How many people have been waiting for a pirate game like this?
Excellent graphics and effects built with Unreal Engine 5, coupled with surprising optimization, deliver a smooth gaming experience.
Then there's sailing the seas with lateen sails, holding the helm while watching the crew work, with passionate chants and sea shanties ringing in your ears.
When thirsting for blood, go conquer and plunder. Wield a cutlass in your hand, tuck a flintlock pistol at your waist, blast apart enemy hulls with heavy cannons, then board their ships, press your gun against their chests, and fill the seas with gunpowder smoke.
When tired, find a quiet isolated island to drop anchor, explore lost ruins on the island, dig for treasures, or simply chop wood, mine ores, build outposts and ports, and then construct your own secluded cottage.
Sandbox survival, action-adventure, large-scale map exploration, naval combat, boarding actions, and pirates—these familiar elements, when combined, have surprisingly given rise to Voyage of the Wind, a dark horse in an era where pirate-themed games are on the decline.
Voyage of the Wind, which sold 1 million copies in just 6 days, is almost using ironclad data to tell players—it's not the concept of pirate games that is declining, but rather the ignorance that ignores players' voices, and the arrogance that disregards players' desired experiences.
With enough dedication, even a small team of 15 like Kraken Express can craft a dream journey that captivates countless players and "pirate" enthusiasts.
In fact, as a pirate-themed game, Voyage of the Wind has taken a unique path by choosing SOC sandbox survival as its core foundation, rather than the strategy management or action-adventure categories that its predecessors have dug into day after day.
But honestly, the pirates players want to embody are inherently unrestrained. And as the most free-spirited genre in gaming, what could be more suitable for unrestricted combat, building, living, and exploration than SOC sandbox survival?
If you're craving sailing, gather your crew, board the ship, listen to sea shanties, and roam the world. If you're craving cannon fire, pick fights with AI enemies. Want to cooperate? Invite a few friends to set sail together—you steer, they shoot. Going solo? Let NPC sailors assist you; fight when you want, run if you can't win. For players seeking the fantasy of pirate freedom in the virtual world, the level of autonomy offered here is pushed to the extreme.
Moreover, as a pirate game based on SOC (Survival, Open-world, Crafting) sandbox survival, Voyage of the Wind features a very detailed and quite impressive building system.
@Bilibili - Voyage of the Wind (Official)
Voyage of the Wind's building mechanics feel like what would happen if Enshrouded and Valheim met at sea, suffered a shipwreck, got stranded on a deserted island with no other options, and merged their features. But rather than becoming a mishmash, Voyage of the Wind perfectly inherits the best genes from its "parents."
First, compared to the voxel-based building in Enshrouded, Voyage of the Wind abandons the "voxel" element—which has nearly infinite expandability but a very low floor—and instead adopts a building mode similar to Valheim, using fixed art assets.
This design clearly benefits those who struggle with building or just want to quickly put together a nice and cozy little house.
The hand-crafted pirate castle shown in the official demo—yes, a castle built by the developers themselves
But this doesn't mean that the building ceiling in Voyage of the Wind is as rigid as in other sandbox survival games.
To be precise, unlike Valheim or conventional sandbox survival games, Voyage of the Wind provides players with a material library rich in structural modules and decorations, while also offering convenient building methods with high freedom in placement angles.
Players can easily construct polygonal and circular buildings that would require extremely high building skills in conventional sandbox survival games. They can also pile up various materials and shape details wildly. In the hands of master builders, they can even create crazy structures that transcend the limitations of the Age of Sail—such as stone battleships.
Simply put, both the ceiling and the floor are very high.
@Bilibili - It's Xiaobinggan, Stone Battleship
Moreover, Kraken Express clearly understands players' needs. They've stuffed the game's building material library with various containers, such as baskets, chests, and cabinets. These items not only provide the important function of storage but also make it convenient for players to create scenery.
For example, you can place a few baskets at fishing spots near docks and ports to store fish, while blacksmith shops can be equipped with thick wooden chests. These details may seem simple, but few development teams are willing to consider players' needs in this way.
Of course, if you really have no knack for building, you can do what I did and just make do with an open-air workstation—after all, we lords of the Caribbean Sea can do whatever we please.
An open-air workstation... yeah, an open-air workstation.
In fact, this building system in Voyage of the Wind unexpectedly integrates quite tightly with pirate life. To be precise, for many players who want to role-play as "pirates," going out to steal things—I mean, exploring other NPCs' cabins and wallets—is not actually conflicting with a relaxed, retirement-style lifestyle.
Even the Pirate King who is about to rule the entire Caribbean Sea can't spend every day fighting and killing.
While exploring the map, picking a few scenic spots on various islands to build docks or a few small houses is also a delightful thing to do.
Of course, some might say, "What if I don't want to spend too much time building houses and just want to burn and kill like a pirate—I mean, explore everywhere?" Don't worry, the developers of Voyage of the Wind have considered this too. Specifically, Voyage of the Wind prepares a complete set of hardcore combat mechanics and character progression skill trees for players. From my current experience, it feels somewhat similar to the experience in Enshrouded.
It's hard to say the action elements are particularly outstanding, but they are definitely sufficient.
Voyage of the Wind offers players a wide variety of weapon choices, including sabers, rapiers, greatswords, flintlocks, and trumpet shotguns. Moreover, different melee attacks have different animation sets, and there are many weapon-category-specific attack methods. For example, sabers allow for sprinting jump slashes, while two-handed greatswords can quickly follow up a thrust with a diagonal light attack.
But the core combat mechanism follows the Souls-like formula: dodging, blocking, stamina management, and resisting the urge to get greedy with attacks.
If you're unfamiliar with this playstyle and choose to recklessly pick fights, you'll likely get beaten badly by NPCs—for example, the wild boars on the island during the early game, or the horde of enemies in the pirate camps.
But if you are careful and cautious enough, the combat experience is still quite substantial.
What if someone says, "I'm bad at action games, I just want to do whatever I want as a pirate without suffering"? The developers of Voyage of the Wind have considered this too—you can directly adjust the combat difficulty in the save settings. Whether you want to suffer or enjoy, it only takes a few clicks of the mouse.
And to be honest, Voyage of the Wind is a sandbox survival game. If you can't win, just run. If you don't want to run, you can build a fortress right there, creating your own terrain advantage. Tricking a few rigid AIs is easy, isn't it?
Even pirate life involves some blacksmithing
And as for the sailing gameplay, which is indispensable for pirate themes, Voyage of the Wind also provides a quite solid experience.
Players can obtain their first two-masted sailing ship through questlines, or wander around using borrowed resources to earn faction reputation and exchange for better blueprints. Based on the current "Early Access" version, players can access three different types of large ships and five faction variants.
Then there's naval artillery combat, which will be very familiar to players of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag—whether it's the curved ballistic trajectories or the exchange of gunpowder and projectiles, the feel is exceptionally familiar. Of course, this is not a bad thing: knowing that Voyage of the Wind can capture some of the essence of ACIV's naval battles is a blessing for us players.
And there's boarding—not just cutscenes and loading bars—but actual boarding battles where players jump over, dealing bloody damage with every slash and shot, maximizing immersion and atmosphere.
To be fair and objective, Voyage of the Wind is not perfect. As a small-scale game from a small independent development team, despite Kraken Express's best efforts, many hard requirements for production experience and technical accumulation remain somewhat out of reach.
For instance, the combat system in Voyage of the Wind cannot compare in terms of feel to mainstream high-quality action games; and in terms of sandbox large-map exploration, there is also quite a bit of repetitive content. However, from the player's perspective, Kraken Express has clearly put in utmost effort, such as the diverse building materials mentioned earlier that allow players to adapt to local conditions, or the melee weapons with various attack animation sets.
Voyage of the Wind has laid a very solid foundation, and the current experience is quite excellent, promising a bright future. It can be said that Kraken Express has laid all their strong cards on the table, showing considerable consideration for players. Facing such a development team, players are undoubtedly forgiving. The sales figure of 1 million copies indirectly proves this point.
To be precise, if you're interested in pirate themes and want to start a suitable adventure to enjoy with friends for hundreds of hours, Voyage of the Wind is undoubtedly the best choice right now, bar none.