Windrose addresses my personal crafting annoyances and also gives me a big boat

I have a love/hate relationship with survival crafting games. In theory, they all sound great; I get to build whatever I want using nothing but my noggin and the resources around me. What usually happens, though, is I deforest half the map, then forget where I put my wood, and it turns from cozy household to manic scavenger hunt. There are also usually monsters.

Windrose is a game that also sounded pretty great in theory – it’s a survival crafting adventure thing, but with a pirate twist – what’s not to like? I did worry, however, that it would be more of the same. More chopping, more inventory management, and not enough of the proper pirate lifestyle I so obviously crave. Turns out, developer Windrose Crew thought of this and has streamlined things somewhat.

My time with Windrose began at the usual end, as I’m shot and left for almost certain death. From here, there are some magical gubbins which prevent said death for reasons unknown, and I’m off to forage, chop, and cook my way to a more prosperous life. And revenge, probably. Most definitely some revenge. A bit of revenge.

The loop of Windrose’s crafting is going to be familiar to anyone who has bumped into a Nightingale or a Valheim over the years. You cut down trees to get wood, smash rocks to get smaller rocks, then you use those things to make more intricate crafting stations to make… more intricate things.

Anyway, I wanted to get to sailing a big ship as quickly as possible, which I’m sure is a similar stance to many. My first pleasant surprise came when attempting to smelt a bunch of copper ore – I noticed that I could access my stores of raw ingredients even though they weren’t in my inventory. Anything that was stored inside my base could be utilized at any time. This is amazing.

This shortcut may be present in games in the genre, I don’t know, don’t come at me. But the freedom I had of just being able to use my resources without the faff spurred me on, and it wasn’t long before I had a store of copper just waiting to be turned into something more shiny than I already had.

I was next informed that a trip to another island was needed, and for that I’d have to set sail. I was very excited until I saw the abhorrence of a boat which the game supplied me with. It was tiny, and not at all what I expected to be ruling the seven seas with. Still, we move (slowly).

My second nice surprise was during a sinking moment when I had inadvertently beached my boat. I spent more time than I’d care to admit trying to right it, so I could set sail again. Apparently, all I needed to do was press K – the boat just magically reappears, and I can do this whenever I want. Think of whistling for a horse, only it’s made of wood and floats a bit better.

There’s something very satisfying about calling my (eventually large, impressive, intimidating) ship at the press of a button. Like a mythological water-based tyrant, bursting through the water to do my bidding, only it’s full of sweaty men and cannons.

These quality of life additions may appear small, but they thrust me into the action that much quicker. Windrose has a pace that many survival crafting games I’ve played can’t match, and for that, I applaud it. The gathering and building are there if you want them, the combat is there if you want it, and those really dank caves I don’t like the look of are there, too. It’s a game I’ll be keeping my eye on with the hope that it can break this crafting malaise. There is a demo out right now if you want to give it a go, too.