantastic, trying out pvp around level 30 and being able to compete with someone 30 levels above me (due to the server option of having level scaling turned on) was a lot of fun. As I entered the start of the endgame, level 50, I joined the Syndicate. A faction you only qualify for as level 50+. Factions are nothing more than flags you equip in a flag gear slot, they are not to difficult to earn from the various factions either. (I got them all simply by joining combat instances with other players and killing pirates)
The graphics for this game were better than I expected, particularly with a single developer behind the wheel. The gameplay is very well polished, there are a few bugs (being slung 1/2 way across the map on to land after a MASSIVE 8 ships to ships collision was hilarious) but nothing that interrupted my fun. The community is fantastic, the veterans of this game consistently invite and help out lower level players (and are encouraged to through the way the Heroic system works), spawn ships for loot, and the developer himself is in touch with the people playing.
One downside of this is that the game is very much made for group play, if you want a single player experience I would not recommend this because it is fundamentally designed for more than one player at a time. At a certain point (I think 70) all instances are scaled to be completed with 3+ players and there is a minor trinity system in place with the specializations, equipment, and ships. You can be a Tank, Offensive damage, or support (Healing/buffing/Debuffing). . Heroic instances make use of this with a max of 12 ships in the instance. There is normally a 1-4 Ships of the line (Tanks), 5-8 damage specced ships, 1-3 Support specced ships... and its a BLAST. Due to the way the level scaling works you can get into these at level 50. You unlock the Orange faction (Can I just say the legendary faction?As in being a legendary captain?) at level 150, and then you continue to unlock very interesting abilities as you increase in level.
I find the depth in this game to be in the progression, the community, and in the smaller aspects of gameplay like how the various playstyles fit together. Even though this game is out of early access and IS a complete game, it is still under patch support and revision, much like other ARPGs (*cough* Diablo) the potential of windward is greater than the current rendition of the game and I cannot wait to see what it will play like over the next 6 months.
Ign: Fortune.… Expand
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