As the old saying goes, you wait ages for a fantasy themed Minecraft-a-like to come along, and then two arrive at once. Just months after Hytale made a stellar entrance following its near-cancellation, Enjoy Studio’s sandbox survival RPG Everwind is now ready to take the early access spotlight. But it’s got something to set itself apart: airships. Which begs the question, can an airship make everything better? Would FIFA be improved if the goalkeeper abseiled onto the pitch at the start of a match? Would I like Tetris even more if there was a little man in a dirigible dropping blocks from above? Some questions may never be adequately answered, but I do know that, by slinging airships into its mix of familiar bits, Everwind shows promise.
But those familiar bits are undoubtedly familiar. This is a game of sandbox survival, of scavenging and crafting, set in a procedurally generated world built from destructible voxel blocks. You punch things, you farm things, you fill your pockets with endless stuff, and you do all this to feed machines capable of turning your old stuff into different stuff – so you can craft weapons, armour, tools, furniture, and more. If you’re even passingly familiar with Minecraft, you’ll know the fundamentals already – and aesthetically, its muted, vaguely medieval fantasy vibe brings Hytale to mind. It looks nice though! Its landscapes are alleviated above basic blockiness by some striking lighting, and by a liberal scattering of props, rich foliage, and diverse fauna – from boars and meandering fowl to lobster-things with barrels for shells. And when I found the capybaras on my starting island, I was thrilled!
And yes, island. Everwind’s other big differentiator is its world; a vast ocean populated by diverse islands stretching away to the horizon: some big, some small, and – because of the whole airship thing – some floating way up in the sky. It’s a little bit Wind Waker, a little bit Sea of Thieves perhaps, and it feels pretty unique for a Minecraft-a-like.
Not that my time with Everwind got off to a great start. After walking through the basics of crafting and fighting (just like Hytale, there’s an effort to do something more involved with combat, and you’re able to strafe, parry, block, and so on), we got to the exciting bit: pilfering a downed airship so I could build my own. That starts by scanning parts with your magic compass to get their blueprints – the minimum you need to fly being a cockpit, an energy generator, a wooden engine, and balloon – then it’s time to gather the materials needed to craft them.
Except, somehow, my tutorial island came up short on the necessary scrap, trapping me in a death spiral of dwindling resources as I tried everything I could think of to finish my ship and get off the ground – culminating with me building a boat, out of sheer desperation, and sailing to the nearest island in the hope of finding something, anything useful. But further calamity ensued when, after being besieged by spiders, I ran into a cute critter that promptly decided to explode. Some time later, I discovered my missing scrap had, in fact, fallen into some shrubbery back on my starter island – so the resulting hour of frustration wasn’t so much Everwind’s fault as mine. But by that point, all the ship bits I had successfully managed to craft were – after being dropped far, far away on my earlier death – gone, permanently despawned. And with absolutely no chance of finding enough scrap to rebuild everything, I was forced to start over.
The upshot of all this faffing, though, was less time staring wide-eyed at the world from up high (that was still to come), and more time mucking around with Everwind’s other sandbox bits, which, as foundations go, are solid enough. Its stamina-based combat isn’t particularly sophisticated right now, but it’s a step up from mindless flailing, and its crafting chains successfully inspire the usual sorts of moreish acquisition loops that serve as the propulsive force for these kinds of games. Furthermore, its world-generation seems adept at creating landmasses enticing enough to encourage exploration; yes, they look good up close when festooned with environmental clutter, but also – as I had plenty of time to note while staring wistfully and unflyingly at the horizon – intriguing from afar with their distinctive silhouettes. In one direction lay a mass of pink mossy rock, for instance, its abandoned industrial towers standing stark against the sky. On another island, stone huts huddled behind low hills, while what appeared to be a lighthouse sat high on a third, still further away.
And eventually, when I finally got my fledgling airship running (barely more than a broken wooden platform supporting the essential bits of machinery, at that point) I could properly begin my adventure. Air travel in Everwind is simple – you set your speed, adjust your elevation, then steer – but it’s also, initially at least, glacially slow. You’ll need to upgrade your ship’s core a few times, for instance, before the increases to its maximum speed, size, and altitude feel remotely meaningful. Slow isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course; plenty of games have demonstrated there’s pleasure in patient travel, but Everwind doesn’t really deliver here, given there’s not an awful lot to look at while airborne.
There’s minimal detail on the blocky islands until you’re right up close, and the sea, devoid of life, is just a flat blue plane. Even with its fancy nighttime skyboxes – huge ringed planets with shattered surfaces looming overhead – there’s minimal distraction as you chug slowly toward your next destination; certainly not while your airship remains little more than a flying plank. I suppose the void of travel might be more easily filled with a co-op friend in tow, but that’s something I haven’t yet been able to try. I’m also not convinced Everwind’s procedurally generated islands currently feel different enough, interesting enough, rewarding enough – beyond a biome change and some striking landmarks – to make the lengthy journey feel earned.
But despite Everwind’s teething troubles and some clear room for improvement, I still ended up having a surprisingly pleasant time. As I drifted from zombie-infested woodland villages to sandy landmasses dotted with swaying palms, I found myself settling into the gentle rhythms of its airborne adventuring, swept along by the allure of discovery, all from my sky-high view. I still have questions. Will, for instance, the full game feature a more defined structure, a more propulsive throughline, beyond its brisk tutorial? But regardless, the bones of something properly compelling are here. And with “at least a year” of early access still to come, Everwind has space and room to grow. And, airships. That has to be worth something!
