Tradewinds 2 is a great strategy game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The game was originally made for the PC, but Handmark and Sandlot games teamed up to adapt the game to the iPhone/iPod Touch. The goal of the game is to amass as much money as possible. Money is everything in the game and there are two ways to get money. The trading way and the killing way. Players can buy items at one port and attempt to sell those items for more money at another port. The other way to gain money is by killing pirates.

Players can choose from five different characters to play. The characters each have their own strengths and weaknesses. If players do not like any of the pre-built characters, they can build their own character. Essentially, there are five different games to be played. The goal of the game is always the same, but the way the game is played is a bit different for each character.

There are two different game modes, story mode and free trade mode. In story mode, players try to amass their fortune by trading items from port to port. Each port sells items for different prices. Players can gain money by buying cheap items in one port and selling them for a higher price in another port. Trading items to gain money makes for a lot of sailing. While sailing, players can randomly encounter pirates.

The pirate battles start out fairly simple, but your ship is not that strong either. The battles can be challenging, but players have the option of fleeing if they feel they are not going to win the battle. If players can defeat the pirates, they will gain the booty on the pirate ship. The booty is normally money, but can be gems and other items.

The random pirate battles are not the only battles players will encounter. Occasionally, pirates will take over the ports. If this happens, the ports need to be freed. The port battles are fairly challenging. The buildings have huge guns on them that really hurt your ship. The port battles are bigger, but so is the booty if players can win the battle.

The random battles pop up as players are sailing around completing tasks for the governors. Each port has a governor and some will talk to you and give you tasks to do. Others don’t want anything to do with you, until a certain point. Of course, the tasks are not performed for free. Each task will give you an item or money.

All of the money is used to fix the ship after fights and buy more ammunition for the ship. The ships can be upgraded too. It is not cheap to upgrade the ships and players will have to save for a while as they start buying bigger and better ships. The ships can hold more cargo, which also means guns because guns take up cargo space. The new ships are also stronger, which means they can take more damage.

The graphics in Tradewinds 2 are great. I was impressed with the graphics. The game is made for a mobile device, but the graphics look as good as the PC graphics. The great graphics don’t slow down the iPod Touch in anyway either. Not sure about the iPhone as I don’t own one, but I am sure it runs just as well on the iPhone.

Over all, Tradewinds 2 is a fantastic adventure game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Initially, I was not that impressed with the game, but once I got the hang of it, I was addicted. The game is full of strategy and can be challenging to balance upgrading the ships, fixing the ship and completing the tasks from the governors of the ports. If you like adventure/strategy games, you need to get Tradewinds 2.

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