You could lock me into a chest packed with pieces of eight then toss me into a churning sea of pirate games and I'd still tell you there aren't enough of them as I slowly sink toward Davy Jones' Locker.

Whether it's Sea of Thieves, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, Monkey Island, or Sid Meier's Pirates, if there's a swash to be buckled or a parrot to be shouldered, I'm there.

So when other nautically minded sorts started seafoaming at the mouth over piratical PvE survival game Windrose's Steam demo a little while back, my metaphorical prick was pegleg.

And now, some time later, I've finally managed to set sail for Windrose's treacherous waters - and I can see why this slick seafaring adventure is already one of Steam's most wishlisted games.

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First a bit of scene-setting: we're in an alternative version of the 18th century and a grounded, albeit more magically inclined, Golden Age of Piracy is in full swing.

There's talk of Nassau and the fearsome Blackbeard stalking the waves, but for a good long portion of Windrose's six-or-so-hour-long demo, it doesn't so much play a game of pirates as desert island castaways.

Your adventure begins, you see, with your customisable avatar shipwrecked on a tiny tropical island, splayed upon the sand as the sun beats down.

Palms sway in the gentle Caribbean breeze, and the ocean - stretching away to an endless horizon beneath shifting clouds and bright blue skies - breaks softly against the golden shoreline.

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Windrose - Official Steam Next Fest Demo Launch Trailer Windrose demo trailer.Watch on YouTube Ahead, dense jungle beckons with promises of adventure, danger, and mystery, but given you've little to your name at this point - beyond a broken sword, a shredded shirt, and (hopefully) a thirst for survival - you probably don't want to dash off too far.

Not least because in this perilous world of charging boars, giant razor-clawed crabs, and bloated undead sailors, even a mildly irked knee-high dodo is liable to one-shot you if you're not careful ## Editor's Note This announcement has sparked considerable discussion among gamers. Source: [Eurogamer](https://www.eurogamer.net/after-five-hours-with-highly-anticipated-pirate-survival-game-windrose-i-can-see-why-its-one-of-steams-most-wishlisted-games)