Snowed In Studios has released their newest creation in Windforge, a side scrolling game that has been described by the developers as “Minecraft meets Contra”. What Windforge really comes out to be is a nice attempt at this hybridization with a great aesthetic, but it’s riddled with flaws and bugs. I really love the look and the feel of Windforge, but the game just ended up being way too frustrating to play due to game ending bugs and just tedious quests that killed the flow of the story. There are a lot of things that are right about Windforge, but one must look long and hard to overcome the other issues of the game.
Story
Windforge takes place on the world of Cordeus, a steampunk style world that is run completely on sky whale oil. Think Dishonored, but with sky whales. The economy of Cordeus is falling apart, mostly due to the complete over harvesting of the planets sky whale population, and the bizarre law that outlaws any research into alternate technology. You create your character to be either a butcher, sailor, prospector or merchant to set out and make your own fortune in Cordeus.
Early in the game, you discover the ancient ruins of another race of beings, the Aetherkin. The Aetherkin knew of alternate power sources and technologies that were not depending on the dwindling supply of sky whale oil, but the pursuit of these technologies have been banned. Ultimately, you set out on a epic quest to bring those technologies to the people of Cordeus, in order to prevent the complete extinction of the sky whales and to bring the economy back to life.
Game Play
Windforge does play like a cross between Contra and Minecraft, with a touch of Diablo or Torchlight thrown in for good measure. The basic premise of the game is ultimate creation or destruction of the environment around you, ala Minecraft or Terreria. You can control and shape your world, including your sky craft. Creating objects or materials in Windforge is very simple, and makes perfect sense. Menus tell you exactly what materials you need to make what, then it is up to you to locate these materials and assemble them. The first crafting quest in Windforge has you searching a mine for materials to patch up your blimp and to add propellers for lift and movement. Unlike other games lately, I felt that Windforge gave me a clear idea as to how to craft objects so that I could do this for the rest of the game.
The Contra part of Windforge comes in clearly during movement and combat when not in your blimp. You control your character by using the WASD keys, while the mouse controls where you aim. You can switch between tools and weapons on the fly by using the number keys, then aim with your mouse and use the buttons to interact or fire that weapon. You are quite easily able to run away from an enemy and fire your pistol in the opposite direction in an attempt to dissuade them from further pursuit. Your character also has a grappling hook, that adds in a little Bionic Commando to your exploration. All of this works very smoothly when it comes to the actual execution, I never once became frustrated with how my character moved or interacted with the world.
Windforge differs from other games of this type by becoming more based on item drops then resource gathering and crafting. While, yes, crafting is in the game, drops from enemies you face will become your bread and butter way of outfitting your character. This will end up giving you much more options to outfit your airship or character then just relying on either a drop system or craft system.
That is about the extent of the good news for Windforge, so let’s go ahead and begin on what is wrong with the game. Let’s start off with traveling around the world itself. The world is divided up into six or so parts, each with their own load times. The problem I have with that, is that it completely takes one out of the interactivity of the world. I will forever compare games that have loading times to move from one zone to the other to World of Warcraft, where it was absolutely possible to travel from one end of Kalimdor to the other without a single loading screen. It may be unrealistic on my part, but loading screens in worlds now just feels out of place.
Another huge issue I had was that the game just became tedious. The Aetherkin temples were devoid of anything interesting and most quests just felt like I was grinding for levels or items. The story itself just seems to get bogged down with no direction or idea on where it wants to go. And that is, if the game runs right. Windforge is buggy, to say the least. Complete save files have become randomly corrupted and my whole game and to be restarted from the beginning, twice. I cannot, ever, recommend to anyone a game that has these type of game ending bugs. It just isn’t excusable.
Aesthetics
Windforge has a very unique and beautiful aesthetic to the world, and the characters that populate it. Snowed In Games decided to go a different direction with their visuals and, unlike Terreria and Minecraft, went with a cleaner, less 8 bit art style. I must say, that the game really has a very cool look to it, with the way the land appears, the look of the airships, and even the design of the sky whales. The music for Windforge also really helps in creating this unique aesthetic. There isn’t any type of voice over work, so all dialogue is completed through text boxes. I was really impressed with the direction of both the visuals and music design for Windforge, it is just too bad that the game suffered so much from bugs and glitches.
Final Thoughts
Windforge was a valiant attempt by Snowed In Studios to create a creative game that had a decent drop type system and interesting combat. Windforge can be described as part Minecraft, part Contra, and part Diablo in its game play systems, with a very unique and gorgeous world to play in. However, game ending bugs and a tedious quest system really brings Windforge out of the realm of a solid, good game into something a little more mediocre and hard to recommend. Windforge is available now through Steam.
[easyreview title=”Windforge Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”2″ ]
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