While not technically of the same engine as the Goldbox games, Shattered Lands can safely be regarded as one of the premier titles during that era. Sounds laughable today, but it brought an advanced user interface including right-click abilities, quick spell slot, and a highly configurable party. The art is fantastic for DOS and still enjoyable. The sound effects may be annoying, but the experimental rock music totally makes up for that. The plot and general writing (a few buggy side quests aside) are fantastic. In my mind, the first Dark Sun was THE precursor to Baldur's Gate, just overlooked. Wake of the Ravager is a bit of a different story. They changed the perspective slightly and consequently reworked the art so all the sprites look stiff. The sound effects were carried over and the music was translated but buggy. Writing was ok, plot was ok, everything else pretty decent. What killed it, like many sequels, were bugs. You CAN finish the game but save often and strategically.
As other reviews have mentioned, it's horizontal flight. Wish I'd read them more thoroughly. This is my first and last impulse buy in/for awhile. For the couple minutes I played, game seems legit. I can't stand deception on something so critical though, and words like "open world" and "exploration" led me to believe this wasn't on rails. So I'm being nice and leaving an average rating. No space sim on rails could ever be five stars in my book.
Although not advertised as such, this is an MMO pirating sim. Not bad for one developer. Let's start with the good: * Great feeling controls (reminds me of GTA2) * Beautiful graphics and music * Good variety of ships (13 at present) and skills * Exciting combat that tests your piloting skills * Simple and intuitive inventory system (Hull, Sails, Cannons, Ammunition, Captain, Specialist, and Crew) * Built-in chat for online play * Custom hotkeys for abilities in-game (no messing with a config or setup screen) * Small install (100MB!) + Low machine requirements * Some world interaction such as building towers or towns and blowing open channels to sail through * Simple multiplayer, join an existing server or start up your own with the included executable * All-around an elegant design The bad, which could be improved as the developer continues release regular updates: * Questing becomes dull and has inferior payouts, same with trading * No story (for me this is fine, I hate cutscenes) * Procedurally generated regions, which you may find bland * Small skill tree * Towns take forever to level up completely * Buggy physics on occasion A lot of people will be turned off by the nondescript gameplay initially. However, if you hop online and join some combat instances or a pvp server, you will feel a major difference in the immersion. Windward is enjoyed best as a sailing combat game, but you may like some of its other features. Also, in the "endgame" (above level 150 or so), you can focus on designing different builds of ships using various legendary equipment you have collected. The open-ended nature of the mechanics allows for very creative builds, like an offensive support ship or a mobile tank. Many people I think miss out on this aspect of the game. I give it a full 5 stars because Windward brings a blend of inventive ideas and time-tested UI in an elegant design, all from a single developer.
