KickStarter Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - open world isometric action-RPG

[Sykar]

Oh and one big plus:

NO FUCKING QUEST MARKERS!

 

[luj1]

Good particle quality, good anims and sense of fluidity for such a small studio. I place it above GD and PoE in terms of production standard. Also, they are obviously drawn to Lost Ark as source of inspiration.

All that said, I'll take a look in another 5 years.

 

[Sykar]

Let's hope it comes out sooner.

Good particle quality, good anims and sense of fluidity for such a small studio. I place it above GD and PoE in terms of production standard. Also, they are obviously drawn to Lost Ark as source of inspiration.

All that said, I'll take a look in another 5 years.

Imho world building wise it is far closer to Warhammer. I mean the country where the story takes place is called United Republic of Mankind.

 

[jf8350143]

So for whatever stupid reason they removed the Chinese localisation.

 

[Sykar]

Steam page with story update:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/424370/announcements/detail/1655545650029396528

We wanted to share with you some story elements so you can understand the context surrounding the main character and his companions before you start the story, in order to give you keys that will improve immersion. Although the “spoilers” term is always subjective and related to an intimate perception, I’ve ensured that these elements only give you contextual information that your character already has when the game starts.

A fantasy world

Wolcen is a world of magic with some technological hints, with Enneracts at the heart of each practice.
Energy crystals are fueled with Enneracts energy to power pistols and engines in some parts of the world, while others rely on a more religious, mystical, or even scholarly approach of these artifacts.

Yet, magic is rather uncommon and often associated with witchcraft. The knowledge of the occult is even more rare: people have heard of spooky stories and yet the average person wouldn’t know what a demon is, aside from a concept to scare children.

This is due to the fact that supernatural evil forces almost always plot from the shadows, corrupting and enthralling mortals rather than using bruteforce. Only rare world crisis trigger open-roaming evil creatures like undead, monstrosities or demons.

Main characters

In Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, you, Valeria, and Edric, are the three only survivors of the slaughter of Castagath. Rescued by Grand Inquisitor Heimlock, you were drafted into the Republic’s Army of the Purifiers at a very young age to be trained in the military academy and become perfect soldiers. You also had the chance to benefit from Heimlock’s occasional advice and training. This special treatment led you and your childhood friends to be named the “Children of Heimlock”.

The United Republic of Mankind is a kingless warmongering faction that aims to conquer mankind under a single banner to “protect it” from the supernatural and witchcraft. They are at war with all their neighbours, pushing the frontiers back as much as they can. You, along with Edric and Valeria, grew in that nation and were exposed to a very strong propaganda against the use of magic, kings and worship of individuals whether it’s politicians or rulers. You were also raised in the idea that your nation is the most advanced society, and that being part of the army is bringing salvation for all mankind.

Grand Inquisitor Gerald Heimlock

Grand Inquisitor Gerald Heimlock is one of the most respected figures of the United Republic of Mankind, he leads the Army of the Purifiers against the supernatural threats. Like Valeria and Edric, you see him as a father figure and have utmost respect for him. Although your trio is called the “Children of Heimlock”, he’s never taught you anything else but survival and strength through merciless trainings, and the most valuable feeling he could express to you is pride, which he doesn’t share much to push you harder.

Heimlock’s story is notorious in the United Republic of Mankind. He is one of the many men left behind during the military debacle that was the Battle of Carrion Keep. Among the Mud Marshes nearby the enemy Kingdom of Varg, the Purifier’s army has known its most significant defeat. But he made his fame by resurfacing alone several months later in the Republic’s Senate, with the heads of the two enemy leaders as an offering.

Historians quickly praised his bravery and rewrote the battle of Carrion Keep as a victory for the United Republic of Mankind, Heimlock was then promoted as an Inquisitor. Even if to this day, there is still no obvious explanation on how he managed that extraordinary feat.

His ambition and the numerous military success following these events led Heimlock to be raised as Grand Inquisitor in record time.


Valeria

Valeria was groomed, like you and Edric, to become Justicar of the Republic, the highest rank a field soldier can achieve. She can be passionate, edgy, explosive, and she has an unorthodox thinking that tend to look rebellious.
But she places family values above all. Although you are not technically siblings, she is loyal to you, Edric, and Heimlock, and would do anything for you. Her foes, on the other hand, she treats with an irrational fury and a pinch of insanity.

You are very close to “Val”, and you’ve been through enough with her to understand that the Republican training and the horrors of war have altered her personality, giving her anger issues and a short temper, as well as a really wild and rough side that clashes with an otherwise concealed gentle heart.


Edric

You have a kind of sibling rivalry with Edric, both of you tried to make Heimlock proud through combat skills, and he always pushed you to give your best. Despite that, he’s always been the strongest, you learned it the hard way during your numerous trainings.

Edric is like a big brother to you and Val, he’s always been the most serious and rigorous of the three. Sure, he can be narrow-minded and his faithfulness to Heimlock’s words and orders can sometimes be disconcerting, but he’s always had your back and you know you can rely on him, no matter the odds.

Operation Dawnbane


The Brotherhood of Dawn has recently infiltrated the Crimson Keep, a mysterious republican fortress lost among the northern deserts known as the Red wastes. While the purpose of the attack was unclear, the republican Senate voted a retaliation act against all known locations of the Brotherhood. Led by Grand Inquisitor Heimlock himself, troops are soon deployed on the Coast of wrecks, near the city state of Stormfall, to terminate a camp of Brothers. You are, with your two childhood friends, part of operation Dawnbane under the supervision of Justicar Maëlys.

And so, it begins

After growing in this antimagic society, you are about to discover tremendous powers that could sign your death warrant. For you and those you consider family, nothing will ever be as it once was.

 

[luj1]

Story in a Diablo clone... best not bother and focus your resources elsewhere.

 

[luj1]

Imho world building wise it is far closer to Warhammer. I mean the country where the story takes place is called United Republic of Mankind.

Yeah okay. That sounds cool. But world-building doesn't matter so much here, imho... A hack & slash RPG in the vein of Diablo needs to have interesting enemies and some visual style. Other than accommodating that, story and world-building are not so important.

 

[Sykar]

Story in a Diablo clone... best not bother and focus your resources elsewhere.

Some rudimentary world building is nice for atmosphere. So long as they do not go overboard it should be fine. Diablo 1 had plenty of that via the books left behind by archbishop Lazarus and the gossip from the townspeople.

 

[luj1]

Basically what I said.

 

[deama]

Ok I gave Wolcen a go and it kinda sucks tbh. Skills are tied to what weapon you're using? What? Why? Why not just give me full access? Why do most of my stats lower when I level up? Wtf is this shit?
At least the voice acting is decent ffs.

 

[Sykar]

Ok I gave Wolcen a go and it kinda sucks tbh. Skills are tied to what weapon you're using? What? Why? Why not just give me full access? Why do most of my stats lower when I level up? Wtf is this shit?
At least the voice acting is decent ffs.

What is the problem with that? Grim Dawn also had spells which specifically require certain weapons. You can expand upon the list if you go for example focus+one handed weapon giving you access to all magic and melee skils, same goes for focus and pistol for all ranged and magic, and for melee+ranged you just take melee weapon and pistol. So your critique is at best half-assed but in reality just a petty nitpick. So how exactly does that make it shitty? Combat feels better than in most Hack&Slashs especially compared to GD, PoE and D3. Also what exactly do you mean that your "stats" get lower? Are you talking about that bar next to your attributes? That one is just an estimation between value and expected value at your level, it has no real actual value, your stats are NOT going down. This was an utterly ridiculous and retarded statement.
Regardless of combination you can learn all skills anyway.

 

[deama]

Ok I gave Wolcen a go and it kinda sucks tbh. Skills are tied to what weapon you're using? What? Why? Why not just give me full access? Why do most of my stats lower when I level up? Wtf is this shit?
At least the voice acting is decent ffs.

What is the problem with that? Grim Dawn also had spells which specifically require certain weapons. You can expand upon the list if you go for example focus+one handed weapon giving you access to all magic and melee skils, same goes for focus and pistol for all ranged and magic, and for melee+ranged you just take melee weapon and pistol. So your critique is at best half-assed but in reality just a petty nitpick. So how exactly does that make it shitty? Combat feels better than in most Hack&Slashs especially compared to GD, PoE and D3. Also what exactly do you mean that your "stats" get lower? Are you talking about that bar next to your attributes? That one is just an estimation between value and expected value at your level, it has no real actual value, your stats are NOT going down. This was an utterly ridiculous and retarded statement.
Regardless of combination you can learn all skills anyway.

I wanted to play a 2 hander that used lightning magic and could portal leap, can't really do that, but in grim dawn I could (if there was a class that had a portal leap).

E.g. if you increase agility to 10 and it gives you +5% attack speed (if you hover over the attack speed score), then if you level up and look at your attack speed score again it will say +3.5% attack speed, after investing 4-6 points into agility again attack speed will go back to +5%, I find this system really retarded. At first I thought it could be mitigated by just getting lots of +% increases to attack speed score from passive skill tree, but after getting like +60% to attack speed score, it seemed fine now, I could keep up with the degrade per level, but after level 9, the degrading increased and I couldn't keep up with it anymore? Wtf lol.

I think I might be able to fix the attribute degrading shit via cheat engine, but trying to figure out the retarded fomular the devs used is gonna take a while ffs. Maybe I'll just make it so you get 10+level attributes a level or something like that.

 

[Sykar]

So you use a one handed sword and a focus. Hardly anything major.
You get +1 attribute point every level up and 10 points to distribute every level. Increasing my Ferocity only a couple of points from 1 to 8 raised my critical chance from 2% to 5%, and I barely put more than one point into it per level up, so I am not sure if you are even correct on that issue.
Neither of those two issues make the game shit though.

 

[deama]

So you use a one handed sword and a focus. Hardly anything major.
You get +1 attribute point every level up and 10 points to distribute every level. Increasing my Ferocity only a couple of points from 1 to 8 raised my critical chance from 2% to 5%, and I barely put more than one point into it per level up, so I am not sure if you are even correct on that issue.
Neither of those two issues make the game shit though.

Look at the images below.
First one is me at lvl 8 with 32.3% attack speed.
Second is me at lvl 9 with 10 attributes to spend and my attack speed has been lowered to 29.9%.
Third image is me at lvl 9 with all my points invested into agility and I don't even have the same attack speed as I started with at lvl 8.

Spoiler

For my passives I have about +60% to my attack speed score. Back 3-4 levels ago (when I got those passives) putting all my points into agility increased my attack speed from previous level, but now it's not even enough to maintain it.

It's the same crap for all the other stats, the only ones that don't work like this are health and health regen.

 

[Sykar]

So you use a one handed sword and a focus. Hardly anything major.
You get +1 attribute point every level up and 10 points to distribute every level. Increasing my Ferocity only a couple of points from 1 to 8 raised my critical chance from 2% to 5%, and I barely put more than one point into it per level up, so I am not sure if you are even correct on that issue.
Neither of those two issues make the game shit though.

Look at the images below.
First one is me at lvl 8 with 32.3% attack speed.
Second is me at lvl 9 with 10 attributes to spend and my attack speed has been lowered to 29.9%.
Third image is me at lvl 9 with all my points invested into agility and I don't even have the same attack speed as I started with at lvl 8.

Spoiler

For my passives I have about +60% to my attack speed score. Back 3-4 levels ago (when I got those passives) putting all my points into agility increased my attack speed from previous level, but now it's not even enough to maintain it.

It's the same crap for all the other stats, the only ones that don't work like this are health and health regen.

So what? D2 had the same for AR and block chance. Big whoop.

 

[deama]

So you use a one handed sword and a focus. Hardly anything major.
You get +1 attribute point every level up and 10 points to distribute every level. Increasing my Ferocity only a couple of points from 1 to 8 raised my critical chance from 2% to 5%, and I barely put more than one point into it per level up, so I am not sure if you are even correct on that issue.
Neither of those two issues make the game shit though.

Look at the images below.
First one is me at lvl 8 with 32.3% attack speed.
Second is me at lvl 9 with 10 attributes to spend and my attack speed has been lowered to 29.9%.
Third image is me at lvl 9 with all my points invested into agility and I don't even have the same attack speed as I started with at lvl 8.

Spoiler

For my passives I have about +60% to my attack speed score. Back 3-4 levels ago (when I got those passives) putting all my points into agility increased my attack speed from previous level, but now it's not even enough to maintain it.

It's the same crap for all the other stats, the only ones that don't work like this are health and health regen.

So what? D2 had the same for AR and block chance. Big whoop.

Lol, that explains why I don't like diablo.

I guess I'll skip this one and use my autism skills to fix it when it gets released.

 

[deama]

Wow, this is so sad, the devs apparentely added some anti-cheat system into the game so it blocks memory editing tools like cheat engine.
Good thing they didn't block good old savegame editing.

 

[Sykar]

Man this game is such a D3 rip off. Replayed act 1 again and more importantly finished it. As it turns out you are the special one (Nephalem anyone?) who has awakend specul powahs. You need those to defeat the three Fallen Primevals, it couldn't be more in your face D3 Prime Evils rip off if you tried. Unlike D3 at least this one has an offline mode.

 

[Norfleet]

So for whatever stupid reason they removed the Chinese localisation.

Welp, there goes their steam rating.

 

[Zombra]

Disgusting! x 1

 

[Tito Anic]

D3

 

[Sykar]

So finally played act 1 as a melee two handed dude. Man melee really looks and plays great in this game. That basic long range dash slash every melee has is nifty to get into combat. You can have like 3 movement skills, a jump, a shield dash and the basic dash slash all on low CDs so you can dart all day long over the battle field. All two handed weapons have inherent basic attack AoE in a I think 90 degree arc in front of you. Bladestorm is fun because you can only use it on a line from point A to point B. Using it via clicking behind a big enemy lets you curve into his back. This is one of a few Hack&Slash games where I enjoyed melee combat.

 

[DeepOcean]

This game looks like a rip off of Diablo III (and on many ways it is) but, on combat, there is some level of player skill requirement that is just pretty much irrelevant on most ARPGs that are just 100% focused on build theoricrafting with you eventually being immortal face tanking bosses. Dunno if, on the long term, the game will devolve into that but an ARPG with actually some action is a good thing.

 

[Matador]

I have seen this on top 10 steam sellers. Is it worth?

 

[DeepOcean]

I have seen this on top 10 steam sellers. Is it worth?

I recommend for you to wait for the launch and wait for the first impressions to see if they gonna add considerable content to it, there is only act 1 on the early access and we really don't know if the other two acts promised have the same content of act 1 or are shorter. The combat in the game seems to be fun but it seems lacking in content, it is better to wait and see if the release will fix that.