Windrose comes from a small development team and provides players with the chance to explore the high seas, plundering and swashbuckling as they go. As an Early Access game, Windrose should be judged as a work in progress, but what is here is meaty enough for players to get stuck into. Just don’t go in expecting something on the level of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag.
Windrose began life as a free-to-play MMO title called Crosswind. The studio eventually made the choice to pivot away from the original plan and Windrose is the result. This is also the team’s first title, so hopefully the game’s ambitious goals will be met and we will get to see what else Kraken Express has to offer in the future.
Fundamentally, Windrose is a survival game above all else. The survival mechanics come first and the pirate escapades come second, not the other way around. This is something players should be prepared for, as it could be off-putting to those coming in looking for a pirate simulator. That isn’t to say that there aren’t pirate-centric game mechanics present, just that they are not the crux of the gameplay loop.
Performance-wise, Windrose left quite a lot to be desired. I was running the game on a pretty high-end rig and I experienced fairly frequent stuttering and frame rate issues. As previously mentioned, these are the sort of issues Kraken Express needs to iron out during Early Access as development on the game continues, but at the time of writing it is not the smoothest gameplay experience. Loading times also felt pretty long, even when utilising an SSD.
The opening hour of Windrose is unfortunately one of the worst first impressions that a game has left on me for a while. After creating your own pirate in a pretty basic character creator, you then load into a very brief opening sequence where immersion-breaking text is displayed onscreen to tell you that Blackbeard is apparently attacking your ship.
After fighting through a couple of basic enemies and making your way up to the top deck, you are abruptly met with a janky 2D comic book style cutscene that has no voice acting or professional presentation to it. Frankly it reminded me of a dated digital-only title from the mid to late 2000s. The whole sequence feels extremely unfinished and rushed out the door.
Some more text then appears onscreen to describe a sequence of events that would probably have been pretty cool to see play out; Blackbeard taking your ship and stranding you on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean. This is when the game properly starts and you are essentially left to your own devices from this point on, with just a quest log and a mini map to keep you company.
For the next few hours, Windrose is strictly a survival game, heavily focused on keeping your character fed while crafting a base as well as weapons and clothing. In rare moments, some voice acting can be heard as you re-assemble your crew, but don’t expect anything overly cinematic or in-depth. This is also when you’ll get more to grips with the game’s combat.
The combat in Windrose is not especially good, but it is serviceable by survival-game standards. Survival games traditionally don’t put too much focus into combat, so I guess what is here is perfectly serviceable by comparison. However, judged as third-person action combat in 2026, it feels pretty lacklustre. Along with the narrative elements, hopefully combat is something that can be improved with future updates to the game.
After a bit of time, you are given a small sailboat that allows you to leave the starting island and explore. A few more hours of grinding and you will eventually have fully re-assembled your crew and acquired a proper ship that you can set sail in. The sailing mechanics in the game are very basic, with a handful of forward speeds and one reverse speed. The wind doesn’t affect the speed of the ship, so it really is just a case of pointing the boat in the direction you want to go and waiting patiently until you arrive.
Ship combat in Windrose is also pretty rudimentary, but it is at least a lot more fun than the sword-fighting melee combat. There isn’t much more to it than pointing your ship’s cannons at the opposite ship after lining up the enemy and then firing until the other ship’s health drops enough to allow you to board.
Boarding an enemy ship is more fun here than in something like Skull and Bones, (although that is admittedly a low bar,) however there is unfortunately no actual animation to show the player swinging across to the other ship. Instead, the player just sort of teleports onboard whereupon you are required to kill off the enemy crew along with your invincible crewmates.
The graphics in Windrose are impressive, this is a very pretty game to look at; especially when you consider that it came from such a small, inexperienced team of developers. The character models may not be the most realistic, but they do carry a distinct art style which is cool, and the vast environment is stunning to behold, from the clear blue seas, to the lush leaves of the island jungle, and the golden sands of its shoreline.
Almost every aspect of Windrose feels like it could be improved with more development time, and feels unfinished in its current state. The bones of something interesting do exist here, but the narrative, the sword combat, the ship boarding, and several other elements all feel as though they could have done with significantly more time in the oven.
The experience is far closer to something like Valheim rather than Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag and players should be aware of that going in to quell any disappointment based on preconceived notions. This is not a title from a AAA developer and that is abundantly clear from the outset. Still though, what Kraken Express has managed to achieve here is an ambitious and promising foundation that can be built upon to create something great.
Although what is here currently is far from a complete package, Windrose is still worth checking out if you are a fan of survival games, enjoy pirate-themed titles, and aren’t too bothered about experiencing an in-depth, detailed narrative. Given a bit of time and dedication, this could really be something special and is definitely a title to watch in the future.
There is some fun to be had here within the gameplay loop, as long as you don’t mind dealing with the grind that comes with the game’s survival elements, which are really its bread and butter. It would be an exaggeration to say that the pirate stuff feels like an afterthought, but it certainly feels more like the icing on the survival game cake underneath.
Overall, if you can stick with it through its off-putting opening hour, Windrose just about does enough to justify its current launch-discount price. That is, as long as you are a patient person willing to put up with a few growing pains in order to experience something more polished down the line. It may be a little rough around the edges currently, but it lays a strong blueprint for what could one day become a genuinely strong pirate-survival game.
This game was reviewed on PC.
