bismar7

I have two things to take away after reaching max level and completing two challenge modes. I'm at around 100kdps and 60k health. Holy crap am I glad I bought this game and can we please reroll weapons/mods as we can armor? This game is like a cross between Watch Dogs, Borderlands, and D3. This is not a game for COD drop shotters or 360noscopers, it relies heavily on Intelligence, not reflexes. Early on (leveling) this will seem apparent with positioning and minor tactics, but this becomes really obvious after max level in the Dark Zone, and then Challenge modes. After the most recent challenge mode my group wiped in less than 5 seconds from pulling the first pack, prompting us to come up with ability swaps and ideas on how to meet the challenge. In total I think it took us around two hours to complete and was an absolute blast of a challenge. This game is heavy on teamwork, being adaptable, and critical thinking to figure out the best approach. I should also point out that there is not one "A.I." in this game, but dozens... and they get harder as you meet different factions. I treat LMB with far more respect than Cleaners as they have proven their capability to get behind me (freaking shotguns... I swear). Not to mention that several bosses don't act in the same manner as normal enemies you fight, I shudder to think of what a shotgun boss will be like... Honestly I think a better way to look at the content in this game is that you have two different types of levels. You have experience levels and dark zone levels. 30 experience levels and 50 Dark Zone levels, it isn't grindy at all to get to level 30 and start the gear game. The dark zone is very grindy though and is much more pleasant with friends and exploring new areas (At the point of this review I am level 30 and 30 DZ rank). I started this game solo and met several people along the way through matchmaking and the Dark Zone (Ubisoft needs to have an in game method of adding friends... not being able to do so is really stupid) so my Uplay friends list now has enough people that I'm never playing alone. I think my only real complaint is the lack of PVP, and if you read "I hate the pvp" in anyone's reviews, they are lying because the only pvp is a weird zone wide manhunt. If you "go rogue" in the DZ you get skulls over your head that tell everyone in the zone you are worth 10 times more DZ rep than anything in the zone... so of course all 30+ people in the zone stop what they are doing and hunt you down. I've actually really enjoyed the hunting rogues down experience, but there is little benefit to being rogue and as I've played longer and longer I've seen fewer and fewer rogues, because it just isn't worth it. So the DZ is largely people farming elites similar to the welfare isles in WOW (rare farming). I think the game would really benefit from a 4v4 or 8v8 instanced pvp zone (similar to battlegrounds). In my opinion there is no real pvp in the game. In a word though, the game is fantastic. It has been a fantastic experience and I intend on playing a great deal more over the next year or so. I find it odd that I'm giving this a 10, but I'm not judging it by Ubisoft or their stupid Uplay. I'm judging it by the content in the game and the fun I've had playing it. It has been more fun than any game I've played in the last two years, I hope it continues to be.

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 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.

This is not a RTS TBS or action game. Its sims 3... in medieval. I spent 2 months looking at this game and reading reviews, the number one thing that kept coming up was that it wasn't what they expected (see first sentence). I love this game, just a blast; it can be a bit repetitive going for kingdom ambitions. The things I love about it is that its a complex game system with simple controls and concepts. Crafting/gathering are a huge part of it, Little things like the way spells are cast and the little side adventures are done. This game is unique in how it plays out. My only issue with it is just the repetitiveness of it, 100 levels per hero would have been more progression oriented (I know that not where it was going, just my preference). All in all one of the best games I've played in 3 years!