![]() ![]() This is a good idea in theory, but it quickly becomes a nuisance to navigate, sucking all the joy out of the journey. Even the idea of sailing the open seas on your custom crafted raft is spoiled, as the act of sailing is a grueling struggle.ĥ Lives Studios designed sailing to feel believable and react realistically, and they nailed it in the worst way. All the islands look vaguely similar and the platforming to scale the rubble surrounding the magic shells is underwhelming and identical for every retrieval, in every chapter. This alone is a pretty big knock against Windbound, and the fatigue of which sets in pretty early on in chapter two, when you realize, this is all there is. Repeat four more times to finish the game. View the uninteresting and uninformative hieroglyphic story wall, and sail to the exit portal. ![]() Sail from island to island in search of three magic shells. So the cycle goes: Gather supplies and upgrade your raft. That’s right, one fifth of the way through the game. This is where the formula becomes disappointingly clear, and the repetition sets in. There’s no objective indicator at all, but you eventually learn that each chapter has three magic shells that need retrieving, before you can progress to the portal leading to the next chapter. This makes reaching the further islands possible, and opens up what will ultimately be the rest of the game for you. While the gameplay loop sounds enticing, the execution and supporting game design, fail to pay off in much enjoyment.Īfter a fair bit of scavenging you’ll be able to craft your starter raft, a grass canoe. Islands are procedurally generated, so each new island, and/or death, brings about fresh opportunities to find new materials, unlock more crafting recipes, and varying creatures to fight off. It’s only the first island, and you’re just starting out, that’s to be expected. Excited to start gathering resources, which at first are nothing more than thick grass, rocks, and sticks. Excited to explore and find what secrets the islands have to offer. Taking your first real look around the island you awaken on, you can’t help but feel excited. I suppose this lends added weight to the mysterious element of the journey, but it feels like a missed opportunity to really build up any lore, and mostly leaves you with the feeling of a throwaway checkpoint before the next chapter. Broken up into five chapters, you receive some hieroglyphic revelations at the end of each chapter, but it’s pretty difficult to discern any real meaning from them. It’s up to you to scour each island for food to stave off hunger and gather materials that will enable you to craft a means of escape, back to your tribe. Waking up alone, on the wet sands of a forbidden island, you have no food, no gear, and no help. ![]() You play as Kara, an abandoned warrior who washes up on shore after getting separated from her tribe when her boat goes down in a terrible storm. This can be especially painful when you have worked to build and upgrade your raft well into chapter 4, only to die (or encounter a game-breaking bug) and start again with no boat at all, not even a grass canoe. It should be noted that in either difficulty when you die, you lose your entire raft and any supplies built onto it. Storyteller difficulty allows you to keep your full inventory and chapter progress, as well as having a reduced combat difficulty. Survivalist is the recommended “full Windbound experience.” If you die on Survivalist, you only keep the items you are holding (not in your bag or on your raft) and you are returned to the start of chapter 1. Upon starting your Windbound journey you are asked whether you would like to play on Survivalist or Storyteller difficulty. Riddled with game-breaking bugs, an uninteresting storyline, and repetitive game design I had difficulty even finishing the game, let alone being able to recommend it. Unfortunately, Windbound feels more half-baked with mostly wasted potential, than it does a wondrous island hop. The main focus is centered around gathering and crafting items to help you and your raft survive, as you sail from island to island. Windbound is a survival adventure game with rogue-like progression and procedurally generated islands. ![]()
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