Windward

Windward is a top-down naval action-RPG set across procedurally generated archipelagos, where you captain a customizable ship, raid enemy fleets, complete faction quests, and gradually upgrade both your vessel and the towns dotting the map. It sits in an odd genre pocket somewhere between a lite ARPG and a sandbox sailing sim, and whether that appeals to you depends almost entirely on how much you love the moment-to-moment feel of maneuvering a wooden ship through cannon fire. The core loop is simple: sail into a region, complete delivery and escort missions for one of several factions, clear out pirate camps or rival nations, collect loot, upgrade your ship with better hulls, cannons, and special abilities, then push into the next zone. Ship builds do have some variety - you can lean into speed and evasion, stack armor and raw firepower, or mix support abilities if you're playing co-op. The talent tree is shallow by RPG standards, but it's functional enough to make two playthroughs feel meaningfully different in the early hours. Past hour 20 or so, the differences start to blur as gear scaling smooths everything out. The writing is where Windward's RPG label starts to feel generous. Faction dialogue is minimal, quest objectives repeat aggressively, and there is no narrative throughline to speak of - no memorable characters, no branching story, no reason to care about the world beyond the next ship upgrade. If you come in expecting anything close to the storytelling density of an actual RPG, you will be disappointed within the first session. This is essentially a systemic sandbox wearing RPG clothes, and it knows it. What saves it, especially at the time of its release, is the co-op. Drop a friend into your procedurally generated world and the repetition becomes a shared rhythm rather than a grind. Coordinating attacks on heavily fortified pirate strongholds, dividing faction loyalty to unlock different town upgrades, and just racing each other across open water - these moments carry genuine charm. Solo, the game exposes its seams much faster. The procedural generation keeps maps fresh on paper, but region layouts start feeling familiar after a few hours because the underlying quest types never really change. Performance is stable and the interface is clean enough, though the UI has that mid-2010s indie spareness that tells you exactly what budget tier this was made on. The Mixed Steam rating is honestly fair - Windward does what it sets out to do competently, it just does it in a fairly narrow lane. Fans of old-school naval sims or players who want a low-stakes co-op game with a short learning curve will find enough here. Anyone hunting for meaningful choice, faction-driven narrative, or deep build systems should look elsewhere. Monika, Scout Team