Windbound

Windbound's visual appeal is sure to lure in players expecting an entirely different experience. That said, I grew to love a game that I initially couldn't stand. It's beautiful, charming, captivating, and completely brutal without apology. One of my favorite games of the year so far.

Windbound is a brief but enjoyable journey that merges Legend Of Zelda-style adventure with survival crafting.

Windbound is most certainly not the Zelda-lite adventure that you may have expected it to be, but it still manages to pull off an impressively well-made survival experience that’s fun to roam around in for a few hours. The open-ended progression, pleasing art style, and relaxing pace make this one an easy recommendation for fans of the survival genre, though it’s held back from greatness due to issues with repetition. Still, it’s tough to go wrong with what’s on offer here; you might want to give this one a look.

When I set eyes on the artwork for 5 Lives Studios’ survival title, the first thing that came to mind was Disney’s Moana. It was the near-identical font and the prominence of the ocean. There are more passing similarities in Windbound, the most obvious of these being the charm worn around protagonist Kara’s neck. To call this “Moana: The Game” would be inaccurate, though. While the charm does play an important part in the story, your most pressing task is just to survive.

The more I played the less the goings-on of the narrative bothered me, and the more I relished the wavelike rhythm of the action: the roll and crash of sailing and breaking to alight for supplies.

Windbound loses its potential in getting bogged down by unbalanced survival mechanics that distract from it's best features.

Windbound is full of inspired ideas, especially when it comes to the potentially open world sea exportation. Those aspirations fall considerably short, though, as a lack of depth and creativity in its world gameplay sap the wind from its sails, leaving it adrift amidst a sea of better survival games.

From a distance, Windbound is a gorgeous oceanic adventure with a fun sailing system that isn’t afraid to push back, but up close, the cracks start to show. The game makes a great first impression that ultimately wears thin by the time you’ve mastered its repetitive resource-gathering roguelike loop.

I feel like Windbound would have been more effective if it wasn’t level based; if your world didn’t change around you. It needs a more active narrative to help push you forward from one goal to the next, rather than repeating the same task again and again. It’s an absolutely gorgeous-looking game; the shimmering, crystal blue waters and the varied islands, beautifully animated and begging to be explored, will keep you coming back. But eventually, even they wear thin. The repetition, the frustration of aimlessly sailing the sea, fighting against the wind, finding yourself stuck with no way to s...

Windbound drops you in a world of wilderness and open water but fails to make exploration compelling.

Windbound can be made to sound excellent in an elevator pitch, but the actual game is plagued by conflicting ideas, inconsistent design, and unrealized potential.

Windbound is a pleasant oceanic indie. It does a very fine job of balancing itself between being a calming experience in a deserted island world and a title that is genuinely tense thanks to its survival and permadeath nature. The inventory management is extremely frustrating early on, but eventually, the crafting nature of the game clicks and it becomes enjoyable to create helpful tools and a resourceful boat to explore the world. The objective of the game, unfortunately, becomes repetitive just as the other aspects of the title come into their own. But simply traversing the islands, discover...