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

[Falksi]

Isometric = tactical

3D = action

Isometric Action = shite.

 

[Perkel]

Well i tried it yesterday.
Some of the ideas are good but i am not to hot about other.

- graphics for an arpg are fucking amazing.
- right now combat animations are great even better than Diablo3 but running itself is wonky.
- umbra/rage meter seems interesting until you find out that this essentially divides what you can do in two as you can't use umbra skills when you have rage meter full and vice versa.
- stat systems doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. On one hand you have D2 style point system you add to stats - on other hand you have passive skill tree which... also give you most of the time stat boost or very minor passive abilities.
- stat system in general seems like bloat type of Diablo3 rather that proper choice between XandY.
- camera angle is not set in place and developers design world with intention or rotating camera.. why ?
- cutscenes. lol why ? I mean there isn't much game here right now and they feel like wasting resources ?
- great idea with dodge button
- skills are found as books which imho is good thing
- many equipment parts and each is showing on character.

Didn't spend much time with it but i feel like they don't know where they are going with their stat design.
Actions feel great and impactful but their stat system seems like need serious rework to be fun.

 

[Perkel]

looks like they will be going from alpha to beta in few weeks:

 

[deama]

looks like they will be going from alpha to beta in few weeks:

The lady sounds kinda dull lol.

When you tried it, what fps did you get, how stable was it, and what's your GPU/CPU? Oh and I assume you had it on an SSD?

 

[Perkel]

SSD. Game was pretty much running perfectly and didn't have any issues with either fps or high gpu use.
Game is pretty optimized.

i5-3570k@4,5ghz + gtx980

Game is rough around edges in current alpha and this beta above definitely looks much better (in therms of gameplay jank not graphics). Like i said before this is pretty much best looking arpg right now and i think safe to say best "feeling" arpg when you hit something with standard attack. Special attacks needs some touching up and they will nail it.

As i said before my only crux for now is stat system as i don't feel it but who knows maybe it will grow on me in beta or at release.

 

[Perkel]

videogif from their site, if this will reach 1.0 it should be good game:

https://wolcengame.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Wolcen_Website_trailer_.webm

 

[Sykar]

I hope they will brush up the presentation a little with stuff like a bit of VOs for example.

 

[Perkel]

imho their biggest thing right now to fix is animation morphing.
I love the combat but when you just run, or go from one move to next it doesn't feel fluid like in video.
That is just for "now" just to feel good.

Other issue are mechanics. While i like several aspects of it like finding skills in the wild by reading books, killing monsters etc
The whole umbra/rage mechanics that allows you for use of those skills is a bit weird to understand and use.
Their passive skill wheel (tree) is also a bit too simplistic and kind of linear but that could always be fleshed out more.
Though as i understand it is not particulary important for them right now as they focus on features themselves right now to get into engine ratgher than fleshing everything out from get go.

Also i like how they are completely open about developement, they have Star Citizent style flowchart of what they are working on at the moment. what can you expect from alpha, beta, acts creation progression, which models they still need etc.

I played only a bit alpha and didn't try beta. I think a lot of above could be different in beta.

edit:

reposting for new page, their "new" vid
https://wolcengame.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Wolcen_Website_trailer_.webm

 

[luj1]

imho their biggest thing right now to fix is animation morphing.
I love the combat but when you just run, or go from one move to next it doesn't feel fluid like in video.

The vast majority of ARPGs can't nail that down (or don't seem to understand the importance of that in this genre)

This includes Grim Dawn, Path of Exile, Wolcen, Van Helsing

their animation and fluidity is very lacking

Ones who did got it right: Diablo 2 (a 2.5D game), Diablo 3, Lost Ark

 

[Perkel]

revamp of some systems

imho their biggest thing right now to fix is animation morphing.
I love the combat but when you just run, or go from one move to next it doesn't feel fluid like in video.

The vast majority of ARPGs can't nail that down (or don't seem to understand the importance of that in this genre)

This includes Grim Dawn, Path of Exile, Wolcen, Van Helsing

their animation and fluidity is very lacking

Ones who did got it right: Diablo 2 (a 2.5D game), Diablo 3, Lost Ark

Nah i don't mean attack itself which is pretty great but how it ends and begins in respect to player mvoement. It feels clunky because animation morphing doesn't seem to be present at least in version i played earlier.
The feel of hitting something with melee etc is leaps and above rest of arpgs though.

 

[Perkel]

here is their roadmap which i spoke about earlier:

https://trello.com/b/OtdXj2DH/beta-transition-roadmap-game-advancement

 

[Sykar]

 

[Sykar]

New gameplay trailer.

 

[Perkel]

Huh looks like they redid trello roadmap. It no longer shows what they are working on as for whole scale of project.
It only shows nearest beta. Probably they will release 1.0 as just 2 acts because just few months ago they were just starting to work on ACT2.

they probably are running out of money. Fucking shame.
This could be really fucking great game if they would release meaty game as 1.0.
If they will release it with just 2 acts this game will be covered in dust in no time and it will gather shitload of bad reviews.

 

[Sykar]

Well there is a 13 GB patch up today, had to pause it because my WIFI internet is garbage during daytime for DLs.

 

[Grokalibre]

Also i like how they are completely open about developement, they have Star Citizent style flowchart of what they are working on at the moment. what can you expect from alpha, beta, acts creation progression, which models they still need etc.

They have a bs flowchart like scam shittizen? That's very good!

 

[frajaq]

But is the game fun I wonder....

 

[Sykar]

But is the game fun I wonder....

For an alpha it was fun so far imho.

 

[DeepOcean]

The gameplay looks fun, actually polished Path of Exile would be pretty cool, it is a pity that even on the most optimist scenarios, even after this game reaches 1.0, there will be the endless waves of content patches (assuming they won't just give up), probably will be playable a year or more after "1.0".

 

[Sykar]

They removed character customization. I liked my glowing red eyes!
Well now there is a multiplayer, though you can switch back to single player.

 

[Perkel]

They removed character customization. I liked my glowing red eyes!
Well now there is a multiplayer, though you can switch back to single player.

Probably they are doing something with it. Makes no sense otherwise to throw out working feature.

 

[Sykar]

This game is unstable as hell. 4 crashes in under 2 hours, last one not even 5 minutes into the game during a mission.

 

[Sykar]

New beta update with Act 1 being released, now with intro and a lot of voice acting, every major dialogue pertaining tot he story is voiced so far.
Baseline of your background and the intro, you start as an orphan who was brought up by the Grand Inquisitor and you got two orphan siblings. At the start you march out in a crusade against cultists all Deus Vult style then it goes to shit for you. Music is fitting with the Deus Vult inquisitorial background and the somewhat Warhammer inspired aesthetics for armor. World itself is a mix of medieval fantasy with some kind of magical tech? Think Sacred 2 to some degree, for example there is a Lightning Cannon in a cut scene which blows a group of baddies in a cutscene.
More passives and spells have been released.

My verdict for this update:

 

[deama]

New beta update with Act 1 being released, now with intro and a lot of voice acting, every major dialogue pertaining tot he story is voiced so far. You start as an orphan brought up by the Grand Inquisitor and you got 2 orphan siblings. At the start you march out in a crusade against cultists all Deus Vult style then it goes to shit for you. Music is fitting with the Deus Vult inquisitorial background and the somewhat Warhammer inspired aesthetics for armor. World itself is a mix of medieval fantasy with some kind of magical tech? Think Sacred 2 to some degree, for example there is a Lightning Cannon in a cut scene which blows a group of baddies in a cutscene.
More passives and spells have been released.

MY verdict for this update:

How is it right now compared to something like grim dawn? Like, would you rather play through grim dawn or Wolcen again?
Also, how long is act 1?

 

[Sykar]

New beta update with Act 1 being released, now with intro and a lot of voice acting, every major dialogue pertaining tot he story is voiced so far. You start as an orphan brought up by the Grand Inquisitor and you got 2 orphan siblings. At the start you march out in a crusade against cultists all Deus Vult style then it goes to shit for you. Music is fitting with the Deus Vult inquisitorial background and the somewhat Warhammer inspired aesthetics for armor. World itself is a mix of medieval fantasy with some kind of magical tech? Think Sacred 2 to some degree, for example there is a Lightning Cannon in a cut scene which blows a group of baddies in a cutscene.
More passives and spells have been released.

MY verdict for this update:

How is it right now compared to something like grim dawn? Like, would you rather play through grim dawn or Wolcen again?
Also, how long is act 1?

Tough to say, with only one act, limited levels, passives, etc. there is no telling how it will look like. There are a lot of things I like Wolcen more though in comparison to GD. For example you are completely free to customize your character, even though you can chose one of 3 classes at the beginning that only affects your starting gear, you can still opt to go all Deus Vult paladin/sword and board warrior even if you started as a mage. Every character can learn every spell in the gamen similar to Diablo 1. Instead of wasting skill points you level through mere usage. Spells and skills are tied to certain types of weapons, but there are ways where you can use a focs and a one handed weapon for example and have a melee/mage hybrid, or you can combime a pistol with a focus and have a ranger/mage hybrid, or lastly combine sword with pistol and you can combine warrior/ranger skills.
You can find so called "Eneracts" which allow you to learn the spell or sell it if you already know the spell for knowledge point which offer an alternative to leveling spells and are a good way to bring up new spells up to par with the rest of your spells if you are wise and keep some for that purpose. Furthermore you got four attributes each giving a substantial benefit for every playstyle, unlike GD where Physique reigns supreme which really cheapens the build choice imho, something I intensely dislike to this day. Unlike early alpha were you were roaming a map the game alternates between more linear story levels and some more open maps while traveling.
The skill tree offers well over a hundred passives and is divided in two ways, you got a sort of multiple ring system where you start in the middle and each ring is divided by play style you could say. You can rotate the rings and align the different areas so you could for example start as a mage, then you notice you really like that fireball and align the mage starting era with the Ranger passives of the next ring by rotating it, going for the extra projectile passive in it. Just one of many possibilities.
My only gripe so far is that it does not seem to be possible to combine shield and magic, could be wrong there though.
I have not finished act 1 yet so I have no idea how long it is.

For now I would say I overall prefer GD but I see plenty of potential for Wolcen to exceed GD. Presentation alone and combat feel is already better imho.