Assassin’s Creed and Total War have proven that video games can be better than any tattered textbook at bringing history alive – though they do tend to retread the same old battlegrounds of western Europe. China’s Everstone Studio is hoping to change that, letting players loose on an open world 10th-century China in its debut game, Where Winds Meet.
Here, we are put into the sandals of a nameless young martial artist and transported back to the dramatic fall of the Southern Tang dynasty, where the sudden poisoning of Emperor Li Yu thrusts our hero into a dangerous new world. Despite its indie origins, Where Winds Meet looks like a game with a big budget behind it, drawing comparisons to Sucker Punch’s multimillion dollar samurai epic Ghosts of Tsushima. Its sprawling depiction of southern China is a sight to behold; comb through the gameplay videos and you’ll see its hero roaming across a luscious countryside one minute, stumbling upon a serene wildlife-filled pond the next and then being pursued by bandits after dark, dodging arrows on rain-soaked rooftops.
