Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - Video Review

Rhykker has reviewed Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, which will be released tomorrow:

Wolcen Full Release: First Impressions (Gameplay Review)

loading…

More information.

Can't wait to play. Hopefully nothing is missing on launch tomorrow.

I feel like I started sponsoring this game like five years ago, I certainly won't be diving in tomorrow, as I suspect there will be many more updates yet to come before it approaches anything resembling stability. When that does happen I do believe we'll have a fine action-y game on our hands to enjoy!

Well a positive review; has anyone played to confirm if it is any good ? How does it compare to grim dawn ?

I picked it up and played for a little bit. Can confirm its (initially) fun. Waiting for the launch day wipe to give it a strong play through.

Why play this over Diablo 3? It looks and feels almost the same, like they are actually copying D3 , but awkwardly try to hide it behind some of their own inventions. Even that character in video are Demon Hunter from D3 in disguise!
City building in Arpg, really?! I dont know if that can be exciting and welcome game feature in monster killing and looting game.
Somehow this Wolcen looks off to me, the world seems very inconsistent (at least from that video glimpse) - there are all crazy kinds of monsters randomly packed together making no sense and destroying the feeling of well built and comprehensible fantasy universe.

I think these guys had some idea at the beginning but lost it along the process and years of making game and finally went "screw this , lets make Diablo3 part II and be done with it".

Dunno about D3part2, but on the steam store page I see the word that prevents me from touching it:
co-op

Looks promising. Let's see, maybe I'll try it once I'm done with Torchlight 2. Either this, or go back to W40k Inquisitor (to see what the last patches did).

Don't have the peace of mind to play anything more serious at the moment.

Originally Posted by joxer
Dunno about D3part2, but on the steam store page I see the word that prevents me from touching it:
co-op

Not saying you should touch it, but every game in this sub-genre is co-op. Including Diablo 1.

I don't care about every game, I care about singleplayer games.
Anyway:
https://www.pcgamer.com/crippling-se…ms-big-launch/

Crippling server issues are getting in the way of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem's big launch
…
Another day, another online game launch hampered by widespread server issues.

Stopped reading there.

Well this is a bit misleading. The game does have an off-line mode and server is only required for co-op.
-
I only played an hour (might refund but probably not). The game so far is a *lot* simpler than grim dawn for example. The maps are largely linear with little branching - likewise the skill system appears simpler and there seem to be a lot less quest (I remember starting grim dawn and being able to get a ton of quests - some of which close quickly but others that require a bit more effort to complete and some that might be missed.
-
This isn't to say it is a poor game just one that is more mindless. I want to stress that i've only played an hour and it might open up later but i have my doubts.
-
On the surface i would say grimdawn is much more the rpg in which builds make a difference and maps require a bit more exploring - while wolcen is more the true arpg which is for the most part mindless clicking. This isn't a bad thing just a description of the game - but i do want to stress that i've only given wolcen an hour so perhaps it changes later ?

Originally Posted by joxer
I don't care about every game, I care about singleplayer games.
Anyway:
https://www.pcgamer.com/crippling-se…ms-big-launch/

Stopped reading there.

Originally Posted by joxer
I don't care about every game, I care about singleplayer games.
Anyway:
https://www.pcgamer.com/crippling-se…ms-big-launch/

Stopped reading there.

pcgamer

Stopped reading there…

Originally Posted by joxer
I don't care about every game, I care about singleplayer games.
Anyway:
https://www.pcgamer.com/crippling-se…ms-big-launch/

Stopped reading there.

You can play the game offline. Unlike Diablo 3, or Path of Exile, et al.

Not saying that non-functioning servers at launch are a good thing. It happens too often, and its annoying to many fans. But at least they let you play the game single player, without being bothered by that server crap.

Originally Posted by Cacheperl
You can play the game offline. Unlike Diablo 3, or Path of Exile, et al.

Not saying that non-functioning servers at launch are a good thing. It happens too often, and its annoying to many fans. But at least they let you play the game single player, without being bothered by that server crap.

Yep nothing I hate worse then being required to log on to a server just to play the SP campaign. I blame Diablo III/Path of Exile for setting the new trend for these games.

At least smaller devs still make offline SP games like these.

I have to say I am disappointed. I voted for this as the third one in the most anticipated games of 2020. Mind you, I only played an hour or so, but I just don't feel it's for me. Usually these kind of games have a strong first few hours to grip you in and then turn into a grind with some additional content/mechanics unlocked at later levels, something to work towards to. This game is just missing those first few hours. Maybe I'm spoiled by Grim Dawn, but this game just feels empty.

The world seems empty and lifeless. It was marketed as an open world game, so I expected something like TQ/GD (which were essentially linear but with a lot of side areas to cover). I guess it's kind of is like that, but the world is divided into a lot of small levels. But the first few areas just seem empty. There are enemies, but it feels like fighting a horde of enemies on an empty plane. Levels are really forgettable. The first city is really empty with few NPCs and it doesn't look like a proper city. I guess it's supposed to act as an early game hub and is designed to be functional. I just hoped it would be a proper city. Especially since outside of it there are a lot of people trying to get in who are turned down because "the city is already full". When you enter there are like 10-15 NPCs there and 3 vendors. Compared to GD where the world feels (up to recently) lived in and is much more detailed. Maybe later levels are better.

The items are not as interesting as GD (I keep comparing it to GD, since I find it to be a gold standard of ARPGs, followed closely by Path of Exile and Diablo 3). They seem to have a good amount of stats on them, but they just don't look interesting. In GD I would look like a low level badass by the level 5 and it only kept getting better. I like that they give you a lot of armor slots (separate left and right glove and shoulder pads). Again, this is only from an hour of playing so it might get better later in the game. I'll keep playing, but if it doesn't buy me in the next few hours, I'll give up.

Now the skill system. I like having to balance, what do they call them, rage and the other thing (Spirit? Mana? It's used for magical skills). The skills seem fun so far and I like that you can customize them as you level them up without committing to anything. You can freely choose what traits a skill will have starting from skill level 5 (the skills level up on their own like in Path Of Exile). You can change the unlocked traits at any point for free.

I have noticed some bugs, like unable to target certain enemies for some reason and getting stuck when surrounded by enemies. The later one is more a design choice, but if it gets combined with the former, you're in trouble. I played offline so I can't talk about the online part but I see there are some problems.

Some of the staples of the genre are missing like second weapon set and sorting the inventory so that is disappointing, too.

All in all 6/10 from me so far, but I'll keep going and hope it gets better.

It has gotten a lot of negative votes the last two days and a chunk of them are from folks who reach act ii and find massive fit of bugs - some of which causes the character to reset. I refunded after my hour - it is a simple game and simple games can be fun but i don't want to deal with character resetting bugs.

Originally Posted by you
It has gotten a lot of negative votes the last two days and a chunk of them are from folks who reach act ii and find massive fit of bugs - some of which causes the character to reset. I refunded after my hour - it is a simple game and simple games can be fun but i don't want to deal with character resetting bugs.

Unfortunately I agree seems development was rushed. IE released to early.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Unfortunately I agree seems development was rushed. IE released to early.

Yup. That's where I have to agree with criticism as well.

Best bet at the moment seems to be to wait for further updates and fixes.

So this is the first game I have ever asked for a refund on and I am super disappointed. There are a ton of little bugs (sound drops, untargetable mobs, etc) and the server fiasco is rather annoying. The female character models are just plain terrible with their absurdly long legs and tiny heads. But all of that I could forgive if the gameplay was great. But in my opinion it just isn’t that good. The combat isn’t bad and I enjoyed the boss fights that I played. But the itemization is pretty weak and boring with only small incremental upgrades being the norm. This is a deal breaker for me with ARPGs. Quality of life features are also missing which should be commonplace by now in the genre. Don’t make me go into 2 menus to see my DPS, let me remove actions from the bar, provide mouse over tool tips for dropped items,etc. the characters feel wooden and the world was unconvincingly cut/paste is many areas. The whole thing just had that unpolished “phone game” feeling that you sometimes get from indie RPGs. Hard for me to explain but I kept asking myself why i paid $40 for this instead of some of the other games on my wishlist I haven’t gotten to yet. I would recommend holding off on this one for a while. It had the bones of a great game…but it needs more time to grow/develop.

Originally Posted by Heckle
The whole thing just had that unpolished “phone game” feeling that you sometimes get from indie RPGs.

My exact thoughts. I played a little more and it failed to grip me. I think I'll go play Grim Dawn or that Warhammer 40K game. I hear it's pretty good after some patches/DLC.

https://www.pcgamer.com/wolcen-playe…-and-exploits/

Wolcen players are getting fed up with all of its game-crashing bugs, glitches, and exploits

Feels like classic mmo betatesting.