Winds & Leaves
- December 8, 2021
- TREBUCHET
- 2h median play time
This charming jaunt was a delightful, verdant explosion of summer, underpinned with a sound ecological message.
Get on Steam
Get on PS StoreA flora builder in a world full of mystery
PC
Playstation 4
Virtual Reality
Windows
PlayStation
PlayStation VR
Reviews
- Winds & Leaves offers a beautiful and immersive experience, with excellent visuals and sound design that create a calming atmosphere.
- The game encourages exploration and creativity as players plant trees and restore a barren world, providing a unique and engaging gameplay loop.
- Despite initial control challenges, many players find the game to be a rewarding and relaxing adventure that can help alleviate stress and anxiety.
- The movement and control mechanics are clunky and can be frustrating, particularly for players using newer VR headsets, leading to potential motion sickness.
- The onboarding process is poorly designed, making it difficult for players to understand the controls and gameplay mechanics in the early stages.
- Some players have reported technical issues, such as crashes and inconsistent performance, which detract from the overall experience.
- gameplay10 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by a strong sense of immersion and exploration, allowing players to intuitively learn about the world, despite some initial confusion and unclear instructions. While the core loop of planting trees can feel tedious and the grip mechanics are frustrating, the overall experience is enhanced by the game's atmosphere. However, technical issues like crashes and poor VR interactions detract from the overall enjoyment.
“At first sight, the visuals alone blew me away and gave me hope for stress ease, and after the initial struggle and confusion with some unclear instructions and direction, the gameplay became immediately healing.”
“This can be frustrating gameplay-wise, but the tradeoff is that I found the game to be incredibly immersive and would feel during my play sessions that I was in a different world instead of a video game, which in my opinion is the greatest compliment you can give a VR game.”
“Not in the sense of mechanical challenge - what I mean is that you learn about the world and how things work by experiencing the world, intuiting things, and trying things out.”
“The gripping mechanic is straight up janktacular.”
“The core gameplay loop of planting trees across the wasteland is honestly pretty tedious, but the game is carried hard by the sense of immersion, atmosphere, and exploration.”
“Unfortunately, the gameplay, due to the poor VR interactions, brings the experience down (unlike Journey where the gameplay goes with the flow of the game).”
- graphics9 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The graphics are praised for their excellent visual style and art design, creating a stunning and immersive experience, despite being described as simple at times. Users appreciate the combination of visuals and audio, noting that the game's aesthetic contributes significantly to the overall enjoyment, even if it doesn't adhere to realistic standards. Performance varies on high settings, but the visuals are deemed worth any trade-offs in frame rates.
“At first sight, the visuals alone blew me away and gave me hope for stress ease, and after the initial struggle and confusion with some unclear instructions and direction, the gameplay became immediately healing.”
“The sound, the visuals, the art design, the spatial design, progression - everything works really really really well.”
“Beautiful visuals & sounds just like Journey.”
“The graphics were pretty simple.”
“On my RTX 3080, I was getting variable frame rates from 90 to 45 fps on high graphical settings on my HP Reverb G2 (high native resolution, but it looks so stunning the trade-off was worth it to me).”
“You can also lower the graphical settings (but why would you want to do that???!!!!).”
- atmosphere4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is highly praised for its immersive qualities, creating a unique VR experience that enhances exploration and engagement, despite some players finding the core gameplay loop tedious. The beautiful environments and the act of replanting trees contribute to a compelling sense of atmosphere, making it a standout feature for those who appreciate atmospheric gaming.
“Winds and Leaves is a beautiful and atmospheric game, where you can spend your time wandering around, replanting trees to bring a barren world back to life.”
“The core gameplay loop of planting trees across the wasteland is honestly pretty tedious, but the game is carried hard by the sense of immersion, atmosphere, and exploration.”
“A very unique VR experience that nails immersion and atmosphere but definitely will not be for everyone.”
- optimization3 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game offers solid optimization across all four quality settings, with users noting a significant performance boost when using the 'low' setting. Additionally, a VR performance mod is available, enhancing the experience further. Overall, the game's visual quality is commendable regardless of the chosen settings.
“VR performance mod available at https://github.”
“The game looks great on all four quality settings, and there is a noticeable performance improvement on the 'low' setting if you need to use that.”
“Quick note on performance:”
“VR performance 'mod' is available, but it doesn't significantly enhance the experience.”
- story2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Users express a desire for more backstory in the game's narrative, suggesting that additional context may be revealed as they progress further.
“The only thing I could wish for is a bit of backstory, but perhaps that comes later than I am.”
- stability1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game demonstrates excellent stability, particularly on the Vive Pro 2 when used with Vive wands, ensuring a smooth and reliable experience for players.
“Runs great on Vive Pro 2 with Vive wands.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of planting trees in the game to be tedious, yet it is offset by a strong sense of immersion, atmosphere, and exploration that enhances the overall experience.
“The core gameplay loop of planting trees across the wasteland is honestly pretty tedious, but the game is carried hard by the sense of immersion, atmosphere, and exploration.”
- music1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music in the game is highly praised for its excellent ambient sounds, sound mixing, and musical soundtrack, contributing significantly to the overall experience.
“The ambient sounds, sound mix, and musical soundtrack are all excellent.”
“The music perfectly complements the gameplay, enhancing the overall experience.”
“Each track is beautifully composed, creating an immersive atmosphere that draws you in.”
