Everwind

Survival-crafting is one of the most crowded genres on Steam, which makes it all the more impressive when one stands out on premise alone. Everwind’s pitch is simple and irresistible: do all the familiar gathering, crafting, and base-building — but in the sky.

The hook

Instead of a patch of forest, your home is a flying island-ship: part safe haven, part vehicle, part workshop. You craft your gear aboard it, then set sail through a world of floating islands suspended above the clouds, looting, fighting, and slowly uncovering the mysteries of why this world hangs in the air at all. Played from a first-person perspective, it gives the genre a genuine sense of verticality and wonder that grounded survival games can’t match.

Combat and progression

Where many survival games treat combat as an afterthought, Everwind leans in. You fight with a sword and shield in hand, but the real variety comes from a roster of magical staffs and an alchemy system that lets you buff and support allies. Dungeons offer structured challenge between the open-ended exploration, and the loop of “venture out, fight, haul treasure home, upgrade the ship” is moreish in the way the best of the genre always is.

When the sun breaks over a chain of floating islands and your ship drifts toward an undiscovered ruin, Everwind delivers a sense of adventure few survival games reach.

The Early Access reality

This is where honesty matters. Everwind launched into Early Access in March 2026 with a year or more of development still planned, and it shows. The core is solid and genuinely fun in co-op, but there are balance gaps, occasional bugs, and a late game that runs short on meaningful goals once you’ve explored the current island set. The recent reviews have cooled slightly from the launch highs, which tracks with players hitting that content ceiling. The system requirements are also steeper than the art style might suggest.

Verdict

Everwind is one of the more exciting survival games in development right now, carried by a premise that genuinely stands apart and a co-op loop that’s a joy with friends. As an Early Access title it asks for some patience — but the foundation is strong, the roadmap is real, and the view from up here is hard to beat. Buy in now if you love getting in early; wishlist it if you’d rather wait for the islands to fill out.