*note that 5 achievements are broken. You can get them by installing the previous build, but it involves installing unknown software.

Playing status: 7/12 achievements, finished the game
Grindy Achievement(s): No.
Optional Achievement(s): No.
Difficult Achievement(s): No.

Windscape is an adventure game with crafting and exploration as its focus. It allows you to explore a vast area, foraging resources, and craft items from the resources that you have gathered. Combat is also included in the game as another main element.

Pros:
- Unique boss fights
- Different weapons are available to beat the enemies effectively

Cons:
- You can get softlocked if you explore near the edge of the screen
- Combat tends to be repetitive and boring
- No fast travel and the map is very vast
- Exploration is not rewarding

Specs
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

No.
I don't think I can recommend this game unless if you like to explore vast areas and getting lost.

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The visuals are depicted in low-poly models. It looks great on the environment, giving a simplistic style with a light color palette. However, the decision to make the character looks realistic with the low poly count makes them look scary. I mean, look at your mom right here.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2495180904

The game incorporates the story through a series of quests, and the presentation doesn't make it seems important. Quest givers will give you an introductory statement before you can choose whether to progress the story or not. The thing is, this statement isn't being updated after you finished a quest - someone who asked you some help will keep on asking it even though they have nothing left to ask.

The ending also seems to be rushed. There is no conclusion or whatsoever, and what I interpret as a quest to meet someone turns into something completely different. To make it worse, they reduced the number of NPCs that you have to meet and make the island that was shown at the beginning to be irrelevant.

Gameplay
The game focuses on exploration, foraging, crafting, and combat. However, exploration doesn't seem rewarding at all. The most that you can get from exploring the vast area is to get more resources, which I'll cover later. You might find some small, optional areas that are filled with enemies, but they tend not to drop the resources that you need. Luckily, they usually protect a chest that contains some useful items, although there are some cases when it only contains potions that you don't need.

Foraging takes time. Although it was fun to do it at the start, some objects, mainly trees, take a long time to forage. You also need to wait for the tree to drop and the logs to spawn before collecting them, which takes even more time to wait. Luckily, you don't need to hoard a lot of resources to craft items.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2495182101

Crafting
The in-game merchant only sells junks, so you are forced to craft to get everything that you need. You'll need to gather the materials for this, whether by foraging it in the wild or defeating some monsters. Some materials are easy to get, some are a bit difficult. Luckily, the game helps you by respawning all materials and enemies when you reload your save. It's possible to exploit this to get materials without exploring too far.

Weapons
There are a lot of weapon types that you can use, ranging from normal weapons such as swords and hammers to magic-based ones such as fire and ice spells. Crafting is required to get them, and switching between them is as simple as moving your scroll button in your mouse. However, it can be problematic if you have too many weapons, especially since the variety of fire and ice spells look the same.

Different weapons are effective for different enemies. You can see their resistance above their health bar although some enemies, mainly the elemental ones, can be guessed at first glance. Crafting all weapons is not required to finish the game, although some are mandatory, and you can't defeat certain bosses without them.

Combat
You can attack and block any attack with your shield. Timing is important to prevent taking damage, especially when you have to face a lot of enemies at once. Although doing so can be difficult at first, it becomes easy to figure out as you move to the second island. Most enemies are starting to have a slower attack animation from that point, and you can learn to time your shield for those who don't have one. However, the game becomes boring and repetitive at the same time, especially since all you have to do is to alternate between attacking and raising your shield. Enemies also become bulky near the end of the game and can take some minutes before you beat them.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2495182896

Although bosses have unique attack patterns, they aren't satisfying to beat. Most boss battles involve you to run and hit them, and their huge HP pool just makes it worse. You'll spend a long time defeating them, running around the map until they die. There might be some bosses that don't require you to run, but you need to stand still and whack the boss that way, which is way boring than the previous one.

Length and Difficulty
I finished the game in 9.5h. It took me longer than necessary since I tried to get 99+ materials at the beginning of the game, which is not necessary. Some bosses can give you trouble when you have to figure out their resistance and attack pattern, but they are easy to beat once you know what to do. However, dungeons can be confusing to some people. I admit I got lost at the last two dungeons, and give up on exploring the whole map as soon as I reached the exit.

Problems
First, there is no fast travel despite you having to travel between the vast map. Second, I got softlocked twice when I was trying to reach another platform near the edge of the cliff. Third, the dark area is too dark. Fourth, this might be only me, but I accidentally scrapped my weapon since I thought that the right mouse click is used to equip your weapon, not discard it. There isn't any sort of confirmation button when you did it either and I had to restart the game because of it.

At first, I enjoyed exploring the map, trying to forage everything that I could. I even finished all quests before talking to the quest giver since I'd rather explore the map before proceeding with my main quest. However, everything changed when you move to the second island. That area is plain empty with nothing in it and it's too vast to travel on foot. My stamina keeps on running out as I explored until I reached the point where I gave up on exploring.

Luckily, dungeons are designed carefully on the second island, giving me another chance to like the game. However, the next few dungeons after that are just plain lazy - most rooms look similar to each other, making it easy to get lost. The game also feels rushed near the end, and the lack of polish in some areas makes it hard for me to love the game. At the end of the day, I was bored of everything, whether it's exploring the vast map, defeating the bulky enemies, or anything else in particular.

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