First Impressions - Windrose

How many people do you know who actually played Skull and Bones? A few years back, the game was poised to be Ubisoft’s next big hit. It was going to be the spiritual successor to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, a competitor to Sea of Thieves, and a huge moneymaker. Instead, thanks to its lack of land-based combat and an almost comical number of microtransactions, it arrived dead on arrival. It currently sits at around 300 players on Steam, with an all-time peak of less than 3,000. 

The reason I’m bringing all that up is because Windrose is essentially Skull and Bones without its two major flaws. And even in its current Early Access state, it’s an exponentially better game. 

Your first few hours in Windrose don’t actually play like a pirate game. Instead, after a brief combat tutorial, you wash up on a deserted island and are tasked with doing the same things you always do in survival titles. You have to pick up rocks, smack trees, hunt animals… you get the idea. If you’ve played Valheim, Palworld, or literally any other Twitch.tv sensation in the past decade, you know the deal. Windrose’s survival and base building mechanics work well for what they are, but they’re as standard as they come. Once you’ve constructed a decent base, and extracted enough natural resources to make a billionaire blush, they fall by the wayside.

About three hours in, though, you acquire a pirate ship and crew, and that’s where things get interesting. The title almost immediately stops being about playing as a castaway, and instead becomes what fans of Black Flag have wanted for more than a decade. Although you never get a hidden blade, nor do you interact with famous swashbucklers, the core fantasy is intact. You can sail the high seas as you see fit, duking it out with enemy vessels in ship combat and fighting them on land or on their ships when you board them using third-person combat. There are factions you can help, a couple of minor settlements to visit, and booty to loot everywhere you look.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Windrose isn’t as polished as a AAA title. Combat can be janky, the faction system feels underdeveloped, and the survival elements lose relevance early on. But for an Early Access title from a small team, that’s expected — and it has surprisingly little impact on the overall experience. Windrose works because of how its systems come together. It scratches the same itch Black Flag left behind. 

Unlike many survival-lite games that fade after a few sessions, Windrose feels like something you’ll keep installed long-term. It’s the kind of game you dip into when you’ve got a free afternoon. If you like having objectives, there are plenty of treasure hunts — both literal and otherwise — to keep you busy. 

That said, it’s arguably at its best when you ignore all that. Simply sailing around the title’s giant open world while listening to sea shanties and occasionally boarding an enemy ship is enjoyable in a way that’s hard to quantify. You can play solo or with up to seven of your mateys, all of whom control their own ship if you want. Either way, it’s consistently enjoyable and seldom frustrating. 

Technically, it’s in good shape too. While its systems need refinement, bugs are minimal. Performance is solid, the visuals are impressive, and the audio design stands out. The soundtrack in particular is amazing, featuring some of the best sea shanties in gaming. Windrose also has a ton of accessibility options that make it easy to play for those without an abundance of time and/or skill.

The real question, though, is whether it’s worth buying now. That depends on two things: do you want something that plays very similarly to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, and if so, can you wait a few months for its remaster? Windrose’s competence isn’t in question. The game has oodles of content, and is more enjoyable and polished than most in its genre. That genre is niche, though, and is about to be filled with a major release from one of the industry’s heavy hitters. 

For now, I’ll keep sailing. After that, though, it’ll be up to my crew to decide whether or not we keep spending our Fridays sailing Kraken Express’s depiction of the seven seas. 

‍Windrose is currently in Steam Early Access. Check back on Jump Dash Roll for a full review when it launches!