There have been many attempts to create a pirate world virtual world. Apart from a few notable exceptions, none have close to that pirate fantasy many of us have dreamed of. Then Windrose enters the picture, and it delivers on so much that which many of us have been yearning for – a true pirate adventure on the open seas. Or at least the beginnings of one.
The year is 17XX. After a fatal encounter with Blackbeard’s crew, you, a slain pirate captain, found yourself washed up on a deserted island. A cursed artifact bonded itself to you, thus condemning you to immortality. Windrose is a survival adventure where you search for answers about your “condition” while partaking in some good old-fashioned pirate revenge. Or you can choose to spend your days building the coziest island getaway that has ever existed. The choice is yours.
Windrose has finally hit Early Access recently, and my impressions of the game are very positive so far. The game is pretty far along in development, even at this early stage of Early Access, but a closer look at the game reveals gaps in content that need to be addressed sooner than later, as well as not-so-good handling of dedicated servers.
Windrose is described as a survival adventure game. I disagree with that description. With how the game plays, it’s actually closer in line to a Souls-like sandbox game with boat sailing and naval combat. The survival aspect also doesn’t work in the usual way. In most survival games, being hungry for a time results in death. In Windrose, however, being hungry only means that your health bar is very short. Eating food extends your health bar and applies buffs depending on the food you eat. Other than that, there’s no reason to eat anything, especially when there’s no penalty outside the risk of dying in combat.
The combat in the game resembles Dark Souls combat in the strictest sense. You commit to an attack and hope that enemies don’t interrupt mid-combo. There’s practically no animation cancel while dodging, and everything is deadly if you let your guard down. But once you have a grasp on these limitations, the combat is actually quite enjoyable. Once you understand that you can’t just bum-rush your way through every encounter, you will start to appreciate many things. Moment-to-moment fights are intense, and parrying becomes an essential part, especially in the later areas of the game.
An important thing to note is that stats are arbitrary at best in Windrose. You can commit the most points into one of three combat attributes, and it will only amount to a very small force multiplier depending on a weapon’s proficiency grade. Attack Power is still the most important factor, but you’d think that attribute points have some weight to them. I don’t know the reasoning behind this design choice, but I figure it has more to do with build flexibility. What I do know is that stats and attributes aren’t as fleshed out as you would expect from a Souls-like. Hopefully, that changes sometime during the game’s continuing development.
Progression in Windrose is very straightforward. Once you get your first pirate ship, the main story starts to progress. You go from point A to point B, battling anyone who guards the stuff that you need to progress. Sometimes, you venture out to destroy an enemy ship or two. But it always goes back to collecting keys to open the final boss fight for that area. There are currently three main zones in the game, with a fourth one in development.
The boss fights are simple when you think about it. The first one tests your ability to parry. The second one tests your ability to react under pressure. In comparison, the third and final boss takes it to the extreme and tests your aim while dealing with high pressure and an extremely high health pool. Looking back, I appreciate what the developers were trying to accomplish with the bosses and the areas. I just wish that there were more to each zone than just boilerplate MMORPG objectives.
One of my favorite activities in this game is sailing between islands and points of interest. I never tire of watching the sun rise and set over the horizon over the open seas. Going to different locations is also a great way of leveling up quickly, but it often feels like the only way to level up at all. You see, you don’t level up in this game through combat. Instead, you discover locations and loot treasure to gain additional EXP. I don’t have an issue with this method of leveling up. I do have an issue when exploration is not so much about engaging the environment but rather a requirement for leveling up. And when that happens, I really can’t see it as something that encourages exploration, not unlike in the Fallout games, where you know that exploration leads to cool items and a wealth of environmental storytelling. In its current state, going around feels like checking off items in a checklist more than anything else.
Ship-to-ship combat is the best part of the whole experience. If you’ve ever played Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, then you know what I’m talking about. Windrose goes above and beyond, giving us the ability to upgrade ever more powerful ships and elevating the experience so satisfying that I spend so many hours roaming the seas looking for treasure caravans. If anything is missing from the ship experience, it is that we need more ways to emote what we feel when playing with friends on a single ship. Or at least, increase the number of items we can interact with, like scrubbing the deck for roleplay purposes.
What surprised me the most about Windrose is the fact that there is a hefty amount of puzzle-solving and tomb raiding that was not in the demo. The puzzle may be your simple pressure plate puzzles, but the implementation is done well enough that one can take it as a welcome distraction from all the island hopping and constant combat. I believe that this should have played a bigger part in the game. Hopefully, we get more of these and less platforming. Unless they actually implement edge climbing and mounting animations.
A big part of the whole Windrose experience lies in its building mechanics. This, along with the crafting mechanic, is the most complete part of the game. It is unbelievable the number of decorations and building pieces you are able to unlock as of the release into Early Access. You don’t get access to everything right away. You need to explore, complete side quests, and progress the main story to gain access to a majority of building items. If you love settlement building and creation in general, I highly encourage you to explore the world and bring back what you find and apply it to your own home base. I spent dozens of hours making and remaking every building in my base, and I don’t regret a single moment building bigger and better after every discovery.
If there’s something I don’t like about Windrose is that combating multiple enemies can be real drag sometimes. It’s not because combat is unbearable. Far from it, fighting even single enemies is lethal but fair. I often think that I am fighting the controls more than I am fighting enemies. In truth, the controls aren’t as precise as I would have liked. I often have to let my character just go forward with their attacks and hope that enemies are in front when the attacks hit. I don’t know if this is a problem exclusive to mouse and keyboard. It’s easy enough to work around, but there are moments when the imprecise controls did land me in hot water and in the middle of a group of enemies.
Another problem that will probably persist for a while is the numerous technical issues when running a dedicated server. Our Sirus team had difficulties setting up our server, and I’m hearing that this is a widespread issue within the community. I can understand that the developers weren’t ready for an issue of this scale. The sooner this issue is resolved, the sooner the developers can focus on creating more content for the game. Connection issues aside, there are some design issues I wish were addressed. Faction points, for instance, are server-wide. So, when someone maxes out faction favor, it maxes out for the whole server. This makes collecting marks practically irrelevant for others. In short, there are just way too many ways to exploit the game. That may seem harmless in a mostly cooperative adventure game, but I fear it waters down the intended experience.
Windrose is off to a hot start. The game is so much farther along in development than most Early Access games in their first week. I hope that the developers don’t waste too much time addressing server issues and continue to focus on creating great content for upcoming locations and the base game. And speaking of which, we have a lot to look forward to in the future. Windrose is expected to be in Early Access for another 2 years. In that timeframe, the development team expects to double the size of the game, with more biomes, bosses, ships, loot, and more. (Please let them add Galleons into the game!)
From everything I’ve experienced so far, Windrose takes the best parts of its high sailing contemporaries and ties them together with a functional Soul-like combat experience. I truly wish for the best for this game. I can’t wait for what comes next for this impressive title. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.
This review is based on a code provided by the developers/publisher.
