It’s worth noting that the pivot to single player/co-op was something of a Hail Mary for Airship Syndicate. Not only was Digital Extremes publishing the game; they were meant to handle the online infrastructure of the game. Bowing out of their publishing agreement (and closing their publishing arm entirely) left AS twisting in the wind. Given those circumstances, I think it’s incredible what they were able to pull off.
Airship missed their announced beta multiple times, and i feel like DE forced their hand to either sink or swim. They sank, the netcode couldn't support greater than 5k players, that was confirmed after over 250k players tried to play early access. This is after they took, in some cases over 100 USD from players. We wouldn't be seeing the loss of publisher if there was not a ton going on behind the scenes already (remember DE had to consider the terrible PR against the financial decision) and then a fundamental rework of the game. It is really a shame as the art work and guts of the game are great and we could really use more lobby based pve games.
@@ericconrad8854 Thats just wrong Warframe developer Digital Extremes has laid off staff and has closed its publishing division. they literally just shut their publishing division that was nail for airship. why would they continute to fund a game when they know that they are shutting down. airship could have been flawless and still would have lost DE.
@@LemonSoulz What games were they publishing other than Wayfinder? None that i can find. If the cut Wayfinder they don't need the employees that were embedded with Airship. There is no way the game could have been "flawless" and they would have still lost money by dropping it. Airship shit the bed hard, DE said. "no more".
Games such as warfarme, or even genshin impact can easily be turned into Single players Offline. Those games as they are now force you to communicate with DE servers to play, but if you switch to Single player in warframe, anytime you are on a mission if you press ESC this will pause the game VS if you play with people the ESC won’t pause the game. It shows the capability to be offline is there. Nothing different to this game. They just cut the link to be an “MMO”
I'm glad the developers were able to turn things around, after having such a rough initial launch and losing their publisher. And the game is better for it, the pacing of progression is MUCH better than it was before and actually earning stuff through gameplay is always better than having to buy it with microtransactions.
Glad you covered this game. It's a good value indeed! I really enjoyed the art style. Slightly bummed you didn't mention the housing system. There are items in the housing system that spawn keys and give passive buffs.
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. No idea why game directors keep doing that, and it frustrates me to no end. 🤣🤣 Usually, it is a rounded up value that we usually can't see anywhere on the UI. A game that does that part well is Outriders. That game gives you the same generic value, like Armor 8500. But will also give you damage percentage right below, saying something like 55% Damage Resistance. And then as your character goes up a level, and your Armor is still at 8500, the Damage Resistance would go from 55% down to 50% or so, telling you it's time to bump up the Armor value. So most of those games (The Division, Cyberpunk etc.) work like that, and the UI just doesn't say it.
This was a main gripe in early access for Wayfinder. They kept the numbers, but you can hover over the number to see how much crit % an 800 crit rating is. The reason the numbers are used in game design rather than a % is because most games with leveling or progression systems (like MMOs) use sliding scales based on character level. At low levels, Crit Rating of 200 may be super high and be like 60% crit chance, but as you level up and the stats on items get bigger, if you only kept that 200 Crit Rating it may only equal out to a 15% crit. This is done to keep the gear grind going. If items only offered a flat % that never adjusted on a level curve, you can build for Crit in the early game, hit 75% and as long as you never changed gear, you would always be at 75% crit. This can pigeonhole a character build or force low level gear to have VERY low %.
It's pretty much, number go up=good. Thing is in MMOs they do that so they can change the values on the back-end and people don't complain about buffs and nerfs. It's on purpose.
@@dgeata Yeah, exactly. Josh Sawyer made a video on that exact topic few years ago. About armor numbers and damage mitigation type like DT/DP (damage threshold VS damage percentage). To me, UnderRail does a great job with armors because it uses both DT and DP, depending on which blocks the most damage during a hit. So if an attack cannot penetrate, you will receive 0 damage, which is so cool.
if you mouse over the rating in the character window it will say what the percentage is, but ya rating numbers in games are pretty meaningless when a percentage is the only way to comprehend it.
The original publisher of this game was Digital Extremes, the developer of Warframe. I find it interesting how much of Warframe I can see in the gameplay you're showing. Like the way you have 3 starter characters and then several extra unlocks. Or how the playable characters have a max rank of 30 and your account level has a max rank of 30. Or the way the UI looks for visual customization and weapon selection. Maybe there are similarities in map generation, but that's too hard to judge from the video. I am extremely surprised about how the game shifted into a single player action RPG. I always assumed it was just gonna be fantasy Warframe and never bothered to check it again.
Digital Extremes dropped them as publisher and I think Airship Syndicate didn't see any way to they could continue to support the live service on their own. It's pretty lucky honestly and I think a very good look for them as a company that they decided to put in the work to make a playable game for everyone rather than just let it die like almost every other failed live service. I bought a founders pack and played for a while at launch. I wasn't as big a fan as I hoped I would be (even after the offline relaunch) but much respect to Airship Syndicate for what they did under the circumstances.
Yeah, the thousand different progression systems also gave me a very Warframe vibe as well. It's one of the reasons I stopped playing Warframe... It became exhausting to keep up with all the new systems they kept adding.
@@rsawyer757 I don't blame DE. They were losing money on Wayfinder with how little interest and play it got. They're already spending big on Soulframe's development and can't afford to lose money at this point. Wayfinder should have been a single player game from the get go.
After having played both, this is really not just an impression,this game is top to bottom Warframe, even by having a main wise woman with a dark past that give you orders. One conclusion that I got, thankfully to this game, is how Warframe makes you waste time...
@@Manuelomar2001 Well the DE CEO stepped down and the former Warframe director became CEO in October and in November they closed their publishing division in a pivot to interally developed projects. AS got the shaft and it's shitty but that kind of thing happens. I can't blame DE for wanting to focus on their own games. Wayfinder also had HUGE issues at launch which seemed to kill what interest there was in the first place. IIRC there were like 10k simultaneous at launch and queues were in the hours (I was in them and it REALLY sucked) and by the time they got the queues down it was hard to tell if it was because they genuinely fixed it or because there was just nobody left. Hard to say if better player retention would've put them in a better position to be self-sufficient once DE dropped them but I doubt it. I agree, especially given AS's previous games, it should've been a single-player experience. Maybe with some co-op sprinkled in. Regardless of those massive fuckups at launch though, I still give them props for turning it into a full game instead of just dropping support. edit: looking at steam charts it was over 20k at launch.
For Kyros - Big ability damage, talents set up to be able to spam abilities, rank 3 claw attack - All adds up to massive damage and healing half your health with every swipe
@@azyrael96 Yeah for me that actually shows that most of these systems are just needlessly convoluted and not actually fun. They are just there to make money in F2P and loose their purpose once that aspect is removed. I played the game and the gameplay was fun but the upgrade system and all of this stuff while it did not necessarily feel bad since you dont struggle thta much for the ressources ... it still felt like all of this was pointless fluff. Ideally once they decided to switch they should have just ripped all of that out but of course that would require a more deep redesign. I think overall it is "fine" but the game could have been a lot better and streamlined if it had not been developed for F2P first.
don't know if enyone noticed, but it looks a lot like darksiders- the animations, graphic style, some mechanics, weapons and models edit: yeah, thats the studio that created darksiders
I've had an absolute blast with Wayfinder, and I'm thankful Airship Syndicate decided to spin it into an Action RPG instead of killing the whole thing off outright. I love that the character archetypes are NOT restricted to specific weapons and you can build them in crazy ways (like a healing shotgun blasting Wingrave). That said, Senja is completely broken if you build her for Weapon Atack and buff her Crowd's Favor ability when available. Pop the buff and swing at an enemy: 100k-200k+ swings of just the regular greatsword. This also applies to the Windmother's flurry of slashes so after getting through your regular combo, pop the weapon ability to drop another 6-7 swings at 200k. It results in you skipping entire phases on Endgame bosses like Hollowlord Vendraal, Yuletide Queen, AS-713, etc... I've been a fan of them since Battlechasers Nightwar and hopefully this keeps them afloat a little while longer
Yeah, considering how fun the game is I think they've stumbled into gold here as an single player, Action RPG with some tacked on multiplayer. The art is great, the character kits are fun, I loved the way mutators work in this.
Aside from being a great game the journey the devs went through is reason enough for me to want to support them. This is how you turn an (Air)ship around.
I just bought it on PSN on sale, looking forward on playing it , I bought it based off the development history alone, they really deserve to be successful after what they went through
I did the same thing just after Christmas and I have found the gameplay to definitely be the strongest part of the game. Glad I got it and trying to decide if I want to get the supporter pack just to throw more money at them.
I really have fun with this game. Enjoyable combat and while not amazing story, the price was more than worth it. Really enjoyed Senja and Venomess as well. The fact they made this MMO a single player/co-op game is commendable in a time period games are just shut down and forever gone. While we will not get any expansion or updates, maybe if it does well, maybe we can get a more polished sequel. Especially since I really enjoy the look and setting of the world overall.
This game looks fun! Like a nice, mindless palate cleanser in between heavier story driven games I usually play. And I think for only $15 I'll give this a shot
This game has a housing system which is amazing to see in a non-grindy (drip feed MMO) context. If you like decorating rooms make sure you find a video that covers housing in depth.
Really happy you played and now are showcasing the game with this review, after single player offline I got the game, happy to see devs support their game.
This is a deep, worthwhile, and quality review, Mortismal! I like a lot of the points you make - especially what you're getting for the money. Lots! This is one of those games I can turn most of my brain off and enjoy. Venomess is my current favorite (although I haven't tried anyone else yet except Silo and he's fun too). I think a lot of love went into Wayfinder! =) Hope you're having a great one! =)
Really really enjoyed the game. I dont think i wouldve enjoyed it as much as the mmo version. Havent fully finished the game yet, havent touched nightmare. But already its been worth the money ive paid for it. Got like 60 hours and ive been really enjoying it already.
I genuinely love this game. At one point I ran into a main quest progression-blocking bug in the final-added / most recent zone, that I couldn't find any workarounds for, and wasn't addressed or fixed in the recent patches either, so I kind of just dropped it for now because I'm really disheartened at potentially having to abandon that original save I was so emotionally-invested in and spent so much time powering up. Amazing game for all the time I played it though, I did a bit of everything that I had access to, even the highest-difficulty (at the time) Mythic Hunts.
I played this game august last year and I honestly was so surprised with the game and I think it’s absolutely worth the price considering all things ( IMO ). No micro transactions or anything. Just a game start to finish.
Woof, Wildstar is not a name I've heard for MANY years. But you're right, KoA vibes here super strong and the humor of Wildstar certainly comes through. I still have that Church theme on rotation this many years later.
I also had no interest in this until they ditched the live service model, and I bought it as soon as they ditched it mainly to reinforce good behavior haha. I thought it was fun but it's kinda boring to play solo after a while (for me at least). I'm hoping to grab some friends to get into this at some point to push me to finish it.
Love Airship Syndicate games, their art style, and capital city designs...I bought this to support them but hope they get back to more traditional jrpg type stuff though
Its one of those games were the combat is so fun that you want to keep playing. My favorite random even was in the Frost March where you walking into that fortress and its being taken over an you have to fight off the enemies, No quest or anything it just happened when i was walking around exploring.
Can anyone tell me how easy it is to co-op with random players? I'm trying to find out if I can just team up with anyone and help out new or join older players
Looks like a solid game, didn't follow the news around it, but always glad to hear that it got released as an offline game instead of flopping it as MMO. To me it kinda has a vibe of Kingdom of Amalur and Dauntless. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, great video!
One thing I wish they had kept from the MMO time was leveling weapons to make them stronger, I love this game and have been there since day one but the inventory bloat like you mentioned is too much for me. Determining what accessories are better is hard when the echos equipped to them skew their raw stats. I still feel the devs did that great job with the options they had. I hope they are able to keep going!
Great review! Just bought it on Playstation 5. Played a little, picked the middle character as that seemed like the only ranged class? Am I right? Also, there seems to be no lock on?
Thanks for putting this game on my radar. I enjoy these sorts of games and the fact it is single player and somewhat like Kingdoms of Amalur would be right up my alley.
It's an awesome game, for both solo and with friends/family.. Played since release and have no problems or bugs.. It is absolutly worth your time and money.. Really fun and better then the AAA crap we get now.... Just go slow and enjoy !!
A nice thorough review as always. I’ve put about 15 hours into this and it’s great to pick up for a bit here and there. Gameplay feels good, though it’s overall never that engaging. Super fun with friends tho. Do wish the class options (characters) didn’t lean so heavily in favor of anything with healing. Healing is OP and having none feels like characters were unfinished as a result. Overall a fun game
I was following this pretty closely when it was an mmo, but didn't have the time to really play at all when it came out. Since then I've dipped in, and I found the combat and character navigation to be very "floaty", obviously a hold over from its mmo days. After years of souls-like games I couldn't see myself tolerating that and bounced off, but maybe I'll revisit soon. I'm a fan of joe madureira and the other artists involved, and wish them the best in the future!
This turned out to be one of my surprise hits and made my top five games for the year. I put in 80 hours, to complete it as far as I really wanted to before moving on to other things, but it was good enough that I kept it on the ps5 hard drive to circle back to it because it's awesome and I only completed 3 of the characters. My favorites were Wingrave, Niss, and Lora--the opposite of yours!
Changing from a planned MMO to a non MMO RPG sounds awfully a lot like Torchlight III. I dont remember what the MMO name for it was but I do remember when they dropped that subtitle and added III. That team either didn't try or didn't have the time/resources to make enough changes to make the game not feel like an empty MMO. What was in the game was fun for what it was but it left so much to be desired.
Saw skillups review bought it during the holidays. Its a fun arpg. It has this dauntless style vibe when it comes to gameplay and progression minus the heavy microtransactions
I found the game pretty interesting until I realized the systems to improving your Wayfinder was just make number go up and do you want direct damage or stagger. It just felt extremely lack luster that you had almost no customization for your abilities and the only thing you could change to mildly mix things up was the weapon that only switched the single weapon ability slot... A real shame because if the way you'd build your character had more depth than a pond the size of a lake, I would've loved this game. Gear is just numbers, affinities are more numbers and talents are again numbers with scarce extra effects that don't change the play-style at all. If I pick Silo, he'll play exactly the same at level 1 gorillion as he did at level 6 when you have all abilities unlocked.
Venomess has been my jam. Been playing with friends. It's a good game that has hints of greatness. The live service elements are definitely showing, but we're having a good time with it.
Pretty fair review tho, pointing negative stuff as well as positive. All the thing said in this video are quite true, On my 100h+ I think the same. for the price it's a good game and I hope the studio will survive.
I bought this game when I saw first impressions. It has become my go to for breaks between work on my ROG Ally along with a couple other which are ARPGs. I'm trying to max out each character but still on my first (Kyros).
I recently got the game and I've been loving it. There is not as much build variety with the skills as I would have liked but everything else is excellent and it reminds me of a 3rd person Borderlands style game. It almost makes me wonder why was this game an MMO in the first place nd not just a solo/co-op action RPG? Oh well better late then never and for the sale price (14 bucks) its one of the best deals I have gotten in a long while in terms of content per dollar spent.
I bought the game on sale based on your preview and the grind was very reminiscent of a MMO cycle - which given its development lifecycle makes sense. I definitely got my money's worth of entertainment from it as a mindless grind to unwind and it was pretty good all told. I'll probably finish it at some point but once you've hit the level cap on every character the story just isn't engaging enough to want to grind through the weapon and character awakenings. And Venomous is for sure my fave.
Man this game looks really fun mechanics and system wise. I just hate the fortnight looking aesthetic. Still might give it a try though if my friends are interested. Thx for the video, awesome as always
I played the closed beta and enjoyed it, but when the full release came out the game ran so badly that I shelved it. I never wrote a review in case it got better, but I'll give the game another try.
Hey mort! I have had a theory recently and I feel like you would be able to answer it better than anyone in the world. Do you feel like media (games specifically in this instance) are trying to waste your time? I feel like there is so much fluff and filler in everything these days to extend the playtime and watch time. Would appreciate your opinion, as you power through 10 games as I get through 1.
Depends entirely on what you're playing, live service stuff definitely just aims to keep you playing as an example, but otherwise no I'd say if anything companies are becoming increasingly aware they are fighting for people's time as much as anything else at this point and you see that reflected even down to achievement lists becoming more accessible than they used to be.
I know other comments have covered this, but i want everyone to understand DE closed it's publishing division for their own internal business reasons. Had nothing to do with Wayfinder. Wayfinder just had to navigate it without them. Same with all the other games DE was looking to publish.
I was wondering where you ranked this on 2024 video but realized your video was just a checkout. I actually bought it after your coverage and SkillUp's review. I'm enjoying it, but nowhere close to 100%. I was looking for an MMO-like... without the MMO .. if that makes sense. Lol
I really think you should switch the order of the Gameplay and Progression sections in your videos. I generally skip the Progression sections. If I was a first time viewer I'd likely close the video altogether if I had to wait 15 minutes for it to get interesting, to me.
This game looked great so I bought it for the steam deck. I haven't had much time to play it, but one of the first dungeons absolutely destroyed the framerate. I'm hoping the developers keep improving it. There is a lot of potential here
It reminds me of Amalur with its single-player MMORPG structure and colorful stylish visuals. Except back then this kind of artstyle was refreshing, now it's become generic, and it looks worse in the bad (story & quests) and not as good in the good (combat & character builds). The UI looks also aggressively live-servicy. A shame, I loved both JRPG-ish previous games of Airship syndicate.
There's nothing about this art style this is generic. Joe Mad's look has never been remotely close to the industry standard, it's precisely why things like this, Battlechasers, and The Ruined King stand out. Your comment reads like people who have such a poor grasp of art and art direction that they'll seriously claim Clash of Clans, Overwatch, and Fortnite have the same art direction or aesthetic.
@@RicochetForce That's why I said "that kind of artstyle" but even then those heroes could come from a number of recent games compared to those of Battlechasers or even Darksiders IMHO. Personally I much prefer that to photorealistic-must-have-the-latest-graphics-card "style" so this new trend doesn't bother me at all, but I understand my post could give the wong impression.
@@armelior4610 Can you give more details regarding "that kind of artstyle"? That's a really useless bit of English that isn't describing what you're getting at. It's too general, be more specific. You're calling one of the most distinct styles from the West (distinct enough that people will immediately recognize a game he's working on just on brief trailer footage alone) and implying it's generic. Forgive me if I'm prying.
Hilariously, I think DE dropping this game might have been the best thing for the health of the game. Airship Syndicate wanted to churn out yet another slopfest of always online games as a service MMO-Lite type of deals when in reality Wayfinder was always going to be better off as an optionally co-op action rpg. Losing that funding made their original plans impossible and thus, a good game was actually made.
Thanks for the review. I strongly agree about nightmare mode though. It made me stop playing the game because I didn't want to play it twice or unlock all the characters all over again.
It would be nice when you discuss, technical issues if you could say what is your setup. I guess this game is pretty easy to run, but I realise you dont say in other videos as well. you could also had it in the description. Good job otherwise. Love your videos.
Me and my hommie love this game. Love the build crafting potential and artstyle. It's a shame what happened to the developers, but for what its worth, its better than concord or any quadruple A game by ubisoft😂
So before this game went down because Digotal Extremes pulled out, I put in 400 damn hours. Had all trophies that were available. Was a far stretch from ever calling thos game an MMO at any point lol. I bought every microtransaction + founders pack. I was very disappointed that DE pulled out but from everything I've heard the new "Echoes" version is better with the solo version. Think I'm missing 3 or 4 trophies that look to be available now. The last ones were a story trophy and a job trophy and a couple other ones that weren't even in the game for over a year. Once they told us that our accounts were going to be basically reset after id done put like 390 hours and maxing out every single wayfinder and farming all my artifacts etc I just cant bring myself to even download the game again which us sad because they literally made over a million bucks off us at launch. There was a lot of ppl that bought the $150 founders pack that got nothing out of. They could've EASILY gave all the people that let them save their own game SOMETHING unique. Im $400 deep into this game pre echoes. Idk just sadage because everything we bought is now 100% free and given to you. And all progression wiped which wasn't part of the ToS as far as it being some type of early access because it wasn't.
This is a game I bought but then returned. It definitely plays like an ARPG and I discovered I only really enjoy top down ARPGs. It didn’t seem bad at all, just not my cup of tea.
Reset really killed my momentum and havent been able to pick the game back up also sad seeing the hub city empty compared to when we were all playing waitfinder in a 40k+ queue for two hours. xD
i want to like this game but the menu system and all these damn stats and systems are almost incomprehensible. there's soooooooo many menus to look at, things to equip, and none of what any of it does is clear at all. it's very obvious that this was an MMO initially.
It’s worth noting that the pivot to single player/co-op was something of a Hail Mary for Airship Syndicate. Not only was Digital Extremes publishing the game; they were meant to handle the online infrastructure of the game. Bowing out of their publishing agreement (and closing their publishing arm entirely) left AS twisting in the wind. Given those circumstances, I think it’s incredible what they were able to pull off.
Airship missed their announced beta multiple times, and i feel like DE forced their hand to either sink or swim. They sank, the netcode couldn't support greater than 5k players, that was confirmed after over 250k players tried to play early access. This is after they took, in some cases over 100 USD from players. We wouldn't be seeing the loss of publisher if there was not a ton going on behind the scenes already (remember DE had to consider the terrible PR against the financial decision) and then a fundamental rework of the game. It is really a shame as the art work and guts of the game are great and we could really use more lobby based pve games.
@@ericconrad8854 Thats just wrong Warframe developer Digital Extremes has laid off staff and has closed its publishing division. they literally just shut their publishing division that was nail for airship. why would they continute to fund a game when they know that they are shutting down. airship could have been flawless and still would have lost DE.
@@LemonSoulz What games were they publishing other than Wayfinder? None that i can find. If the cut Wayfinder they don't need the employees that were embedded with Airship. There is no way the game could have been "flawless" and they would have still lost money by dropping it. Airship shit the bed hard, DE said. "no more".
Games such as warfarme, or even genshin impact can easily be turned into Single players Offline. Those games as they are now force you to communicate with DE servers to play, but if you switch to Single player in warframe, anytime you are on a mission if you press ESC this will pause the game VS if you play with people the ESC won’t pause the game. It shows the capability to be offline is there. Nothing different to this game. They just cut the link to be an “MMO”
I'm glad the developers were able to turn things around, after having such a rough initial launch and losing their publisher. And the game is better for it, the pacing of progression is MUCH better than it was before and actually earning stuff through gameplay is always better than having to buy it with microtransactions.
Glad you covered this game. It's a good value indeed! I really enjoyed the art style.
Slightly bummed you didn't mention the housing system. There are items in the housing system that spawn keys and give passive buffs.
What I really, REALLY dislike in RPG games - unclear values.
WTF is 859 Crit Rating? Is it 8%? Is it 80%?
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. No idea why game directors keep doing that, and it frustrates me to no end. 🤣🤣 Usually, it is a rounded up value that we usually can't see anywhere on the UI. A game that does that part well is Outriders. That game gives you the same generic value, like Armor 8500. But will also give you damage percentage right below, saying something like 55% Damage Resistance. And then as your character goes up a level, and your Armor is still at 8500, the Damage Resistance would go from 55% down to 50% or so, telling you it's time to bump up the Armor value. So most of those games (The Division, Cyberpunk etc.) work like that, and the UI just doesn't say it.
This was a main gripe in early access for Wayfinder. They kept the numbers, but you can hover over the number to see how much crit % an 800 crit rating is.
The reason the numbers are used in game design rather than a % is because most games with leveling or progression systems (like MMOs) use sliding scales based on character level. At low levels, Crit Rating of 200 may be super high and be like 60% crit chance, but as you level up and the stats on items get bigger, if you only kept that 200 Crit Rating it may only equal out to a 15% crit.
This is done to keep the gear grind going. If items only offered a flat % that never adjusted on a level curve, you can build for Crit in the early game, hit 75% and as long as you never changed gear, you would always be at 75% crit. This can pigeonhole a character build or force low level gear to have VERY low %.
It's pretty much, number go up=good. Thing is in MMOs they do that so they can change the values on the back-end and people don't complain about buffs and nerfs. It's on purpose.
@@dgeata Yeah, exactly. Josh Sawyer made a video on that exact topic few years ago. About armor numbers and damage mitigation type like DT/DP (damage threshold VS damage percentage). To me, UnderRail does a great job with armors because it uses both DT and DP, depending on which blocks the most damage during a hit. So if an attack cannot penetrate, you will receive 0 damage, which is so cool.
if you mouse over the rating in the character window it will say what the percentage is, but ya rating numbers in games are pretty meaningless when a percentage is the only way to comprehend it.
The original publisher of this game was Digital Extremes, the developer of Warframe. I find it interesting how much of Warframe I can see in the gameplay you're showing. Like the way you have 3 starter characters and then several extra unlocks. Or how the playable characters have a max rank of 30 and your account level has a max rank of 30. Or the way the UI looks for visual customization and weapon selection. Maybe there are similarities in map generation, but that's too hard to judge from the video.
I am extremely surprised about how the game shifted into a single player action RPG. I always assumed it was just gonna be fantasy Warframe and never bothered to check it again.
Digital Extremes dropped them as publisher and I think Airship Syndicate didn't see any way to they could continue to support the live service on their own. It's pretty lucky honestly and I think a very good look for them as a company that they decided to put in the work to make a playable game for everyone rather than just let it die like almost every other failed live service.
I bought a founders pack and played for a while at launch. I wasn't as big a fan as I hoped I would be (even after the offline relaunch) but much respect to Airship Syndicate for what they did under the circumstances.
Yeah, the thousand different progression systems also gave me a very Warframe vibe as well. It's one of the reasons I stopped playing Warframe... It became exhausting to keep up with all the new systems they kept adding.
@@rsawyer757 I don't blame DE. They were losing money on Wayfinder with how little interest and play it got. They're already spending big on Soulframe's development and can't afford to lose money at this point. Wayfinder should have been a single player game from the get go.
After having played both, this is really not just an impression,this game is top to bottom Warframe, even by having a main wise woman with a dark past that give you orders.
One conclusion that I got, thankfully to this game, is how Warframe makes you waste time...
@@Manuelomar2001 Well the DE CEO stepped down and the former Warframe director became CEO in October and in November they closed their publishing division in a pivot to interally developed projects. AS got the shaft and it's shitty but that kind of thing happens. I can't blame DE for wanting to focus on their own games.
Wayfinder also had HUGE issues at launch which seemed to kill what interest there was in the first place. IIRC there were like 10k simultaneous at launch and queues were in the hours (I was in them and it REALLY sucked) and by the time they got the queues down it was hard to tell if it was because they genuinely fixed it or because there was just nobody left. Hard to say if better player retention would've put them in a better position to be self-sufficient once DE dropped them but I doubt it.
I agree, especially given AS's previous games, it should've been a single-player experience. Maybe with some co-op sprinkled in.
Regardless of those massive fuckups at launch though, I still give them props for turning it into a full game instead of just dropping support.
edit: looking at steam charts it was over 20k at launch.
For Kyros - Big ability damage, talents set up to be able to spam abilities, rank 3 claw attack - All adds up to massive damage and healing half your health with every swipe
Holy progression systems batman... thats a LOT of different ways to progress your character between gear, echos, awakenings, passives, etc etc.
well, that's the f2p-mmo roots, for better or worse. you get upgrades all the time, which feels nice, but can be a lot to keep track of.
@@azyrael96 Yeah for me that actually shows that most of these systems are just needlessly convoluted and not actually fun. They are just there to make money in F2P and loose their purpose once that aspect is removed. I played the game and the gameplay was fun but the upgrade system and all of this stuff while it did not necessarily feel bad since you dont struggle thta much for the ressources ... it still felt like all of this was pointless fluff.
Ideally once they decided to switch they should have just ripped all of that out but of course that would require a more deep redesign. I think overall it is "fine" but the game could have been a lot better and streamlined if it had not been developed for F2P first.
It's SO GOOD
You always release new videos when i get off work always perfect timing 🎉
don't know if enyone noticed, but it looks a lot like darksiders- the animations, graphic style, some mechanics, weapons and models
edit: yeah, thats the studio that created darksiders
I've had an absolute blast with Wayfinder, and I'm thankful Airship Syndicate decided to spin it into an Action RPG instead of killing the whole thing off outright. I love that the character archetypes are NOT restricted to specific weapons and you can build them in crazy ways (like a healing shotgun blasting Wingrave).
That said, Senja is completely broken if you build her for Weapon Atack and buff her Crowd's Favor ability when available. Pop the buff and swing at an enemy: 100k-200k+ swings of just the regular greatsword. This also applies to the Windmother's flurry of slashes so after getting through your regular combo, pop the weapon ability to drop another 6-7 swings at 200k. It results in you skipping entire phases on Endgame bosses like Hollowlord Vendraal, Yuletide Queen, AS-713, etc...
I've been a fan of them since Battlechasers Nightwar and hopefully this keeps them afloat a little while longer
I know it's not likely at this point, but I'd love more Wayfinder. An Expac would be such a Christmas miracle.
Yeah, considering how fun the game is I think they've stumbled into gold here as an single player, Action RPG with some tacked on multiplayer. The art is great, the character kits are fun, I loved the way mutators work in this.
Im glad it is Airship that has this title. Ever since Battle Chasers, i love their stuff and glad they shed the MMO plans.
Aside from being a great game the journey the devs went through is reason enough for me to want to support them. This is how you turn an (Air)ship around.
I just bought it on PSN on sale, looking forward on playing it , I bought it based off the development history alone, they really deserve to be successful after what they went through
I did the same thing just after Christmas and I have found the gameplay to definitely be the strongest part of the game. Glad I got it and trying to decide if I want to get the supporter pack just to throw more money at them.
Same here. Got it a month ago because of that development story. Didn't hold my interest very long but I'm happy to support developers like this.
Same
I really have fun with this game. Enjoyable combat and while not amazing story, the price was more than worth it. Really enjoyed Senja and Venomess as well.
The fact they made this MMO a single player/co-op game is commendable in a time period games are just shut down and forever gone. While we will not get any expansion or updates, maybe if it does well, maybe we can get a more polished sequel. Especially since I really enjoy the look and setting of the world overall.
This game looks fun! Like a nice, mindless palate cleanser in between heavier story driven games I usually play. And I think for only $15 I'll give this a shot
Pretty game - looks like fun. Numbers go up! Thanks for the review, Mortym.
This game has a housing system which is amazing to see in a non-grindy (drip feed MMO) context. If you like decorating rooms make sure you find a video that covers housing in depth.
A lot of the items give buffs too
Really happy you played and now are showcasing the game with this review, after single player offline I got the game, happy to see devs support their game.
This is a deep, worthwhile, and quality review, Mortismal! I like a lot of the points you make - especially what you're getting for the money. Lots! This is one of those games I can turn most of my brain off and enjoy. Venomess is my current favorite (although I haven't tried anyone else yet except Silo and he's fun too). I think a lot of love went into Wayfinder! =)
Hope you're having a great one! =)
Really really enjoyed the game. I dont think i wouldve enjoyed it as much as the mmo version.
Havent fully finished the game yet, havent touched nightmare.
But already its been worth the money ive paid for it.
Got like 60 hours and ive been really enjoying it already.
I genuinely love this game. At one point I ran into a main quest progression-blocking bug in the final-added / most recent zone, that I couldn't find any workarounds for, and wasn't addressed or fixed in the recent patches either, so I kind of just dropped it for now because I'm really disheartened at potentially having to abandon that original save I was so emotionally-invested in and spent so much time powering up. Amazing game for all the time I played it though, I did a bit of everything that I had access to, even the highest-difficulty (at the time) Mythic Hunts.
Nice to see you here, keep up the good work (and the playing of good games)
Your AC videos helped me get into classic parkour so I appreciate it!
I played this game august last year and I honestly was so surprised with the game and I think it’s absolutely worth the price considering all things ( IMO ). No micro transactions or anything. Just a game start to finish.
Great review. This game is great. I've played for about 90hrs, and still haven't level capped everyone. Got Heroic Ness on New Year's Eve though.
I love it.
Feels like a mixture of Wildstar and Kingdoms of Amalur.
Woof, Wildstar is not a name I've heard for MANY years. But you're right, KoA vibes here super strong and the humor of Wildstar certainly comes through. I still have that Church theme on rotation this many years later.
Man Wildstar was such a missed opportunity
I also had no interest in this until they ditched the live service model, and I bought it as soon as they ditched it mainly to reinforce good behavior haha. I thought it was fun but it's kinda boring to play solo after a while (for me at least). I'm hoping to grab some friends to get into this at some point to push me to finish it.
Cool, I will consider throwing this one on my buy list, thanks!
Happy new year and thank you for the new review! 🎉 I forgot about this game. Seems better now
Wayfinder: Wrath of the Developers
That got a real laugh out of me, gj
Love Airship Syndicate games, their art style, and capital city designs...I bought this to support them but hope they get back to more traditional jrpg type stuff though
Also did you manage to play the newest area they introduced to the map ?
Its one of those games were the combat is so fun that you want to keep playing. My favorite random even was in the Frost March where you walking into that fortress and its being taken over an you have to fight off the enemies, No quest or anything it just happened when i was walking around exploring.
i got this in early access but was so disappointed it was going to single player i dropped it completely, ty for the update!!
Can anyone tell me how easy it is to co-op with random players? I'm trying to find out if I can just team up with anyone and help out new or join older players
That music in Skylight is top tier
Looks like a solid game, didn't follow the news around it, but always glad to hear that it got released as an offline game instead of flopping it as MMO. To me it kinda has a vibe of Kingdom of Amalur and Dauntless. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, great video!
mannnn the artstyle looks really good
One thing I wish they had kept from the MMO time was leveling weapons to make them stronger, I love this game and have been there since day one but the inventory bloat like you mentioned is too much for me. Determining what accessories are better is hard when the echos equipped to them skew their raw stats. I still feel the devs did that great job with the options they had. I hope they are able to keep going!
They went the Kingdoms of Amalur route.
Perfect timing
Kingdoms of Amalur was actually a standalone thing to the MMO from the get go. It was supposed to be an introduction to that world in the mmo
Unfortunately, their story mode is NOTHING at all like KoA. It's very superficial and lacks any depth, similar to what you would expect from an MMO.
Bought it and the Critical Role pack off the back of this video. Looking forward to getting stuck in!
Great review! Just bought it on Playstation 5. Played a little, picked the middle character as that seemed like the only ranged class? Am I right? Also, there seems to be no lock on?
There is a lock-on, don’t have it on console so not sure what button it is but its definitely there.
Every time I see it, "this game looks gorgeous" is always my first reaction. So mad props to the art director / artists.
Thanks for putting this game on my radar. I enjoy these sorts of games and the fact it is single player and somewhat like Kingdoms of Amalur would be right up my alley.
It's an awesome game, for both solo and with friends/family.. Played since release and have no problems or bugs.. It is absolutly worth your time and money..
Really fun and better then the AAA crap we get now.... Just go slow and enjoy !!
not my type of game but my type of video, keep up with the good work
I like the look of it, ill see if my friend would play it with me
A nice thorough review as always. I’ve put about 15 hours into this and it’s great to pick up for a bit here and there. Gameplay feels good, though it’s overall never that engaging. Super fun with friends tho. Do wish the class options (characters) didn’t lean so heavily in favor of anything with healing. Healing is OP and having none feels like characters were unfinished as a result. Overall a fun game
Was a solid Game, nothing you will remember in Years, but just for the transition to a fair and cheap fullprice title they deserve praise.
I was following this pretty closely when it was an mmo, but didn't have the time to really play at all when it came out. Since then I've dipped in, and I found the combat and character navigation to be very "floaty", obviously a hold over from its mmo days. After years of souls-like games I couldn't see myself tolerating that and bounced off, but maybe I'll revisit soon. I'm a fan of joe madureira and the other artists involved, and wish them the best in the future!
This turned out to be one of my surprise hits and made my top five games for the year. I put in 80 hours, to complete it as far as I really wanted to before moving on to other things, but it was good enough that I kept it on the ps5 hard drive to circle back to it because it's awesome and I only completed 3 of the characters. My favorites were Wingrave, Niss, and Lora--the opposite of yours!
Changing from a planned MMO to a non MMO RPG sounds awfully a lot like Torchlight III. I dont remember what the MMO name for it was but I do remember when they dropped that subtitle and added III. That team either didn't try or didn't have the time/resources to make enough changes to make the game not feel like an empty MMO. What was in the game was fun for what it was but it left so much to be desired.
So is the game over now ? Like you can't keep playing it after it's over ? Do you just start over ?
Saw skillups review bought it during the holidays. Its a fun arpg. It has this dauntless style vibe when it comes to gameplay and progression minus the heavy microtransactions
I found the game pretty interesting until I realized the systems to improving your Wayfinder was just make number go up and do you want direct damage or stagger. It just felt extremely lack luster that you had almost no customization for your abilities and the only thing you could change to mildly mix things up was the weapon that only switched the single weapon ability slot... A real shame because if the way you'd build your character had more depth than a pond the size of a lake, I would've loved this game.
Gear is just numbers, affinities are more numbers and talents are again numbers with scarce extra effects that don't change the play-style at all. If I pick Silo, he'll play exactly the same at level 1 gorillion as he did at level 6 when you have all abilities unlocked.
According to Valve the pivot from MMO to Single player ARPG, is not a change of genre, which is why they didn't issue sweeping refunds for it.
Looks pretty cool!
My Game of the year! Love Wayfinder
Venomess has been my jam. Been playing with friends. It's a good game that has hints of greatness. The live service elements are definitely showing, but we're having a good time with it.
Pretty fair review tho, pointing negative stuff as well as positive. All the thing said in this video are quite true, On my 100h+ I think the same. for the price it's a good game and I hope the studio will survive.
Good. Sounds and seems refreshing.
I bought this game when I saw first impressions. It has become my go to for breaks between work on my ROG Ally along with a couple other which are ARPGs. I'm trying to max out each character but still on my first (Kyros).
This game is pure joy, it deserves more attention.
I recently got the game and I've been loving it. There is not as much build variety with the skills as I would have liked but everything else is excellent and it reminds me of a 3rd person Borderlands style game. It almost makes me wonder why was this game an MMO in the first place nd not just a solo/co-op action RPG? Oh well better late then never and for the sale price (14 bucks) its one of the best deals I have gotten in a long while in terms of content per dollar spent.
I bought the game on sale based on your preview and the grind was very reminiscent of a MMO cycle - which given its development lifecycle makes sense. I definitely got my money's worth of entertainment from it as a mindless grind to unwind and it was pretty good all told. I'll probably finish it at some point but once you've hit the level cap on every character the story just isn't engaging enough to want to grind through the weapon and character awakenings.
And Venomous is for sure my fave.
Man this game looks really fun mechanics and system wise. I just hate the fortnight looking aesthetic. Still might give it a try though if my friends are interested.
Thx for the video, awesome as always
I played the closed beta and enjoyed it, but when the full release came out the game ran so badly that I shelved it. I never wrote a review in case it got better, but I'll give the game another try.
I like the way they have implemented nightmare mode. It sounds like a nightmare, as it should be!
Even when you review a game I have no interest in I am engrossed by the quality and depth of your analysis. Thanks for your work
Not a game i expected to see on your channel, but happy to
Also, heres hoping the eyes this video gets on the game ends in more sales for it. They deserve to be rewarded for that mmo pivot, fantastic move.
I bounced off this game (after the update) because I didn't like the rogue gameplay. does the gameplay later improve and should I give it another try?
Hey mort! I have had a theory recently and I feel like you would be able to answer it better than anyone in the world. Do you feel like media (games specifically in this instance) are trying to waste your time? I feel like there is so much fluff and filler in everything these days to extend the playtime and watch time. Would appreciate your opinion, as you power through 10 games as I get through 1.
Depends entirely on what you're playing, live service stuff definitely just aims to keep you playing as an example, but otherwise no I'd say if anything companies are becoming increasingly aware they are fighting for people's time as much as anything else at this point and you see that reflected even down to achievement lists becoming more accessible than they used to be.
Think of it as darksiders arpg
Oh boy 3 AM
lol no sleep gang.
6 AM. :D
@ 4 am on the BEST COAST BROOOOO
Can you play it offline?
Yes
agree 100%, really enjoyed the review and the game
Thanks for the video. Can't have a power level over 9,000? SMH. Onward to 400k. All glory to the algorithm.
try out caves of qud! I think you will enjoy it. Wouldnt recommend 100% lol but its definitely something new
I know other comments have covered this, but i want everyone to understand DE closed it's publishing division for their own internal business reasons. Had nothing to do with Wayfinder. Wayfinder just had to navigate it without them. Same with all the other games DE was looking to publish.
one of the most underrated games ever
This game gives me huge Wildstar vibes
I was wondering where you ranked this on 2024 video but realized your video was just a checkout. I actually bought it after your coverage and SkillUp's review. I'm enjoying it, but nowhere close to 100%. I was looking for an MMO-like... without the MMO .. if that makes sense. Lol
Hah nice, just bought this on sale for me and a friend to co-op
I really think you should switch the order of the Gameplay and Progression sections in your videos. I generally skip the Progression sections. If I was a first time viewer I'd likely close the video altogether if I had to wait 15 minutes for it to get interesting, to me.
This game looked great so I bought it for the steam deck. I haven't had much time to play it, but one of the first dungeons absolutely destroyed the framerate. I'm hoping the developers keep improving it. There is a lot of potential here
It reminds me of Amalur with its single-player MMORPG structure and colorful stylish visuals. Except back then this kind of artstyle was refreshing, now it's become generic, and it looks worse in the bad (story & quests) and not as good in the good (combat & character builds). The UI looks also aggressively live-servicy.
A shame, I loved both JRPG-ish previous games of Airship syndicate.
There's nothing about this art style this is generic. Joe Mad's look has never been remotely close to the industry standard, it's precisely why things like this, Battlechasers, and The Ruined King stand out.
Your comment reads like people who have such a poor grasp of art and art direction that they'll seriously claim Clash of Clans, Overwatch, and Fortnite have the same art direction or aesthetic.
@@RicochetForce That's why I said "that kind of artstyle" but even then those heroes could come from a number of recent games compared to those of Battlechasers or even Darksiders IMHO.
Personally I much prefer that to photorealistic-must-have-the-latest-graphics-card "style" so this new trend doesn't bother me at all, but I understand my post could give the wong impression.
@@armelior4610 Can you give more details regarding "that kind of artstyle"? That's a really useless bit of English that isn't describing what you're getting at. It's too general, be more specific. You're calling one of the most distinct styles from the West (distinct enough that people will immediately recognize a game he's working on just on brief trailer footage alone) and implying it's generic.
Forgive me if I'm prying.
Style is subjective. I like and miss this artsy low poly mmorpg look. Another good one, and similar, is Inkheart.
Hey! Have you player 'Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales?' Hearing your opinions on it would be interesting!
Hilariously, I think DE dropping this game might have been the best thing for the health of the game. Airship Syndicate wanted to churn out yet another slopfest of always online games as a service MMO-Lite type of deals when in reality Wayfinder was always going to be better off as an optionally co-op action rpg. Losing that funding made their original plans impossible and thus, a good game was actually made.
Thanks for the review.
I strongly agree about nightmare mode though. It made me stop playing the game because I didn't want to play it twice or unlock all the characters all over again.
It would be nice when you discuss, technical issues if you could say what is your setup. I guess this game is pretty easy to run, but I realise you dont say in other videos as well. you could also had it in the description.
Good job otherwise. Love your videos.
It's in the about section of the channel
Me and my hommie love this game. Love the build crafting potential and artstyle. It's a shame what happened to the developers, but for what its worth, its better than concord or any quadruple A game by ubisoft😂
They found there way
great game, great value. more people should play it
I took a punt on this game and ended up really enjoying it, for the price point the game delivers a lot.
Why does this game aesthetic/UI look almost identical to Torchlight Infinite?
thanks
So before this game went down because Digotal Extremes pulled out, I put in 400 damn hours. Had all trophies that were available. Was a far stretch from ever calling thos game an MMO at any point lol. I bought every microtransaction + founders pack. I was very disappointed that DE pulled out but from everything I've heard the new "Echoes" version is better with the solo version. Think I'm missing 3 or 4 trophies that look to be available now. The last ones were a story trophy and a job trophy and a couple other ones that weren't even in the game for over a year.
Once they told us that our accounts were going to be basically reset after id done put like 390 hours and maxing out every single wayfinder and farming all my artifacts etc I just cant bring myself to even download the game again which us sad because they literally made over a million bucks off us at launch. There was a lot of ppl that bought the $150 founders pack that got nothing out of. They could've EASILY gave all the people that let them save their own game SOMETHING unique. Im $400 deep into this game pre echoes. Idk just sadage because everything we bought is now 100% free and given to you. And all progression wiped which wasn't part of the ToS as far as it being some type of early access because it wasn't.
This is a game I bought but then returned. It definitely plays like an ARPG and I discovered I only really enjoy top down ARPGs. It didn’t seem bad at all, just not my cup of tea.
Reset really killed my momentum and havent been able to pick the game back up also sad seeing the hub city empty compared to when we were all playing waitfinder in a 40k+ queue for two hours. xD
Love seeing players getting to try this hidden gem #GuiltyPleasure
i want to like this game but the menu system and all these damn stats and systems are almost incomprehensible. there's soooooooo many menus to look at, things to equip, and none of what any of it does is clear at all. it's very obvious that this was an MMO initially.