Tradewinds 2 Demo

Although the subject is not immensely attractive when you hear about it, trading games always been quite popular. Thanks to gems like Patrician and the X series, the genre has evolved steadily over the years, only to reach maturity and provide the fans with exactly what they want. However, there’s always room for improvement, or at least a different take on the subject.

Tradewinds 2 is not as complicated as other games in its genre, not by a long shot. In fact, everything about it has been simplified and dumbed down, with very little variety and not much of a challenge either. However, this can still be a hit with the more casual crowds because it can teach you the basics of trading games and provide you with a nice intro to what it takes to succeed in an economy-driven video game.

Hence, you get to play the role of a trader and the final goal is to make as much money as you can by trading goods between ports, using your ship for transportation. Although the free trading mode allows you to just keep playing until you are satisfied with your wealth, the story mode adds a few quests into the mix, to spice things up. They are pretty boring and badly written, but they can distract you from the routine when you need a break.

Given the fact that the action takes place in the Caribbean during the middle ages, it’s only natural that pirates are a part of the deal as well. You always have a chance to stumble into a random encounter with a few pirate ships, which is why cannons are a must. Not only that, but you can also upgrade your own guns and purchase powerful ammunition, which helps a lot during the skirmishes.

However, the fun is rather short-lived, because the lack of variety strikes hard after the few couple of minutes. There are only a handful of goods you can trade, and the price oscillations are laughable. You do not really need to pay attention to market trends or anything like that, because all you have to do is buy low and wait for the said good to become more expensive. There’s no strategy to it, just patience and repetition.

In the end, Tradewinds 2 is not a bad concept at all, even if the idea is stolen from a few other similar titles out there. However, the execution is poor, and you quickly run out of fun things to do, especially after you learn how everything works.