Windblown Certainly Doesn't Blow

This early access follow-up to Dead Cells still has lots of room to grow

Windblown, for the unaware, is Motion Twin’s follow-up to Dead Cells, and let me tell you, I fucking love Dead Cells. It’s probably one of my favorite games of all time. And I’m not even all that good at it, although I can hold my own in the harder difficulties—at least somewhat.

Thanks to my undying love of Dead Cells, the moment Windblown wafted into my radar, I smashed that wishlist button and bought it when it came out. Consider what follows to be tantamount to my first impressions of the game after about fifteen hours, although I think I’ve seen most everything that’s currently available.

That said, if you haven’t played Dead Cells, I’d honestly recommend just starting there. It has far more content and is basically done at this point. Then, by the time you’ve played it to exhaustion, Windblown should presumably be a bit further along, and you can check it out then.

However, read on if you’ve played the hell out of Dead Cells and are looking for something new to sink your teeth into.

Windblown definitely feels like an evolution of Dead Cells, so expect me to compare the two throughout this. Deal with it. After all, I’ve put over 200 hours into Dead Cells, so it’s practically part of my DNA at this point. That’s since 2017 and throughout early access, and maybe also multiple saves? I don’t remember. I’m getting old.

Safe to say, anyone who’s spent a decent amount of time with Dead Cells will feel pretty much right at home with Windblown, even if its presentation might lead you to think otherwise.

WHAT IS THIS THING?

For starters, Windblown is fully 3D, although it uses a fixed, isometric camera. I’m a big fan of the art style, and the game is also Steam Deck verified, and runs quite well from my experience. Oh, and the music is a 10/10.

If you’ve played Dead Cells, you’ll doubtlessly notice a few parallels. You can equip two weapons, two trinkets, and a Magifish, which are friendly little fishies with significant effects that come with a long cooldown. You won’t unlock Magifish until a little later into the game.

To unlock new upgrades, including healing potions, the ability to sell gear, items at the start of a run, etc, you spend gears you collect. Other items require memory shards, including weapons, trinkets, and “gifts.”

Gifts are the upgrades that allow you to hone in on your build, much like the mutations in Dead Cells. You can pick up new ones during a run, or change them at will if you have too many.

You get three by default, but you can unlock more slots, allowing you to conjure up an even more overpowered build.

One of my personal favorites has been a Crystalize build. Crystalize is a core upgrade that you’ll unlock relatively early, allowing you to “finish” elite enemies and bosses.

Well, naturally, there are Gifts for Crystalize, notably one that allows you to Crystalize ANY enemy. There’s also a different gift that will let you gain a shield with every Crystalize. You can probably see how powerful that is. If you can crystalize enemies without taking damage, you’ll quickly develop an entirely new health bar.

There are also burn, bleed, and a billion other potential build options—and probably more to come as the game evolves and new Gifts are added. The trick is selecting gifts that work together in synergy.

After just a few hours, you’ll have more upgrades, both locked and unlocked, than you can shake a stick at, and much like Dead Cells, you’ll also earn some core upgrades that give you more tools for exploration—or murderin’.

Trading Openness for Linearity

One big difference compared to Dead Cells is that Windblown is quite linear. Rather than having open biomes that you can port around in, Windblown has you going from the beginning to the end of each zone; there are a few branching paths along the way, but it’s mostly a start and a finish, with a boss at the end of each biome.

Clearly, Motion Twin is going for something more similar to Hades, where you pick doors and choose rewards, but the overall structure is much more linear. Dead Cells makes you choose between going to the next biome or clearing the one you’re in for more rewards.

Windblown’s linear nature trades some of the sense of exploration—but there’s still plenty of that—for a really brisk pacing that will definitely appeal to a lot of people. However, I’m not sure I like it as much as what’s done in Hades or Dead Cells.

Of course, things could change over the course of early access and any potential subsequent DLC, but Motion Twin completely changing how levels are designed would be surprising.

The good news is that this level design means that you don’t really need a map, which Windblown doesn’t have—at least not currently. If you do happen to get lost, there are markers on the ground indicating the way forward.

There are also lots of little hidden secrets and chests, plus some upgrades that allow you to go windsurfing to access new areas. However, every one of these side paths loop back around to the main path pretty quickly.

Windblown Isn’t Easy

Dead Cells wasn’t easy either, but you could take it slow, pick up Scrolls, get lots of health, and maybe brute force your way through the experience. In Windblown, Boosts take the place of Scrolls—at least in a broad sense.

Boosts, however, have many more upgrades available, and on top of that, boosts themselves can be lesser or greater, meaning sometimes you’ll get +25 health, and sometimes you’ll get +50. Other times, you’ll get 10% more critical damage or 30%.

So, each run seems to have way more variance than Dead Cells, or even Hades. You can go through five or six boosts and not have a single health upgrade. Rerolling might be a nice addition—maybe that will get added.

Otherwise, you have about 100 health by default, and some enemy attacks are 40 or 50 damage. In other words, don’t get hit—ever. There are health potions, but if you end up having to chug all those fuckers before you even make it to the first boss—or second—you might as well just throw in the towel.

Alterattacks

One neat new thing that Windblown brings to the table, at least in comparison to Dead Cells, is Alterattacks. Basically, once you complete a combo with one weapon, you can perform a finisher with another weapon. These attacks typically have a few i-frames tied to them, meaning they are great for dealing and avoiding damage.

Alterattacks will end up being key to most playstyles, and if you progress far enough, you’ll even unlock more powerful Alterattacks that you can perform in sequence, meaning that you have a finisher for your finisher if you’re able to chain together enough finishes. Fin.

Oh, It Has Co-op, Too

Although I haven’t had the chance to check it out myself—I like playing these games solo, but I’m open to grouping up with friends—Windblown does allow you to play with a group of up to four players.

One point of contention I’ve seen around the game, despite not having co-oped myself, pertains to a sudden death mechanic, where if someone dies, you need to kill ten enemies to revive them, which makes boss fights way more difficult.

I don’t have much of a horse in this race, because I couldn’t give two shits about co-op, but Motion Twin has said that they’re looking into tweaking this sudden-death mechanic.

Let’s Wrap This Thing Up

If you haven’t been able to tell, I like Windblown quite a lot—probably not as much as I like Dead Cells, but that’s after nearly a decade of updates. The foundation is there—Windbown is just as satisfying to play, although it borrows a lot from Dead Cells in its core design.

Judging by the achievements, I’ve gotten to the current last boss, but haven’t killed it yet. That doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty to unlock or maybe new biomes to discover, but for the most part, I feel like I’ve seen the majority of what Windblown has to offer as it currently stands.

I’ll definitely be keeping up with its updates, like I did Dead Cells, and it’ll be fun to watch it grow and evolve like that game did.

In the meantime, a big Rogue Prince of Persia update comes out in a few days. I’ve been waiting on the opportunity to pull the trigger on that, and this is probably that opportunity.

All rogues all the time.