Rogue-likes are not a new genre, but it’s not every day you see a developer create two successful IPs in the genre back-to-back. In fact, the more popular ones, such as Binding of Isaac, get quality-of-life and content updates for years and years, as those devs wouldn’t bother to fix what isn’t broken. So, for Motion Twin, the creator of the highly-touted Dead Cells, it’s a surprise to see their first new game in six years after tons of expansions from their winning franchise. Windblown looks to switch to the third dimension and add co-op into the mix, but can lightning strike twice for Motion Twin?

With a flashy animation as its intro, Windblown sees you take the reigns of an animal adorned with melee/ranged prowess. Right off the bat, you’ll get access to weapons like a giant scimitar, daggers with a backstab bonus, a fire mage staff, and several others. Having access to two at a time, you can finish off your combos with powerful moves that utilize the secondary weapon for huge damage when timed right. Combat feels satisfying once you learn enemy patterns, as their moves are telegraphed with enough risk vs. reward opportunities to encourage aggression yet reward patience.

Dashing is a vital component of Windblown, as you’ll be mashing the button not only to dodge enemy attacks but to traverse the field as there’s no cooldown. The level design truly capitalized on this mechanic, as moving from platform to platform with the tap of a button creates a huge sense of momentum and speed, with minimal time between the fights keeping the pace just right. Battles are no pushover, either; in true Rogue-like tradition, you’re allotted a few mistakes before your run is over. Making use of gifts and upgrades is a must to make it through each biome and get farther than you did last run.

It was a cinch to find more players in Windblown after I eased into the game with a few single-player runs. The connection was extremely stable, the other player knew what they were doing, and we had mutual patience for each other. I couldn’t tell if the difficulty became dynamic based on how many players were there, but it still felt like a level challenge between us two trading off between melee/dodging and firing from a distance. I would recommend getting into the co-op as all loot is shared and it feels great to take on tough battles with someone at your side.

It’s evident that Windblown has a great future, as it has had as strong a launch into Early Access as players could have hoped. I did encounter a lot of the same items/upgrades early on, but to remedy that, there’s an ample amount of items to unlock between runs. Motion Twin has a real winner on their hands, and they’re paying attention to points of contention and actively holding Discord AMAs, which indicates to me that they truly value community input. Windblown is a no-brainer purchase for action Rogue-like fans, even this early on.

A PC review copy of Windblown was provided by Motion Twin for the purposes of this review.

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Windblown

$24.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Tight, polished gameplay
• Excellent soundtrack
• Easy to find competent coop partners
• Strong art style

Cons

• Needs a bit more content