WOLCEN : Lords of Mayhem (Indie ARPG)

[Morae]

Nah, I'm going to wait quite a while. At least until they reduce its price OR it shows itself to be worth it. From what we have seen, there has been nothing to justify the price.

[gushDH]

It seems nice. To be honest, though, with Path of Exile, I can't see any other ARPG being more interesting.

[Haligy]

Can anyone explain a end game ? I dont trust this game but will be nice if i get some info.

[Coldkil]

Can anyone explain a end game ? I dont trust this game but will be nice if i get some info.

In beta right now you have 2 kind of endgame activities. One is a oneshot mission where you enter a random istance, kill monsters and do objectives for a fast reward.

The other is a sort of procedurally generated dungeon much similar to D3 GR where you kill monsters until you can fight the boss. When you kill the boss, you can decide to exit the dungeon or delve deeper for better rewards. I think each 3 levels you unlock a "difficulty" when you start the dungeon, so it's not like you have to go through 30 easy levels to reach useful stuff later on. Also, you can roll modifiers on the dungeon at the start, and the more you add the more difficult it become and the better the rewards, much like PoE maps but with more control. EDIT: there's no timer in it. So you can play at your own pace - only difference is that if your build/gear is underpar you fill find levels hard to beat. However iirc there's a difficulty cap at some point.

That's basically it. However the studi has said already that there will be an endgame questline so the structure can change - right now it feels really disconnected, but more like the story ends abruptly and then you get to the two NPCs that offer the endgame activities. I'm sure that with the full story and campaign things will feel more organic.

As for the price, yes, i'm not sure the 45$ is the right point - i mean, if the game proves out to be good it's worth it, but i would say a 30$ full price would just the right spot. I'm fine with what i paid because i bought it on one of the first waves and i paid like 15$.

[Morae]

So... what kind the game actually is? Structurally that is.

Is it a corridor cleaner? The videos I have seen show map that is just series of corridors that have mob groups in them. Are there more open areas? Anything?

Sure most of arpg's have those corridor areas, but I have yet to see any video of wolcen that isnt a corridor.

[Coldkil]

So... what kind the game actually is? Structurally that is.

Is it a corridor cleaner? The videos I have seen show map that is just series of corridors that have mob groups in them. Are there more open areas? Anything?

Sure most of arpg's have those corridor areas, but I have yet to see any video of wolcen that isnt a corridor.

It's a middle ground. Standard locations are kinda wide and have secondary areas to access, so it's not strictly a corridor. Dungeons are branched aswell (at least the endgame ones) though you have to go from entrance to exit. The whole campaign works like D3 or PoE where you have interconnected maps. Some of them are more linear, some more open; never felt areas are too little though.

The game was going to be nearly open world but it got reverted later on. Don't know if it was because of client issues/strain or because the world was too dispersive. Anyway i think that smaller areas but fuller are better than large and empty ones.

EDIT: just to be clear, im not promoting the game - i am fine with EA/beta because i paid less than full price and have had my share of fun. Base looks solid and looking forward to the full product. However, i don't think the full price is worth right now, and if i didn't have the game already i would wait one month or so to see how it goes after release.

[Icoblablubb]

i'm rly struggling to like Wolcen .. i wan't something else besides PoE but the feel of combat is so damn clunky i can't get past that which is sad

[endersblade]

i'm rly struggling to like Wolcen .. i wan't something else besides PoE but the feel of combat is so damn clunky i can't get past that which is sad

Yeah, I felt that way the last time I played it. I played way back when there was like no content, but the combat was so smooth and animated nicely. Came back about 6 months ago and combat felt SO clunky and generic. Either my memory is failing me or they changed something drastic that fucked up combat.

Also, they just announced they're adding the exact copy of wardrobe transmog system as D3...it's so similar it's scary. Same layout and everything. I mean, not a bad thing, just peculiar that it's an almost 1:1 copy.

[tumppu]

I tried this right in the end of beta, as it went to offline mode only in preparation of launch.

Three bugs I ran into were:

- Just prior to the last fight of act 1, I did have no way to advance the quest and had to retrace my steps as an event did not activate.

- The "dodging gets you stuck in floor or things" -bug which seems to have been present for a while.

- Sometimes enemies (especially the bat like things) get bugged in place and are immune to aoe damage and you need to pinpoint click them to kill them. I assume that it's the same thing as with the dodging and they are essentially stuck in the ground.

Other than that, had no other issues with bugs or poor performance. My pc is far from a hardcore gaming pc and game ran fine for the ~8 hours I played.

Combat for me felt very similar to Grim Dawn, which I have played a bunch, while the perk tree is obviously influenced by PoE. All in all you get a good amount of freedom in deciding what to go for. Skill tomes drop pretty frequently and are quick to level up. Liking ranged characters, I used both pistols and a bow and the gunslinger seems to be pretty strong, especially with a perk tree full of workable traits. A combo of assassin and ranged perks would probably be pretty imba.

All in all, I expect to get a good 100 or so hours worth of gaming out of this one, depending on how the endgame shapes up.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, they just announced they're adding the exact copy of wardrobe transmog system as D3...it's so similar it's scary. Same layout and everything. I mean, not a bad thing, just peculiar that it's an almost 1:1 copy.

Actually one thing that rubbed me way wrong was that one of the mobs seems to be about a 90% copy of the Butcher from Diablo. Similar attacks with a hook and the chains, too. I guess it's inevitable, that a game where you fight demons and shit will have obvious overlaps, but that one seemed to be straight up "let's put a butcher in, but have it be a regular monster and not a boss"

[Pendulous]

Biggest bugs I've found so far in my limited time is that the minimap doesn't work, hitting tab to pop it out to the middle worked once for me. Some collision issues too, especially when clicking on destroyable environment (pots whatever). Sometimes my character would just infinitely walk into it, I guess not realizing it was close enough to attack.

[Byucknah The Red]

Personally I am not a fan of this game. I backed it when it was known as "Project Umbra" on Kickstarter because it promised to be a mix mas of Diablo meets Skyrim. Open world game play with a Diablo style feel to it and the ability to basically make your character anything you want with their dynamic skill and resource system.

Last time I played my kickstarter backer version it just came off as another mediocre dungeon crawler and missing the features I originally backed it for. In fact I brought it up on Kickstarter and got the normal fanboy responses of "Its still being developed" and such when I pointed out there were no open world aspects at the time and everything was theme park railroaded.

I have not touched it since and honestly, I have lost a lot of interest since then. I might give it another look but I personally was not impressed and that's not even going into the performance issues I found with it.

[apelsinjuice]

Yeah, I felt that way the last time I played it. I played way back when there was like no content, but the combat was so smooth and animated nicely. Came back about 6 months ago and combat felt SO clunky and generic. Either my memory is failing me or they changed something drastic that fucked up combat.

Also, they just announced they're adding the exact copy of wardrobe transmog system as D3...it's so similar it's scary. Same layout and everything. I mean, not a bad thing, just peculiar that it's an almost 1:1 copy.

Wolcen or Umbra as it was called at the start has had sooo many problems and drama during development, their kickstarter ideas and visions started out as something completely different and now the game is just a mix of copied ides from d3 and poe. Endgame is pretty much a 100% copy of d3 rifts, with the meter bar fill to the right and then you fight the boss, but they added some small ideas from poe mapping to add modifiers to the endgame as well for more rewards. passive tree is very very similar to poe. Skills with the "runes" when you pick one upgrade for each skill is copied from d3. 5 potion slots and each pot have like 100 charges(40 per use) or something like that and refill when you kill monsters exactly like in poe.

it just feels really uninspiring with zero creativity just putting together different ideas from d3 and poe

[lollerlaban]

It seems nice. To be honest, though, with Path of Exile, I can't see any other ARPG being more interesting.

Have you tried out Grim Dawn?

[Gravity2015]

Wolcen or Umbra as it was called at the start has had sooo many problems and drama during development, their kickstarter ideas and visions started out as something completely different and now the game is just a mix of copied ides from d3 and poe. Endgame is pretty much a 100% copy of d3 rifts, with the meter bar fill to the right and then you fight the boss, but they added some small ideas from poe mapping to add modifiers to the endgame as well for more rewards. passive tree is very very similar to poe. Skills with the "runes" when you pick one upgrade for each skill is copied from d3. 5 potion slots and each pot have like 100 charges(40 per use) or something like that and refill when you kill monsters exactly like in poe.

it just feels really uninspiring with zero creativity just putting together different ideas from d3 and poe

My fears as well however I have grown sooo tired of D3s sets and the GR layouts and the same paragon grind every season and now they are only re-hashing old portraits and pets that I have previously obtained, the games pretty much dead to me (as is blizzard tbh)..

PoE is a little to much for me, I get overwhelmed in making my own choices as the character will suck end game (lol yayah truth hurts), i think Wolcen skill tree is easier to follow while spinnig the outer rings to change the direction your taking is awesome. The fact you can reset skills, reset attributes and change gear for different spells and attacks is all wicked in my opinion

I worry for the end game, I don’t mind the fill the bar fight the boss and get rewards upon completion ( basically the easiest end game to understand ever ) - I have no idea what they were talking about with the other form of end game -building a town or something??

Hoping for the best !

[Dawon]

For someone that need to cater my D4 drought, is this game or Grim Dawn most "diablo:ish"?

[apelsinjuice]

For someone that need to cater my D4 drought, is this game or Grim Dawn most "diablo:ish"?

I would say Wolcen. It has a lot of "inspiration" from D3, but Grim Dawn is a very good game with a lot of expansions and content

[Cloudoo]

For someone that need to cater my D4 drought, is this game or Grim Dawn most "diablo:ish"?

I'd definitely recommend checking out Last Epoch as well, it seems really promising, granted it's in Early Access right now but the release should be sometime this year

[StillMcfuu]

I've been playing Wolcen for awhile, it's my second go to after Last Epoch.
A lot of people talk about POE in the ARPG space, but Wolcen and Epoch are more like Diablo II/Titan Quest/Grimdawn if that's what you are looking for. POE exists really as it's own game, it obviously takes inspiration from other games, but for the most part it's well far enough removed that it's not really what I think of when Diablo ii esque comes to mind.

[Dawon]

I'd definitely recommend checking out Last Epoch as well, it seems really promising, granted it's in Early Access right now but the release should be sometime this year

Oy, first look at those screens and I actually thought it WAS Diablo before I zoomed in! Will keep an eye out for it, thx!

[Falanca]

Poe owns that genre and only Diablo 4 might justify its price. The game is expensive against a free to play with a more content.