The Waylanders - Review @ Wccf Tech

Wccf Tech reviewed The Waylanders, which releases tomorrow.

The Waylanders Review – Harsh is the Life of a Celtic Warrior

Over the years, role-playing games have explored a lot of different settings ranging from the typical high-fantasy, D&D-inspired settings to sci-fi settings, but very few games have explored Celtic myths and lore. It's surprising, given that Celtic culture is extremely rich and well-suited for a video game setting, like the much more popular ancient Norse culture.

Being among the few games featuring a Celtic setting, The Waylanders definitely stands out from the competition in that regard. The fact that some of the story and gameplay mechanics are built around it could have elevated the game further if it wasn't for the shoddy execution and a severe lack of polish.

[...]

With its unique setting and interesting story mechanics powered by time-traveling, great sense of scale, and nice visuals, The Waylanders had the potential to be a remarkable role-playing game. The uneven pacing of the story, writing with wild quality shifts, the rather run-of-the-mill combat, the clunky interface, and a general lack of polish, however, make the game often frustrating to play, preventing it from reaching the heights it could have achieved.

Score: 6/10

Pros: 

• Unique Celtic setting with nicely developed lore
• Personable characters
• Interesting time-traveling story mechanics
• Nice visuals and sense of scale
• Plenty of customization options...

Cons:

• ... that can be a little difficult to take full advantage of, due to the lack of in-depth tutorials
• Clunky interface, with horrible controller support
• Unexciting combat
• General lack of polish that makes completing the simplest of actions frustrating