Games like Minecraft and Hytale are popular for a reason. Their open sandbox worlds offer limitless potential and creativity. And if you like these kinds of games, but also enjoy a good RPG, you’ve likely already heard about Everwind. After all, the upcoming open-world voxel RPG has over 850K wishlists on Steam ahead of its Early Access launch. And if you haven’t, allow me to introduce you to this fresh take on the sandbox survival RPG.
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Everwind was one of the standout demos during October 2025’s Steam Next Fest. Now, it’s getting ready to officially launch into Early Access on March 17th. I had a chance to attend a live demo with Enjoy Studio S.A. and Bohemia Interactive, then dive into a hands-on preview of the game’s Early Access build. And my experience with the game so far clearly highlights what sets Everwind apart from other entries in the sandbox survival RPG genre. Airships, capybaras, and robust skill trees.
Everwind Builds on the Minecraft Formula With Dungeon Crawls & Airship Travel
At first glance, the pixel art style of Everwind certainly calls to mind similar voxel games like Minecraft. And on a basic level, it does feel similar. You can break anything in the world to acquire materials and recipes for building. But Everwind didn’t stand out during Steam Next Fest for nothing. The game adds a few unique elements that help it feel like a fresh addition to the survival space.
First off, there’s the airships. Admittedly, I struggled to figure out how to actually claim my first ship, but that’s definitely user error on my part. In Everwind, you get to claim and customize your own airship as part of one of the early-game guided quests. Once you do, the world really opens up for you, letting you explore new islands and encounter new enemies along the way. Just be careful, because if you die, you’ll lose a lot of your loot. Not that I experienced that a couple dozen times, or anything.
From a simple raft to more involved builds, airship travel really lets you make the most of the procedurally generated world full of resources, enemies, and dungeons to raid. Thankfully, you’ve got a compass and spyglass to help you set your course as you explore. Monsters and dungeons get tougher (and more rewarding) the higher into the sky you climb, giving the game a satisfying sense of progression even in Early Access.
Along with airship travel, Everwind delivers RPG mechanics that let you customize and level up your character. As you battle enemies and acquire loot, you’ll acquire points to spend on a skill tree. Not only that, but a Rune system lets you power up your weapons and items. Though there isn’t a strict class system as such, you can acquire a variety of weapons to cultivate your preferred attack style. And for my fellow forever casters, that does include magic books and staffs. I didn’t encounter these in my early gameplay, but I got to see them in action during the dev preview, and that has me looking forward to uncovering the magic the game has to offer.
As if deeper RPG mechanics and airships weren’t enough, Everwind delivers one more random bit of charm. There are quite a few creatures roaming the map, and yes, you can smash them up to get meat to keep yourself healed and fed. But you won’t want to harm the cutest critters crawling the map – pixel art capybaras. These guys have become something of a mascot for the game since players fell in love with them during the demo. After roaming around the early game map and seeing them in action, I completely get it.
Even in Early Access, Everwind Offers an Engaging Gameplay Loop With Just the Right Amount of Random
One thing I struggle with in games like Minecraft is that they can feel a bit too open-ended. I think Everwind strikes a nice balance here. There’s plenty of freedom to do whatever you want. But a handful of early game tutorial quests do offer some structure to help you settle into the gameplay loop. I did hit a few minor snags here, as quest markers tend to vanish once you arrive at a location. So if you, like me, fail to notice the airship you allegedly stumbled upon, it can be a bit tricky figuring out your next steps. But even with those minor snags, I appreciated the little touch of guidance to ease into the gameplay loop and get you set up for travel.
Everwind offers a satisfying sense of exploration right from the start. You can see the islands in the distance, and traveling to them gets you a randomly generated set of enemies, loot, and items. Stumbling upon treasure and structures to destroy for parts feels great, and the enemies are tough but not too tough in the early game. It’s entertaining not know what you’ll stumble upon from one island to the next, and the ability to craft and customize your realm makes those dungeon crawls all the more rewarding.
The landscapes you encounter span a variety of biomes, which helps keep things from feeling too similar from place to place. Each biome looks and feels unique, giving a sense of vastness and diversity to the game’s open world. This helps keep the game from feeling empty, even in its Early Access status.
Though it’s early days for Everwind, this feels like a promising new sandbox RPG survival game that fans will want to delve into. The game launches in Early Access via Steam on March 17th. There are 2 differenet price options, with a $24.99 Standard Edition and a $49.99 special Everwind Capybara Edition on offer. As its name suggests, the capybara edition will feature some fun capybara-themed in-game items, including outfits, furniture, and balloon skins. Getting in early will give you the chance to offer feedback and shape the future of Everwind, while also experiencing this fresh take on voxel survival before anyone else.
Is Everwind on your wishlist? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Image courtesy of Tor Books/Macmillan -
Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme
