This stunning open-world horse game smashed its $65,000 Kickstarter goal straight away, and it's bringing my favorite part of Red Dead Redemption 2 to 13th-century Mongolia

Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori offers a breathtaking spin on 13th-century Mongolia, focusing on its diverse landscape with a beautiful open world and horses – lots of horses.

As a certified horse girl with hundreds of hours spent trail riding in Red Dead Redemption 2's online counterpart, I can safely say The Legend of Khiimori might just be one of my most highly anticipated new games. With a Kickstarter that's already raised over 150% of its initial goal in only one day, it seems like I'm not the only one looking forward to breeding, riding, and training horses in 13th-century Mongolia.

Aesir Interactive's upcoming game is all about exploration and horses, with players acting as Yam courier riders, delivering everything from cargo to packages across the open Mongolian wilderness. It ticks all of my cozy game boxes, too, with its customizable camp and heavy focus on horse-related activities. There's also no immersion-breaking combat to worry about in The Legend of Khiimori, but that doesn't mean there's no challenge.

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Horses need to be bred for special traits and trained properly for attributes to overcome harsh climates or better excel at riding – and also for shiny new coat variations, of course. It's all almost too exciting for my equestrian heart, and after clocking almost 100 hours in Aesir Interactive's previous horse game, Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch, I have full faith in the developers to produce the genre's next big title.

If you're like me and grew up playing Barbie Horse Adventures only to wish there were more equine-related games as an adult, you can wishlist The Legend of Khiimori right now on Steam to keep up with any news related to Windstorm ahead of its early access release, which is set to start sometime this summer. Early backers on Kickstarter (hi, it's me) can play even earlier during the Alpha Playtest period this spring.

Check out these other upcoming indie games for even more to look forward to.

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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.

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