Others say...

"Doesn't Hold a Candle to the First Edition of Trade Winds!"
After completing the initial Trade Winds game I was really excited to get started on the sequel, Trade Winds II - thinking that, even if it was the same exact game with just a few different locals it would be great (as I absolutely LOVED Trade Winds I). However I was sorely disappointed, as the changes they chose to make made the game pale in comparison to the original.

Here are the main differences:
1. Instead of being able to build your fleet, purchasing up to 10 vessels in TW1, here you're stuck with only 1 boat - yet you still have to fight pirates who have fleets of boats at their disposal.

2. Because you don't have a fleet, you now have extremely limited storage space - so you can't purchase & sell near as much

3. To add insult to injury, you also are banned from purchasing storage space in any other port besides your home port - so once again, your hands are tied as to the amount of goods you are able to purchase & sell

4. The music doesn't always match the port - and much of it is really annoying.

5. The characters are new, but their aren't near as many to choose from

I have to say that I'm wondering if they may have felt rushed to get the sequel out before people forgot about how good the initial game was. But, in my opinion, in their haste to create something similar, yet different, they made some really bad decisions.

Now, I do realize that if this was the first Trade Winds game I had ever played I might have rated it higher. But when compared to TW1, this game just doesn't hold a candle to it!


"Highly addictive and great fun!"
I was bored one day so I decided to download a game from Pogo.com and picked Tradewinds 2. I'm glad I did. The game is engaging and light-hearted, without being sappy or too easy. As one of 5 or 6 characters you are able to play, you run errands for govenors, fight pirates, and trade goods in different ports while you gather information and experience at defeating a specific foe. I beat the game with one character in about 10 hours, but I never once felt like I was going to lose interest once I did. Now I'm working on beating the game with all of the preset characters and the custom character you can build after you beat the game once. I highly recommend this game if you are a fan of pirates or if you just need a fun game to kill some time.

"Addictive!!!!"
This game is very enjoyable and extremely addicitive! I am 45 years old and absolutely love it! My next purchase is Tradewinds Legends.

"patrician II vs sid meyer's pirates old-style"
This game is small in size so is perfect for someone who has a full hard-drive already. It is very long as the game itself can take upwards of 100 hours to beat once. It features a lot of small plots and stories that change in between as well as 5 different characthers to play the story with. Each characther has a different story-line and has different events happening to him or her. The in-game help is pretty good as it offers mostly everything you need to know on each subject without telling you how you "must" play the game.
Graphics can be a problem for people used with full realism backgrounds like in doom or age of empires III or even Halo 2, but what you have to think about is that the game is very small in size. The graphics themselves are very much so playable and intelligent it's only though that they are much more Warcraft II style from the mid-90's than modern day ones.
In the game you will be asked to purchase various goods and trade them such as lumber or fish and you will have access to contraband as well. This contraband includes items such as tobacco that might be seized when going into a harbor but they also have the potential of gaining you much larger profits. It's like they say, you win some you lose some.
Personally, I would recommend this game to anyone that likes pirate style games as it has a little bit of everything combined very nicely:trading, intrigue, storyline, pirate fights,quests. If you are the type of person that requires great graphics to play a game this is not for you.