Considering that Wayfinder is a collaboration between Airship Syndicat, who’ve made excellent games like Ruined King and Darksiders Genesis, and Digital Extremes, the powerhouse behind Warframe. It’s fair to say that there are probably a lot of people excited to see what the two companies can do together.
From a personal perspective, I’m just keen to see what a more fantasy-focused online RPG looks like in the long term. We see a lot of shooters and sci-fi games in this space, like Destiny or Warframe itself, and far fewer high-fantasy affairs that aren’t just outright MMOs. I’ve had a fair bit of time with the current closed beta, and I have to say that I’m really enjoying it so far.
Through the Wayfinder beta, three characters have been available to try out – more will be featured in the final game. There’s a tank, a ranged shooty dude, and the rogue Niss, the character I played with. Each character can actually use any weapon in the game, so if you wanted to play Niss with a big old sword instead of her preferred dual daggers, you can. You will usually get better results using their preferred class of weapons though, and playing to her strengths as a free-moving blender is always fun.
Combat has you making use of normal attacks, heavy attacks, special abilities, and weapon abilities augmenting all of that. You generally gain something new on every level up or so, and what’s interesting here is that it’s not just your character that levels up, but your weapons as well.
As both level up, you can slot in cores that alter different passives, or even unlock new abilities entirely. You can earn cores from enemies you defeat, and both normal enemies and bosses have their own ones to try and find. It’s worth doing too, because the power boost is great. The boss cores are especially entertaining as they allow you to gain new abilities, like generating a massive shockwave when you do a heavy jumping attack.
Aside from following quests through the semi-open world, you’ll mostly be dungeon-crawling through The Gloom. The Gloom is the main threat in the world of Wayfinder, an unambiguously bad thing that spawns monsters and creates unique realities as it goes. Dungeons contain different monsters, mini-bosses, chests, and some unique events to stumble across too. You’ll also be rated on your performance at the end of them, and both doing well in combat and exploring and completing events will result in better loot at the end of the process.
The combat of Wayfinders is generally very enjoyable. I had a lot of fun mixing skills in with my basic and heavy attacks, and knowing that weapons can change things up if you get bored is fun. However, this is definitely a game that feels better in multiplayer. Having multiple damage types makes things a lot easier, and given how squishy characters like Niss are, being able to have a dedicated tank who can draw aggro is essential. It plays a lot like a traditional MMO, but with a more focused setting.
My only criticism of the game so far is that some attacks can feel a bit weightless. It’s not the end of the world, but there’s a disconnect when you’re smacking some enemies as they don’t really react, and it makes the combat feel a little bit less involved. It’s not consistently an issue, but is worth mentioning.
I’m also a little bit worried about trying to fit another long-term game into my life. I, much like many other people, play a fair few daily games, and the idea of adding another one to the list is daunting. It essentially means that Wayfinder would likely have to replace one of my current daily games, and while that’s not impossible to do, it is a big hurdle that the game will have to overcome to appeal to a lot of people.
Thankfully, I do think there’s enough here, and it’s different enough thanks to its setting and more character-forward approach, that it stands out. It’ll be interesting to see how the game slots into a daily gaming rotation, and also what the evolution of it looks like as seasons develop. I’m excited for it though, and that’s always a good sign.
