It didn’t take me long to get into the Everwind demo at Steam Next Fest. I was skeptical: I feel like I’ve had my fill of games that kinda sorta look like Minecraft but aren’t actually Minecraft, y’know?

But my skepticism evaporated roughly 35 seconds into the demo. I spawned on top of a small castle and picked up some sticks and planks that were lying around, which told me there was crafting. I descended a level and battled some skeletons, so hey, there’s monsters.

I quickly found a forge, so there’s smithing, and a cauldron, so there’s cooking. Within a couple minutes I had a magic sword that did poison damage, some armor (wooden, but better than nothing), a shield I’d crafted myself, a couple of potions, a bowl of mushroom stew, and a key to unlock a chest full of loot. That’s a promising start.

And outside the castle I found my first little airship, so there’s flying, too. Explore a world dotted with islands (both in the ocean and hovering high above it), battle monsters, gain skills, craft weapons and armor, and build a mobile base on a flying ship? Everwind is checking a heck of a lot of boxes for me.

Combat is very Skyrim-ish, and yeah, I mean that in a good way—there’s a lot of bashing and blocking, at least so far, though I haven’t experienced any magic staffs or spells yet—and the skeletons remind me of a lot of Skyrim’s draugr. All the little forts and ruined castles and dungeons I’ve found give off big Elder Scrolls vibes, too.

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(Image credit: Bohemia Interactive)

It doesn’t just have Minecraft-y looks: you can dig up blocks like in Minecraft (though it typically takes quite a lot more effort) and build with them. If you come across something in the world you like, such as a piece of furniture, just whack it until it breaks and you can bring it back to your airship and place it where you want. I was quite charmed upon finding a small fort full of skeletons that were flying a skull flag and had a skeleton emblem on the wall—nice to see they’re proud of their undead heritage—so I took that stuff with me to decorate my own ship after I’d bashed them into bones.

And there’s something about a huge world dotted with distant islands in all directions that just works for me. I assume it’s all procedurally generated, but I still feel this pressing urge to land at every single island and find out what’s there. It’s mostly been skeletons so far, but I also found pheasants, boars, and even the best animal ever: a capybara. (I killed the skeletons and ate the pheasants. I just admired the capy.)

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The Everwind demo isn’t a long one, but it’ll give you a couple hours of the early portion of the game and a sample of its first three biomes. Even still, I got hooked immediately, and if you like exploring mysterious islands, crafting weapons and finding loot, and piloting an airship over an endless ocean, you probably will too.

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he’d stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He’s also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.