Windrose Review. Did we get "Valheim about pirates"?

All hands on deck! Muster, sea dogs! Have your rebellious souls started to miss the salty Caribbean winds and good pirate games? Do you have the Jolly Roger on your walls instead of wallpaper, along with portraits of Blackbeard and William Kidd? As you fall asleep, do you imagine the sunset over Tortuga, and does your wooden leg creak in anticipation of a storm? Then raise the sails — straight ahead lies Windrose, a fresh pirate action game about treasure hunting, naval battles, crafting, and saber fights. Today we’ll see what this game really is — a chest full of gold doubloons or a dead seagull?

It was expected that in spring 2026 the gaming community would be swept by a "pirate boom". These expectations were tied to the upcoming remake of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. But a couple of weeks before its announcement, it turned out the spot was already taken — real pirates had already "set their corvettes" toward Windrose. The game from Kraken Express (an Uzbek studio, by the way), currently in early access, sold 1 million copies in its first week and broke into the top pirate games (including our own "Best pirate games" list).

Windrose also launched at a very favorable time: the last major pirate game release was over a year ago (we’re talking about Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii), and the mentioned Black Flag remake is still some way off. Moreover, both of those games are single-player, while there haven’t been any co-op pirate games since Sea of Thieves — and that one is already eight years old. Yes, there was also Skull and Bones, but as they say about the dead — either good or nothing, so we’ll stay silent. All in all, the perfect time to launch a pirate romance game.

Defining Windrose’s genre is not easy. It has three key elements: survival, melee combat, and naval battles. These elements are roughly equal, so Windrose is a bit of Sea of Thieves, a bit of Valheim, and even a touch of Sid Meier’s Pirates!

According to the story, Windrose sends the player to the Caribbean islands during the Golden Age of Piracy. Opposing us is Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard, who has made a pact with dark forces for power and wealth. The player ends up on a deserted island, and their first task is to set up a home, repair the ship, and assemble a crew.

For the next 6–8 hours, Windrose is a survival game. Following genre conventions, you gather resources and craft new tools from them, which in turn produce new resources. In terms of survival, Windrose’s closest relative is Valheim. Fans of Valheim won’t even need a tutorial — everything will feel that familiar. There are also similarities with Minecraft: in Windrose it’s best not to wander in the dark — you’ll encounter the undead. And if you’re a fan of survival games, you can check out our top picks of the best survival games.

Survival in Windrose can be described as forgiving and simplified. Anyone who has played Raft, Stranded Deep, or any other survival game will be surprised: in Windrose, tools don’t wear out, resource deposits respawn, health regenerates by the campfire, and food is for bonuses rather than survival. Upon first discovering an item, the game immediately shows what can be crafted from it, and building is among the most convenient in the genre. The developers clearly played a lot of survival games themselves and tried to remove typical frustrations. Otherwise, players might abandon the game in the first hours and never see what comes next.

After repairing the ship, the player can temporarily forget about survival and set off on true pirate business — plundering ships. Naval battles in Windrose are made as similar as possible to what we saw (and will see again) in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, but again with simplifications. You don’t need to duck from enemy fire, cannonballs are infinite, repairs take three seconds, and “going to Davy Jones” isn’t scary — the ship can be restored with 50 planks.

Arcade shooting, boarding, collecting cargo — everything is generally on the level of Black Flag, except for details that actually highlight the difference in capabilities between “captain” Ubisoft and “cabin boy” Kraken Express. There are few ships so far, the crew is more decorative, ships lack inertia, there are no animations for boarding or docking, wind exists but doesn’t affect movement, and during boarding enemies spawn behind your back. Of course, the developers have plenty of time to refine things.

It’s also worth noting that Windrose can be played solo or with a team of up to four players. Co-op is not only more fun but also easier, since enemies like to attack in groups. Ships also rarely travel alone, suggesting the game deliberately encourages co-op play, especially since Windrose was originally planned as a free-to-play game. Even now, co-op in Windrose is very comfortable, and once multiplayer features are expanded… there’s no doubt it will happen someday. And if team play in Windrose isn’t enough for you, you can check out our top of the best co-op games.

The developers describe Windrose’s combat system as souls-lite — with mechanics from the souls genre, but more forgiving to the player. From souls, the game includes elements such as bosses, parrying, red unblockable enemy attacks, weapon scaling from stats, and returning to a “bonfire” after death with loss of loot. Unfortunately, they are executed at a mediocre level — fighting feels uncomfortable.

Combat is perhaps Windrose’s weakest point. One-on-one fights are too easy. You can’t just spam-click the enemy, but a simple pattern works: “hit, hit, hit, block or dodge” — and repeat until victory. Fights with multiple opponents, however, are sheer hell; they make you recall the sea devil and other pirate curses. Targeting glitches, enemy AI lags, opponents strike almost simultaneously without caring about your attacks, and a couple of hits are enough to send you “blowing bubbles.” You have stamina for only 2–3 swings, and parrying doesn’t restore it. So you have to lure enemies out of camps one by one — that’s where the real souls-lite begins. However, if you like challenging games, we can recommend watching our top most challenging games of all time.

Of course, you can forget about pirate pride and avoid combat. The game offers other activities: exploring ruins, searching for treasure maps, farming, trade contracts, hiring workers, and even fishing. So far, all these activities are rather shallow. After 15–20 hours of play, moving to another location, you notice that the landscapes and resources have changed, but the activities remain the same. The game world also feels somewhat empty for now (multiplayer will clearly fill that void), but you know what? In this era of unfinished games released into full launch, it’s surprising that an early-access game from a small indie studio is fully functional, not buggy, and already offers about 50 hours of solid content.

Windrose resembles a triathlon — a sport where participants first swim a distance, then ride a bicycle, and finally run to the finish. You might be an excellent swimmer, but perform below average in the other two disciplines — and you lose. To have a chance at winning, you need to perform above average in all three. That’s exactly what Windrose does, successfully combining mechanics from several genres. Hardcore fans may find it too casual, but most players, as online statistics show, are satisfied and expect fun from a pirate game, not a test of endurance.

According to the developers, a full release will take 1.5–2 years. During that time, they will likely add online multiplayer, new animations, biomes, activities, and contracts, expand exploration and the progression system. Then it won’t just be “Valheim with pirates,” but a large-scale pirate sandbox with sea romance from developers in a country that doesn’t even have a sea.