Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Unlock instant access to exclusive member features. Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. I've been a pirate in Windrose for four hours now, and I've been up to all sorts of classic pirate activities in that time: Chopping down trees, picking up sea shells, making huts out of grass, and getting killed by boars, elite-tier dodos, and giant crabs. There's not much in the world of Windrose that can't kill me in a couple hits, but I'm marooned on a small archipelago and need to rescue my crew from around the islands before I can actually get to the life of sailing that stepping into the boots of a pirate should offer. So I get in a tiny boat and put up its sail—which actually just means pressing the W key like it's a throttle, since there's seemingly no wind system in Windrose—and putter over to one of the pirate camps where my crewmates are held hostage. I miss one parry and die immediately, respawning back at my crude beachside hut. After spending a few minutes trudging around the beach picking up rocks, I use my workbench to craft a handful of crude bullets for my pistol, hoping I can pick the pirates off one-by-one. But wouldn't you know it—I haven't progressed far enough in the tech tree to craft gunpowder yet, so the only way to get it is to kill some of the pirates that just wiped the floor with me. Guess it's time to fight more boars and pick up more grass so give my armor a trivial defense buff! I know Blackbeard and Jack Sparrow didn't become kings of the sea overnight, but I sure don't remember them spending this much time mining copper ore veins to upgrade their sabers for 20% more damage, either.