Windbound Reviews
This is a very chilled out game. It’s also one that I can see myself playing through multiple times. There’s so much to unpack, and for the price it really is a no-brainer. Don’t waste your time with other survival games, Windbound is all you need for years.
Windbound is an exploration game whose sense of exploration is painfully rigid.
Windbound loses its potential in getting bogged down by unbalanced survival mechanics that distract from it's best features.
Windbound is a beautiful, relaxing experience that uses its survival mechanics not to force tension, but encourage you to keep moving forward.
Windbound should have been better. The potential and aesthetic are strong, but it is such an uninterestingly strict jaunt that I really couldn't find many redeeming features to make me want to play it any further than I have.
Windbound is a game trying to do something but never nails the formula and instead comes off as an almost incomplete experience.
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 offers an enjoyable blend of survival and adventuring gameplay, though some technical issues and a tricky difficulty can make for some frustrating moments. There’s certainly more good than bad to be found on your journey through the Forbidden Islands and there’s plenty of enjoyment to be had sailing through its turbulent seas, but there’ll also be times where a particularly brutal (and sometimes unfair) battle with an enemy or a random glitch will annoy you too… Still, if you’re a fan of adventures that implement some neat survival elements, WIndbound will certainly appeal to you. It might not be perfect in all facets of its design, but it still manages to offer an entertaining adventure that’ll keep you hooked to your Nintendo Switch for some time.
Windbound is a small-scale crafting and survival game that will leave a good taste in your mouth. The use of the boat and navigation will remind us of the unforgettable Wind Waker and it is the best of the game. Despite the fact that crafting is not well implemented and has a repetitive structure, we will enjoy it in all its aspects.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Beautiful in visuals and in sound with a survival system that works best when the player learns from mistakes made, Windbound is a charming budget entry in a very crowded entry genre and may have stood out more if less of it was a tribute to a game like Breath of the Wild that simply does everything far better.
Windbound is a good survival game, but it fails to deliver a real vibrant story and a good rhythm during exploration and crossing phases.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The barriers that Windbound puts up makes it a tough game to enjoy, at least initially. It will take time to appreciate what it brings to the survival genre with its clever boat-building and authored open world action, though these smart nuances often go hand-in-hand with tedious, sometimes frustrating stretches of playtime.
Windbound is a delight. With a few UX issues and a bit of repetition holding it back from all-time-great status, this game is still a wonder to explore and discover. The sailing is fantastic, the island exploration is intriguing, and the sting of dying isn't so bad that it should scare away roguelike-haters. The world of Windbound is so well made that you may want to dip into it just to hang out for a while. Fun, exciting, and rewarding.
The central roguelite mechanic of the game is the weakest one and most frustrating - when you turn it off, Windbound is an enjoyable experience that's just held back by technical flaws. The story, however, partly makes up for that and Windbound has moments with the most remarking atmosphere.
Review in German | Read full review
I’d love to see this survive as a franchise -- all the elements are there, it just suffers identity crisis throughout and needs a bigger hook than “alone among a series of islands trying to find answers”. And unfortunately, that’s the game as is presented -- a solitary experience, directionless and without contextual form. Gorgeous, yes, and presented as an ambitious and familiar package with an equally resonant soundtrack, but oddly empty.
For an indie title Windbound does a lot right. Graphics and sound feels just right and despite islands being a bit small there is still a lot to do on them. The non existing story and the tedious controls of your own ship are the biggest letdowns of the game.
Review in German | Read full review
Windbound is a fun sailing game set in a world that’s different every time you play, but it’s a frustrating and punishing survival game at the same time. It’s highly likely to not be the game players expect it to be. Without any story or narrative to anchor it, the player is left adrift at sea without a raft.
While Windbound initially instills the awe and wonder of a brave new world to explore, the game quickly grows stale once the structure of it becomes readily apparent.
The focus in Windbound is definitely more on the survival side, with you keeping protagonist Kara alive in this rogue-like game. The game also takes the survival genre in a new direction by providing endless replay-ability options thanks to the procedural world, and dynamic because of the modular craft you can build. As each time you play the size of your boat changes depending on what resources you can find on the islands, these dictate the type of boat you can build. There is something quite satisfying about building your own boat and setting sail across the sea into unknown territory in Windbound. I’ve found the game to be very entertaining and a lot of fun to play.
Windbound throws a wide net of ideas in the hopes of catching something magical but a lack of depth leaves it high and dry
