Enormously promising pirate survival game Windrose finally has a release date, and – as announced during this year’s indie-focused Triple-i Showcase – it’s hoisting anchor and sailing into Steam early access next Tuesday, 14th April.
Windrose, which is being published by Palworld developer Pocketpair, has had a bit of an interesting journey already. It was originally envisaged as a free-to-play MMO, titled Crosswind, but player feedback during alpha testing convinced developer Windrose Crew to pivot toward a more focused premium title, designed for one to four players. And the studio clearly made the right decision; Windrose’s substantial Steam demo, released earlier this year, has turned it into one of the platform’s most wishlisted games.
If you’re unfamiliar, though, Windrose is set deep in the Caribbean, during an alternative version of the 18th century, with the Golden Age of Piracy in full swing. Your adventure begins as a shipwrecked castaway, meaning you’ll need to get our hand dirty – foraging, hunting, resource gathering, crafting, and building – in order to survive, escape the island, and, eventually, resume your life of piracy across the high seas.
It’s got open-world exploration across procedurally generated island biomes, incorporating handcrafted dungeons and other points of interest. It’s got boss battles and swashbuckling Souls-inspired melee combat; sailing and ship-to-ship battles; an archipelago-spanning story featuring real-world characters and supernatural foes. And you can play all this on your ownsome or with up to three friends, across self-hosted and dedicated servers.
As enjoyable as Windrose’s five-or-so-hour-long demo was, its Steam early access launch promises to be much expanded, featuring three biomes (each with unique main and side quests, enemies, bosses, and more) and around 30 islands with over 90 hand-crafted points of interest. It’ll also include three playable ships, character progression with stats and talents, Tortuga town, factions and related quests, plus a reputation system and NPC workers.
And with Windrose Crew anticipating around 50-70 hours of playtime through this initial version’s main story, it sounds pretty significant already. Even so, the team expects early access to last between 1.5-2.5 years, with the final release planned to have “around 50 percent” more content. And given how much I loved the demo, I’m properly excited at the prospect of further pirate adventures when Windrose’s Steam early access journey begins next week.
