WOLCEN : Lords of Mayhem (Indie ARPG)

[kail]

I just found this when looking through GOG store, never heard of the game before but looks like an interesting addition to the ARPG genre.



Might actually try the early access later in development. ATM it's still very early.

[Coldkil]

Looks nice. Will still wait for release and reviews from people playing - while the graphics and spell effects seem really good, what i want to know are details about character building and gameplay.

EDIT: lots of buzzwords arunning around, and "diablo 2" appears too often for my taste. I don't want the ARPG genre to become another "let's do our mmo cloning wow but better" situation.

[Vespian]

I've bought the current Alpha version and that's really what it is, mostly Alpha, with bugs in the interface (lots of them in fact), but it has some nice gameplay elements.

[lawow74]

So it's got offline singleplayer? If so, I'll keep my eye on it.

[Coldkil]

So it's got offline singleplayer? If so, I'll keep my eye on it.

Seems so. Open world with randomized dungeons, multiplayer (both co-op and pvp) is still a streatch goal.

I've read a little the forum, website and the Steam reviews. The character building looks rad with the Apocalypse form thing and a spells/skill setup that looks very similar to PoE, plus the books you find in the world - i love the fact that your skills grow with you actually using them.

What i don't like is that Apocalypse form looks tied to pretty static prerequisites and you choose between 3 to make a form, plus it looks like the big CD while imho it would just eb better to be it permanently active, otherwise most of the time you won't even see it if i got it right.

Anyway, alpha. Still a long road ahead.

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I've bought the current Alpha version and that's really what it is, mostly Alpha, with bugs in the interface (lots of them in fact), but it has some nice gameplay elements.

Side note: how in the hell you play all the games i play.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

I can never say no to more ARPGs and one could argue that we're in another golden age for the genre. On top of this title, I'd like to know more about Lineage Eternal which seems to be in near-development hell.

[Vespian]

Side note: how in the hell you play all the games i play.

I dunno, I get suckered into buying games all the time xD

[kail]

I dunno, I get suckered into buying games all the time xD

Well can't say I don't appreciate the early adopters. I've had decent experience with early access via Steam (Darkest Dungeon & Prison Architect), but have seen too many instances where development seems to hit an extended hiatus stage and the game ends up forgotten.

[Cyclone Jack]

It is very early in development, but the foundation seems well enough. They've been god at updating the game as well, fixing most of the stability issues (that I've seen) and fixing up some of the UI to where it actually has icons. The overall UI is very, very basic, and I expect it to go through a number of iterations, but it does what it needs to do for now. Gameplay is decent, but collision boxes seem a bit too large at the moment, making it a bit too easy to get caught on an enemy when trying to run past them. However, I'm a sucker for ARPGs, so I had to get in on the ground floor (did the same with Path of Exile and Grim Dawn, and those were fun to watch grow from alpha to release).

[Coldkil]

Ok, i dug this thread from the sands of time.

For anyone still interested, game is going into beta phase this week. As per the Alpha experience, everything went quite well with great improvements over time.

Still bummed about no apocalyptic form yet, but the team wants it to be an organic part of the gameplay and not just an "ultimate" button to press on cd. There won't be story content in beta as to not spoiler stuff out to people but the zones and all mercenary quests will be available to play.

Passive skill tree has been simplified getting rid of the uninteresting nodes and making choices more meaningful. Active skills system has changed too in a way that's halfway between PoE and D3 - you drop tomes that make you learn the skill and it levels up by using it; leveling up a skill nets you points that can be spent on skill runes also unlocked by leveling. Different runes have differen point costs but you can freely respec anytime so you're not going to save all point for later on and use a gimped down version till the level of interest; plus all runes are available once unlocked so it's completely up to the players what combo to take.

All in all, i'm having fun. Cannot wait for Beta release and test the new systems. Maybe worth waiting and for sure it's taking a long time, but support isn't dwindling and the team is focused on the project.

Hopefully the final product delivers.

[Dread13]

I just bought the game and tried out the alpha version (which dates of april of 2018!) and it already looks neat and really promising. I can't wait to test the beta version with that amount of improvements and upgrades, it does seem like the new ARPG we all have ben waiting!

[ParanoiD84]

There is also Last Epoch, looks pretty nice.

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Im gonna try both as im a sucker for arpg's, grim dawn is the favorite atm but trying to get into poe on the ps4 that released this evening, looks good just abit shit with the flask button mapping on the controller and trading seems abit shit to.

[SirBeef]

Ok, i dug this thread from the sands of time.

For anyone still interested, game is going into beta phase this week. As per the Alpha experience, everything went quite well with great improvements over time.

Still bummed about no apocalyptic form yet, but the team wants it to be an organic part of the gameplay and not just an "ultimate" button to press on cd. There won't be story content in beta as to not spoiler stuff out to people but the zones and all mercenary quests will be available to play.

Passive skill tree has been simplified getting rid of the uninteresting nodes and making choices more meaningful. Active skills system has changed too in a way that's halfway between PoE and D3 - you drop tomes that make you learn the skill and it levels up by using it; leveling up a skill nets you points that can be spent on skill runes also unlocked by leveling. Different runes have differen point costs but you can freely respec anytime so you're not going to save all point for later on and use a gimped down version till the level of interest; plus all runes are available once unlocked so it's completely up to the players what combo to take.

All in all, i'm having fun. Cannot wait for Beta release and test the new systems. Maybe worth waiting and for sure it's taking a long time, but support isn't dwindling and the team is focused on the project.

Hopefully the final product delivers.

How much has changed in the last 6 months? I tried a demo of it a while back and found it was boring as fuck.

[Coldkil]

How much has changed in the last 6 months? I tried a demo of it a while back and found it was boring as fuck.

A while back can mean a lot of things - alpha went down multiple iterations with a little story first, then infinite dungeon, lately with arena/coliseum subquest and mercenary quests.

It's still "barebone", meaning the systems are there but devs are willingly keeping stuff hidden, especially campaign. Playstyle/animations went through multiple improvements aswell, and everything looks fine to me.

Granted, it's a classic ARPG hack'n'slash so the formula is nothing new. So i can get why you found it boring. Worth keeping an eye on imho, not necessarily buying it now - i did it just because i had 20$ back ago and just went with it, without expecting much.

EDIT: if you have any means, try the beta. Worst case scenario it's still boring and you won't play it.

[kail]

Hopefully the final product delivers.

That's pretty much all I ask. Grim Dawn, Chromicon, and POE fill my ARPG fix. First two are pretty much "beaten" so there's just PoE with the endless endgame.

[SirBeef]

A while back can mean a lot of things - alpha went down multiple iterations with a little story first, then infinite dungeon, lately with arena/coliseum subquest and mercenary quests.

It's still "barebone", meaning the systems are there but devs are willingly keeping stuff hidden, especially campaign. Playstyle/animations went through multiple improvements aswell, and everything looks fine to me.

Granted, it's a classic ARPG hack'n'slash so the formula is nothing new. So i can get why you found it boring. Worth keeping an eye on imho, not necessarily buying it now - i did it just because i had 20$ back ago and just went with it, without expecting much.

EDIT: if you have any means, try the beta. Worst case scenario it's still boring and you won't play it.

I have to correct my statement, I got Wolcen confuse for Last Epoch. No I liked what I have seen of Wolcen so far.

[Coldkil]

Beta release confirmed for today! Wasn't available for download this early morning but it's supposedly coming by this evening.

Cannot wait to jump deep into it.

For people interested enough here's the full patch notes. WARNING: long read and lots of stuff has summed up really briefly (the premise is "beta is a different game").

https://steamcommunity.com/games/424...15744819412089

[Cyclone Jack]

While its been a while since I last played, the game seems to be in much better condition. You can tell that it has progressed from Alpha to Beta. It feels better, and the 4 missions I ran were fun. A little bummed that they removed the choice between two upgrade per skill, but that just may be them doing some more balancing. There were a few things that bugged me, like the Butcher's "dash stun" that looks like its missing some animations, and I'll need to tweak my button set up a bit.

[Coldkil]

While its been a while since I last played, the game seems to be in much better condition. You can tell that it has progressed from Alpha to Beta. It feels better, and the 4 missions I ran were fun. A little bummed that they removed the choice between two upgrade per skill, but that just may be them doing some more balancing. There were a few things that bugged me, like the Butcher's "dash stun" that looks like its missing some animations, and I'll need to tweak my button set up a bit.

Yeah, definitely agree. Anyway i like much more the new skill system - now we're a bit limited so the amount of choices is low, but keep in mind final release will have like 10 or 20 runes to choose per skill, which opens up a lot more combinations (plus you get multiple runes active per skill).

for anyone interested, here's a beta trailer video.

[deepr]

Looks quite nice.
I've been looking for an alternative to D3 / Grim Dawn / PoE.

Another upcoming game in this genre is Warhammer: Chaosbane.