Review for Windbound. Game for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 28/08/2020
There are moments, during your experience with Windbound, that will remain etched in your memory. A sweet shipwreck among the waves of the various archipelagos that make up the adventure of Kara, the protagonist of the game.
A survival rogue-like, the one developed by the Australian guys of 5 Lives Studios, which shows a good personality, while not sparing ideas and inspirations from products on the market that have left their mark, including The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild , and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, but also the sweetest RIME.
As anticipated, in Windbound we will play as Kara, within a world generated in a procedural way and composed of a series of islands and mysteries that it will be up to the player to discover, obviously remaining alive until the end of the game (the story ends in about 13/15 hours). History that will never be explicit, if not presupposed; players after a storm will find themselves on a scattered island as the protagonist with only one knife as a companion. After finding a special oar, which he will need to steer the boats she built, our heroine will launch herself in the search for special shells that will allow her to cross portals that will take her to the next archipelago, in a succession of situations always more convincing but that will allow her to reach the end of the story and discover the mystery that surrounds her adventure.
As mentioned, the game does not unbutton that much, it is up to the player to be able to discover all the lore behind this product, relying most of the time on textual material. Choice already adopted by other products, but in this case it seemed perhaps a bit too fragile, leaving too many questions in the player's head throughout the adventure.
To act as a counterweight to an undoubtedly cryptic narrative, there is a gameplay that instead makes simplicity its strong point (and in some cases of weakness). The essential parameters that we should always keep an eye on are stamina and health. Keeping an eye on them means taking advantage of all those mechanics typical of survival games: recovering resources offered by nature or hunting fantastic - but succulent - creatures that populate the various islands, creating useful objects for the recovery of more refined resources which, in their face, unlock new ones. building elements including weapons, consumables and equipment.
In general, we can safely say that Windbound falls into the category of light survival. An approach probably chosen to favor the exploration of the archipelagos and the very pleasant sea crossings at the expense of a whole series of other typical needs of the genre. Net of this more than legitimate choice, however, we cannot fail to report a rather poor action phase, both in terms of animations and artificial intelligence of the enemies (always creatures). Attack patterns tend to repeat themselves often and willingly (except for some slightly more challenging encounters) due to an AI that does everything but shine; we must not forget that in Windbound there are no boss fights, another element that could turn up the nose of those who expected a less relaxing and more action adventure.
Lovers of adrenaline, do not worry, because once you get off the water, strangely, the creatures will become decidedly more aggressive, leaving very little escape for your boat. A bow at your fingertips will be really handy: trust me.
And it is in the water that the game offers the greatest joys: both in terms of crafting and real experience. Starting from a modest boat we will be able to improve our navigation with ever faster, more resistant and comfortable boats. The construction of a sail, for example, will allow us to exploit the wind in our favor, a larger hull will give us the possibility to insert a whole series of useful tools for the survival experience, such as the possibility of cooking food. directly on our boat or to be able to keep some objects / materials on our aquatic vehicle.
Here the game shines, no ifs and buts. The crossings are always pleasant, never dull and glimpsing a new island on the horizon gives the right adrenaline rush that such an adventure must know how to offer to those who play. In addition, by tackling the adventure in story mode (the easiest difficulty level) players will be able to avoid permadeath and enjoy crossings and adventure in total tranquility. A choice that clearly lowers a degree of challenge that is not very high in itself, but that can be appreciated by those players who do not like pure rogue-like experiences.
An experience that is also pleasant from an aesthetic point of view, thanks to an artistic direction that compensates in a rather functional way to a polygonal size that is sometimes insufficient.
We were looking forward to this Windbound with a lot of interest, and overall we can say that the game does not disappoint in the strict sense of the word. However, the game suffers from a number of shortcomings in almost all departments that make up the experience as a whole, and this makes Kara's adventure a pleasant light survival with rogue-like elements, but that once finished you will probably forget soon.
► Windbound is an RPG-Adventure-indie game published by Deep Silver for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 28/08/2020
