RPGWatch Feature - Wolcen Preview

Myrthos

Myrthos

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Aubrielle takes an early look at Wolcen, the good looking ARPG made in CryEngine.

On the surface, Wolcen may not look much different than a lot of favorite Diablo-like ARPGs. It includes fast-paced action combat, loot, intricate skill trees, and unlockable portals to take you quickly from one zone to another. But it differs in a few key ways. For one thing, CryEngine technology allows for beautiful weather and atmospheric effects never before seen in a game this style. Rain-slicked streets and puddle-ridden dirt roads glimmer with the light of sunrises or guttering torches. Forests come alive with realistic trees and undergrowth, and are made gloomy by low-lying fog or sullen, miserable rain. Even from an isometric view, it's absolutely clear what the sky looks like, even if you can't see it directly. CryEngine allows a developer to easily render realistic atmosphere in their RPGs, doing far more to immerse the player than the less sophisticated environments used in many recent ARPG titles.
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More information.
 
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Thanks Aubrielle for checking this out.
 
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I didn't kickstart this, but what I've seen has made me more and more optimistic, so thanks for the article. By the way, do you know if this can be played offline? The online only feature of Path of Exile will prevent me from ever replaying it.
 
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Thanks for the preview Aubrielle. I heard about this game but it wasn't on my radar but it seems interesting based on your preview. Adding to steam wish list :)
 
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forgottenlor said:
I didn't kickstart this, but what I've seen has made me more and more optimistic, so thanks for the article. By the way, do you know if this can be played offline? The online only feature of Path of Exile will prevent me from ever replaying it.
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Yeah, it can be played offline. :) Wolcen is only single-player right now, and I'm honestly not sure if a multiplayer mode is planned. I agree with what you said about Path of Exile…the MMO setup makes it awkward for single-player gamers, and I haven't really gone back to it after playing it a few hours. :-/
 
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You spent so much time comparing it with Grim Dawn and then failed to mention Grim Dawn even during EA was always a polished bugless game. It only lacked more Acts.

From all I seen and read about Wolcen, it is nothing like Grim Dawn. It lacks both content, bugless experience and polish.
 
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Archangel: Well, every game is different, and in the end, it's not fair to judge a game with finality until it's officially released.

Even when Wolcen does release, it'll still be a question of individual tastes, I think. Each game offers a different experience for different types of players.
 
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Archangel said:
You spent so much time comparing it with Grim Dawn and then failed to mention Grim Dawn even during EA was always a polished bugless game. It only lacked more Acts.

From all I seen and read about Wolcen, it is nothing like Grim Dawn. It lacks both content, bugless experience and polish.
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The article makes the state of the game perfectly clear.

Right now, the game is barely playable; the characters have placeholder portraits (that aren't really very good, in my opinion), a lot of the sound and assets aren't in place yet, you only have access to the first area and a few quests, and there's still lots of bugs.
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It doesn't seem that relevant to me to point out that another game was less buggy during some stage of development.
 
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i'm a fan of the genre since D1 (i wish i was younger) i kept an eye on this one since it was named "umbra" and i decided to wait to see something more before buying it.

They working a lot on housing, character creation and i don't mind the "cool" visuals either but what amuses me in this kind of games is freedom in building your character, balanced skills, good itemization (this is were many games of this kind fail) and more layer of customization (think about GD skills+components+augments+devotions etc..).

For what i can see it is moving its first steps i hope for the best cause it would mean i will have another title to waste my time on.
 
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Ripper said:
The article makes the state of the game perfectly clear.



It doesn't seem that relevant to me to point out that another game was less buggy during some stage of development.
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And this contradicts it:
Will it be as solid and rich as Grim Dawn? It very well could be, and Wolcen offers a whole lot of promise. If the game's current state is anything to go on, the final product could be a truly excellent ARPG, and possibly one of my absolute favorites.
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As I said, Grim Dawn had release level polish during all of its EA.
So judging Wolcen by its current state, only conclusion is that it cannot be as solid or as rich as Grim Dawn.
 
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Archangel said:
So judging Wolcen by its current state, only conclusion is that it cannot be as solid or as rich as Grim Dawn.
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That would be faulty conclusion. Firstly because the state of a game in early development clearly does not mean it cannot reach a better state later. But, more importantly, the condition of two games in Early Access cannot be usefully compared, because EA is continuum, not a clearly defined state. It encompasses everything from barely functional tech demos to virtually complete full games.

It's like grabbing the code from two games in a random state of development, and saying that the less polished and complete of the two at that point cannot reach the quality of the other.
 
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Ripper said:
That would be faulty conclusion. Firstly because the state of a game in early development clearly does not mean it cannot reach a better state later. But, more importantly, the condition of two games in Early Access cannot be usefully compared, because EA is continuum, not a clearly defined state. It encompasses everything from barely functional tech demos to virtually complete full games.

It's like grabbing the code from two games in a random state of development, and saying that the less polished and complete of the two at that point cannot reach the quality of the other.
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Yes it can be compared. Show me how many indie games that went through EA ended up as successful as Grim Dawn?
You can count them on one finger.
Grim Dawn is used as a shiny example of EA success story by many.

Wolcen has shown nothing close to that so far.
 
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Thanks Aubrielle!
Wolcen is on my wishlist for some time on Steam & GOG. And will stay that way,since it is a long way until it's finished.
Definitely looks good(thanks to CryEngine) and hope it will have good and deep gameplay as well as a final product.
 
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Archangel said:
Yes it can be compared. Show me how many indie games that went through EA ended up as successful as Grim Dawn?
You can count them on one finger.
Grim Dawn is used as a shiny example of EA success story by many.

Wolcen has shown nothing close to that so far.
Click to expand...

But the argument still doesn't add up. You can say that Grim Dawn was in good shape when it entered EA, and went on to become a good game. But to extend that to conclude that a game in a more raw state in EA cannot therefore reach the same level as Grim Dawn doesn't logically follow.
 
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I backed this one and almost every time I fire up steam I see an update hit for this game, so I'm just waiting till it actually seems done to poke my head into it.
 
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Skilltree resembles too much to Grim Dawn's starsign-devotion system and it seems almost a straight copy. Also Grim Dawn has fantastic artwork and world-champion level content. Wolcen seems to be a colorless, art-directionless PBR-dilated boring grey sea of Where-is-The-Fun?
 
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I think my article is perfectly consistent. Every game has a different experience in early access…every game is built differently by different teams…every game tries to do something a little different. I personally think Grim Dawn is ugly and unpolished visually but works well mechanically…like some kind of old rusty German car that runs smoothly and runs forever but is all rusted and ugly on the outside. But that's my opinion…I'd never say it as fact. Archangel isn't omniscient, and he's not from the future…there's no way to know if Wolcen will be in excellent condition upon release until release day comes. But I think it will.

mercy said:
Also Grim Dawn has fantastic artwork...Wolcen seems to be a colorless, art-directionless PBR-dilated boring grey sea of Where-is-The-Fun?
Click to expand...

k
 
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Sorry but this is just a BS statement

Will it be as solid and rich as Grim Dawn? It very well could be, and Wolcen offers a whole lot of promise. If the game's current state is anything to go on, the final product could be a truly excellent ARPG, and possibly one of my absolute favorites.

the game current state is pre-alpha empty shell… placeholders are everywhere … what shows promise in that?
 
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