I spy an adventure camp. Wind Peaks review.

 

Videogames are big business. It has come from the dark and loud arcades to our living spaces over the past couple of decades and have nestled nicely inside out day to day lives. No longer are these past time activities for just kids but the industry has to offer for just about anyone these days. Yet still the headlines are dominated with the latest shooters and fighting games. Large bombastic games with a lot of noise, marketing and  flash. And then there are the survival games, and rogue lites until you had your fill.  I am not saying that there is anything wrong with that. But with all this flash it can be hard to find something different, something slower paced and more friendly to the senses. 

Once such genre are the puzzle/clue finder games. Much like the old "where's Waldo" style posters where you look for hidden object or figures that blend into their environment. Until I NYAF I had not really played games like this myself or at least not as a videogame and had passed them by without much thought. But now I have made a space in my gaming nook for moments like this and it is where Wind Peaks settles nicely as a solid title to spend a few hours getting lost in.  I mean look at their own description on what the game has to offer:

• No death / violence
• No hyper-realism / last-gen graphics
• No procedural worlds
• Unique visual style
• Cute casual gameplay
• An original story about nature
• Fun and peaceful interactions

How is that for a welcoming feeling?

Wind Peaks is a visual adventure that without words conveys a scout camp to the  adventurous, albeit messy woods of camp wind peaks. There the kids  find a treasure map that looks to lead to a wild adventure. You progress the story along by locating the clues and whatever else you find along the way.

Gameplay

Gameplay for Wind Peaks is straight forward. I played  the entire game with the mouse, moving along the map, zooming in with the scroll button and clicking on anything I could see jus to see if it would be interactive. there are a bunch of hidden objectives, such as  cleaning up empty bottles into the recycle bins, or building totem poles. Some of the puzzles are needed to find a needed object or clue and others just add to the experience as a hidden bonus.

Some items are no visible until  you find other clues first, such as a banana to lure a monkey out of  tree, or place off alien looking artifacts to open a hidden compartment. In other cases you simply have to open a door or window to find what  you need. In other words click and drag all the things you find to see what happens.

If you get lost you can click a clue button and if you do not find the object in the next 3 minutes it will show you where to look, making the game very play friendly. 

There is no losing the game, no time to beat. Just you and your eyes looking for clues until you find them and move the story forward. It is a game for all ages.

Presentation

By its creators own submission Wind Peaks is inspired by Netflix' Hilda and  Disney's Gravity falls, yet even though there are some similarities in terms of feel and the colors used, there is still plenty of original design here, both in terms of artwork as well as the use of muted humor. It is nice to see that in this case inspired by does not mean a blatant rip off but something unique and different.

The presentation of the camp site feels like a fun place to hang, there are woods a nice lake and all sorts of adventures locations to hang out at. 

Finding the clues is nothing to straining and it is often more a case of just overlooking something rather then it being obscured to much. The little sound effects adding to the overall cute and fun atmosphere and the music of the game is a low key design of ethereal sounds . They are not bad, but I personally turned the in game music down and loaded up my own chill sound track of synthwave. (I have been on a real synth wave binge lately thanks to "the midnight")

Many objects can be interacted with even if they are not part of the things you look for or that need to be resolved, making the entire map fun to interact with and I always ended up clicking everywhere just to see what would happen.

Each of the 10 areas are connected with a small movie that ties the story together towards an interesting but open ended conclusion. It is only season one, I look forward to more seasons and see where this adventure leads.

Final thoughts

Wind Peaks is a fun relaxing distraction to play on the side or during a calm relaxing evening. It is fun to play together and have an "audience" help you discover the different objects. Or just play by yourself and day dream of fun summer camp adventures with friends. 

The game is not very long, in fact it is stated that currently there is about 1.5 hours of gameplay and as such you might find it a bit pricey at $15.  As I mentioned it is only season 1 and has an open end , so I hope that more content will get added later (and preferable at no extra cost) to make the value of the game grow some more.  All said though, those 1-2 hours are a fun relaxing and entertaining dist
raction.

You can check out Wind Peaks yourself on Nintendo Switch or PC (Steam) now.

Game information
Title: Wind Peaks
Developer: Actoon Studio Brazil
Publisher:  Actoon Studio
Release date: 29 July 2020 (PC), 03 March 2021 (Switch)
Platforms: PC (Steam) Nintendo Switch
Review platform:  PC ( Steam)
ESRB: E for Everyone