Windrose has been in early access for a little while now. It was time to sail the high seas and go yarr for some booty. While not everything in the game is fully realized yet, there is more than enough to keep you busy for quite some time.
While Windrose is a survival crafting game. There are many elements they did away with in what you consider the long running traditions of this genre. While you don’t need to manage a drink or food bar, consuming food increases your health massively. Along with giving you options for which stats you would like to have a boost to.
Also, while leveling up allows you to unlock some talents and attributes. Unlike other games in this genre, you are not unlocking new crafting blueprints with points. Instead, you have to go out exploring for resources to unlock new crafting benches and their upgrades. Along with looting base items for armors and weapons to have access to them.
I personally like this way of going about it. There can also be some downsides as well. For the set of armor I was wearing. You can buy two of the recipes from the vendors. The remaining you have to loot. Well, after hitting level 5 and killing a boss to unlock the next area. I was still missing gloves for that set. Thankfully, set bonuses are for 2 and 4 pieces of gear. Still, it was a little strange having progressed that far along and not having any luck on the RNG side of things to get the missing pair of gloves I wanted.
You also don’t level up quickly in Windrose either. With how far you can progress in the game for now. I believe the level cap is just 15. So you really have to stop and think where you want to spend things like talent points.
The only way to get experience in Windrose to level up is by finishing quests or by completing points of interest on the map. This also creates its own challenges as well. Since you can’t just grind creatures to overlevel for an area. The result, at least for me, was quite a few deaths along the way.
While some points of interest can be quite small, such as a single tent. Others can be an entire town or in most cases ruins of a former place. Some of them require some thinking about how you want to approach attacking them as well.
Some of the more fun ways I’’ve found to try and get the upper hand on a hard-to-clear location. Is finding quite an aggressive animal like a wolf and luring it into pirates. Other times, I’ve found pirates busy trying to deal with local wildlife. I’d then charge in, taking out the ranged pirates while they are busy dealing with the threat.
Windrose is quite generous in its ability to travel around. While yes, you can set sail on the high seas in a ship. You can also place up to 10 fast travel points that you can move around. Along with there being fast travel to boss locations, and the islands' different factions you run into as well.
Exploration is a massive part of Windrose. With each map being random generated, it adds a bit of replayabilty and mysteries to it as well. In my own solo play. The game started me off more in the south, with forward progress to be found by going north into higher level areas.
Meanwhile, when I join a friend's game in multiplayer. His map is quite different. He seems to be more in the north. With the current higher level stuff being found in the south-west of lower tier islands.
Also, when you join a multiplayer game. While things like questing are shared if you are online at the time. You still have to go out and discover locations and uncover the map yourself.
There's nothing like joining someone else’s game, and they know where everything is as they have uncovered it. While you yourself have to go out and spend time exploring yourself. To get caught up. At least with the fast travel system, it makes things a little easier.
You can also set up things like bonfires. These are needed to set up a base around to have crafting benches working on anyway. They can be seen on the map. Even when an area is still covered in the fog of war. It ended up being an interesting way to show the location of the islands to others.
A big part of the game is also resource gathering. Each region of the map has its own tier of resources. The starting area has copper. Then the next has iron and so on. I, of course, could not help myself and have gone on quite a lot of massive mining runs for ores. It’s a good thing you need a lot of ores to upgrade gear, build things, and progress through the game.
It’s also been fun to see how different resources are set up. Copper, for instance, has been found inside caves. Some of those caves have been empty of enemies, and others just don’t seem to stop coming at you.
Meanwhile, the iron above is in open-pit mines. Where you descend down a slope deeper and deeper into the mine. With some ores here or there. Along with some tunnels going into the mountain, creating little shafts to explore. Some of them have been filled with goats that are not that hard to deal with. Other wolves and they create a bit more of a challenge.
While I don’t feel melee combat is Windrose’s strong suit. As there is a lot of struggle when melee or ranged combat is not one-on-one. With range combat requiring ammo and gunpowder. With gunpowder being more of a limited resource until you can craft it yourself later in the game.
The combat is a lot of fun for me, at least. Has been ship-to-ship. Even when you find yourself looking down on a small armada of ships. It’s not really an issue. There is a lot of sailing around to kite things a bit easier. I’m usually stocked with repair kits. It also just feels like combat is more balanced in ship-to-ship than foot combat.
For right now, there are three base ships in the game. With each one having a few variants as well. Some focus more on health, speed, or carrying capacity. I find the base variant to be a great middle ground that gives me everything I want.
Sinking a ship gets you some loot. You can also disable a ship by damaging it enough. Then boarded it. Usually, if I get taken out, it’s a boarding attempt. It’s not worth it doing it for every ship for the extra loot. However, when you come across transport ships that are much harder to take out. They have loot worth boarding for.
If that’s not enough piracy for you. There is even some treasure hunting to be had. Where a red X on the map marks the spot to go digging. Some of the points of interest even have you looking for a marked location to dig up some treasure.
I’ve never been huge on building massive things in video games before. So, in my own solo play. The place I’m living is a bit more modest in nature. Where I even one of the pre-set up structures that you can just plop down for a house if you have the resources.
The building process is quite snappy. You can level land with a shovel if needed. You even earn gold coins that can be spent at the different factions for more fancy-looking building blocks and things like lamps and chairs.
For me. I just made sure I have enough items down for a decent resting bonus. Jumping onto your boat also gives you a resting bonus equal to your highest one at any of the camps you have set up. I felt is a nice touch from always having to run back to a base to refresh, such a bonus.
Overall, in the around 50 hours that I’ve played so far. I’ve had quite a blast. From solo play to joining others. While this is one of those games that’s more fun with friends. You can still have quite a blast solo playing in your own world. Sometimes it was just nice to jump on for 15 minutes and go take out some ships when I found myself with some spare time. Other times, it’s fun charging into a small armada with a few friends in their own boats. It’s a bit of a shame that only one party can engage in the boarding process.
For a game in early access, I’ve encountered very few bugs. One seemed to fix itself after upgrading my video card. Sometimes it feels like my character is not attempting to parry incoming attacks when I click to do so every time.
While I can understand why some people stay away from early access games. There's more than enough there to have a good time. At this point, anything extra that gets added to the game will just feel like free extra content at this point. I still have so much to explore, another boss to kill, and I am getting killed a lot myself.
Screenshots were taken, and content was written by @Enjar about Windrose.
Disclosure: This review is based off the game in early access.
