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Knowing how many Austin swepts under the table in his take on Veilguard despite the many glaring issues that Ralph showed in his review, i do not trust Austin's reviews anymore.
As one of the many devs on this game, thank you for your video and covering Wayfinder. And thank you to everyone in the comments. It means the world to us reading how supportive everyone is and appreciating what we put into this game.
We salute the great work and heart you poured into this game. As a fan of Kingdoms of Amalur and other ARPGS, I love how this game looks and will purchase it today!
I picked it up today and I can say you guys did a hell of a job. It's super fun. I've been looking so long for a fresh classic ARPG that isn't a soulslike. Thank you for not giving up.
As an experienced AD in games, this projects challenges really spoke to me. How you tackled the incredibly stressful financial issues, stayed with the project, rebuilt and refined the game, and finally landed it properly, is frankly amazing. You should all be so proud, what a brilliant team! I'm off to buy it now. Love the art direction!
@@Rrr20058bvsc If you look into the actual situations, it's really not that complicated and pretty easy to understand it wasn't on them. They even explain a bit of it at the start of the video lmao.
I’ve been enjoying 1.0 a lot. Anyone out there who has ever thought “man I with I could just pay once for all this stuff in this gacha/free-to-play ARPG that I really like,” this is for you. No time gated crafting, microtransactions, just all the fun stuff for half the price of a AAA game.
@@tylerloconte8974 When all new frames to come out have a pity system now? The game has drastically reduced grind in the last 5 years speaking as someone who's come back to it recently after taking a 3 year break. It basically started when Rebecca took over
Wayfinder, unlike Warframe, didn't have the insane gameplay (relative to their own eras), unique aesthetic, character customization, weapon variety, and ambitious novel systems to support the initial live service monetization.
It really sucks that leadership taking paycuts to help their company is such a rarity. If a company is in trouble, the first people to take a hit should be those who manage it, not the ground workers
Are you saying the people making the decisions should feel consequences? Ridiculous. Why cut the pay of the people responsible for the situation when I can just easily fire some peons? Dozens or even hundreds of people will lose their livelihoods and many will suffer but the line must go up.
I've been playing it since its 1.0 launch. I love that this feels like an mmorpg... but without the daily hassles. Joe Mad's artstyle is always crazy good. What a blast!
PC performance can be rough on midrange PCs (like below 30XX series). However, I have it on PC with a 3070ti and I'm super happy with it. There is cross play, and from what I see online, PS5 players are plenty happy with it. It is coming to Xbox also
@@amysteriousviewer3772 Such an odd comment to make. This has been Joe's style since he hit the comics scene in the early 90s. If it reminds you of LoL or WoW, that's because they took his style.
@@ihatevnecks7015 Yeh got to agree, This is just literally like his comicbook stuff but in 3D. Its pretty much the same style as his Battlechasers game which was in development around the same time as Overwatch, so its more that games like Overwatch etc potentially being influenced by his art style which he has had for around 25 years. As for it looking like Wow Im pretty sure I remember one of the lead Art Director's for WoW Samwise Didier saying how much of a fan he was of Joe's work in an interview in an old PC mag, so not surprised on that.
This sounds like a blast to play with friends and without any of the live-service drawbacks. Hope the devs get enough support after everything that happened, I'm definitely putting this on my wishlist.
I've logged hundreds of hours since day one of early access and i agree with every pro/con you brought up. Airship Syndicate is my 2nd favorite indie dev ( right behind Supergiant
I'd say it's overpriced tbh. I have 600 hours myself and even for the early-access/beta pricing I thought it was already way too much. And I am not a fan of single player games (And dont feel like using discord to find a group that's just stupid) so now it's worth much less to me personally. But even without that, I still don't think it is worth the price point. And I'm not alone. Game isn't selling that much better since the official release and the numbers haven't gotten much better either. They did a good job, but it's WAY too little too late.
Super positive review, really happy you guys covered this one. The video already has 30,000 views - let’s hope it drives some sales to what seems to be (now) a pretty great game.
2:53 As soon as you said "the game no longer needs an online connection to play," this game went from something I'd never even bothered to look at to a game I plan on at least demoing. It's not that hard to make players happy if you do the right things!
Why? Everything is online. Why would that matter? Your online anyway....every gamer has internet. Its rare to be without internet at anytime. Sooo who cares about not needing the internet to game....its a mute point nowadays. When would that matter?
@Nil2none A few things. First, please rethink your claim that every gamer has internet connectivity that is stable and consistent enough to be able to play games that require a constant broadband connection, it ignores the lived experience of quite a lot of gamers, in fact. Second, it's "moot point", not "mute point". Third, there is no reason why a single-player game even with optional co-op should require an online connection unless it's full of bs monetization.
@@Nil2nonelol what if i want to play this game on the go ? You don’t needd to be constantly online and you should be offline regulary. Online requirements for anything but mmos should not be a chain around my neck
@@Nil2none All games that require an online connection will eventually be rendered unplayable. Once the servers close, that's it. Look at The Crew and the huge pushback Ubisoft got from that. Being playable offline means that it will be playable, effectively, forever.
First of all, play this game - it's great fun. In case you're not aware, in terms of playing other characters: you can switch character in game, you don't start a new run or campaign. Just go to the character screen, select character, then you are now that character. It's so good to be able to switch to another character to do a dungeon, or try a new weapon combo. Also, the customisable house is a lot of fun. Collecting items out in the world then decorating your house is great, lots of freedom of how you can place stuff too.
Glad to see the devs make a comeback, I had written the game off after its initial launch. It's rare for a game to be able to change focus after launch.
I am SO happy Austin got around to this. I've been playing 1.0 since launch and I can't put it down. Already got 60 hours. It's a new favorite for sure.
Ironically this looks way more interesting than Digital Extreme's Soulframe. Alright Austin... you got me. I'm going to buy the game. This channel has pretty much never steered me wrong.
Always appreciate your perspective and detailed reviews Austin. Appreciate you and Ralph so much! BTW, the editing at 2:15 was awesome. Love this channel !
Downloaded it on the steam deck after a brutal early access and absolutely love it, I hope consumers can find a way to make this approach financially lucrative
The fact this game even got to a 1.0 launch is nothing short of extraordinary. Airship were faced with probably the most adverse circumstances any modern game dev studio has ever experienced. To have your publisher go up in smoke like this could have killed any game, no matter the size or budget. Their unwillingness to give up in spite of this, to restructure and get development back on track, to perform such fundamental changes to the game's core systems, all that while holding fast to their (and their former publisher's) code of ethics and values and finally get it over the finish line to at least decent critical acclaim *NEEDS* to be commended.
We love playing co-op games with my wife and this looks like a homerun whenever we get a second PS5 to play this. Hope they keep going, love the art style and the gameplay!
For those curious about the game: -Yes, the game feels great to play and there's no mandatory grinding to be done. -You can change characters at any time in the menu; all of them have distinct abilities that make their playstyles quite unique. -The enemy variety is surprisingly great, with lots of enemy variances depending on the dungeon's infusions and the region you're in. -You get lots of rewards at least each 5-10 minutes, with the characters customization being a highlight. -Sound design and music are very strong, they fit with the overall vibe and quality of the game. While it's not perfect, specially with some enemy gauntlets, some weird hitboxes and the presentation of the dialogue being lackluster, the overall package is polished to the point it could rival some AAA titles.
@yahmehroh7093 I've been doing that for my nearly 40 hours. The game is mostly fine in difficulty, the only exceptions being the infused dungeons, which often have one or two new hazards depending on those you select. An example would be if you want poison areas mixed with fire enemies. Only a few segments feel very difficult, but I've barely died. As long as you level up, equip items and use your abilities, you're fine to go.
I'll be buying it, even if it's purely to support the developer. We, as gamers, need to send the message that it's OK to fail and change direction for the better.
What turnaround? A positive review is not a turnaround lmao. Game only peaked at 4k on official launch, which means they are guaranteed to make absolutely ZERO dollars in profit. Especially without the live service portion now as well. It's a failure. It's why digital extremes ditched them to begin with. Game on launch was bad, game on 1.0 was bad. Better =/= good.
Why? Make no money, get the boot. Even now with all the changes, game is still mid at the absolute best. I'd be surprised if they ever make a profit or much money back from this game especially now without micros. As someone with 600 hours, there just isn't enough to do that is varied. The combat gets boring real quick.
Airship Syndicate clearly has a lot of love poured into this game, you can feel it as you play. I bought 6 copies and gave them to friends, such a dedication and passion need to be rewarded.
Congrats to Airship Syndicate on this turn around. It just goes to show you how much better a game that is designed to just be a fun experience with tangible progression is vs some live service bullshit. I hope other studios take notice, and cut the time gated live service crap. That model needs to stop.
Or... let both exist because they appeal to different people and theres tons of examples of liveservice being done WELL. (DE literally being one of the most well known companies for this lmao). Both can exist, stop making it an either or situation. Theres tons of games like this, yall just dont care about them (risk of rain, windblown, inkbound, ravenswatch, remnant 1 and 2, library of ruina, ETC). Stop acting like the space is dominated by liveservice bad actors. Live service isn't the problem > BAD GAMES are the problem. This game would have been a banger if the publisher/servers werent scuffed. The monetization was fine and if you look at the reviews from the EA launch (the one shown in the video) the overwhelming majority of them are related to SERVER ISSUES. Not the game itself, not the monetization, but the fact you would lag, rubberband, lose items, broken multiplayer, unable to play with friends, unscheduled wipes (yes that happened), etc. VERY few actually cared about the live service aspect because you could barely even play the damn game. Sorry for the wall of text but I loved this game and people creating this narrative that DE/AS were greedy liveservice money hungry devs is just flat out wrong and disrespectful imo. I was with them in their community discord and events the entire time watching it all go down. They put their hard work into this BEFORE DE screwed them with the servers causing all those issues. I'm happy it still exists (no gamer should WISH death upon games unless its genuinely a bad game which this obviously isnt) but to say it was compromised before due to liveservice is just flat out demonstrably untrue.
@@skylerfreeman1173 You don't get it. Bad games are the problem.....but prioritizing live service.....LEADS to bad games. Its a clear & obvious trend that when a studio is overly focused on trying to extract as much money as possible from its player base, there's little attention left on making an actual quality game Every hour spent cramming in a bloated microtransaction system is an hour not spent fixing bugs, improving gameplay, making a compeling story, etc. That's not to say you can't have both, but the order has to be clear to everyone. Good game 1st, Live service 2nd. Anything else is going to end up disappointing
@@glint6070 You can say that about ANY part of game development. Prioritizing cosmetics, combat, social interaction, crafting, endgame, pvp, story, take ANY facet of a game you want - theres a reason mmo's have different flavors for various people. You guys just latch onto liveservice monetization even when it functionally makes very little difference in a game because you Dislike it, which is FINE. Game development has so many facets to it and there are also PLENTY of bad games without trash monetization as well. Saying one leads to the other can be true, but *ACTUALLY* in the vast majority of cases it isnt because simply of how numbers work considering there are hundreds of games made per yer... (thats a hugely undercut number but lets say that). Good game 1st obviously > I said that. Look at games that aren't live service and still perform bad. Theres tons of reasons why lmao. I can understand the hate for it, its warranted - i never justified it. I'm saying IN THIS CASE specifically it was also demonstrably untrue.
@@glint6070 Or, as I said. Let both exist. You could literally say this argument for anything game design related but you choose to focus on monetization (arguably the easiest or most difficult part of design) because you Dislike it. Which is fair and fine. Combat, story, pvp, endgame, crafting, lifeskilling, dialogue, animation, etc etc. Its why different games appeal to various people...Games are huge works fam. Its okay to dislike bad mtx. I never defended having bad mtx. Its demonstrably untrue that they were the crux of the issue in THIS specific game, and I said that + why. Obviously a good game should come first, also something I said... I gave a whole list of the actual game-breaking issues and where to find the evidence to back it up and the only thing you focus on is the monetization. I think theres something more telling about that even if the OP is talking about monetization - the fact you can see a shopping list of insane problems and then focus on the liveservice monetization is just crazy to me and the original fanbase of this game i'd think. (since you know... they no longer exist due to said issues lol)
@@skylerfreeman1173 You seem to believe that the issues you listed & monetization are unrelated. Let me convince you otherwise Austin gives an example of weapon unlocks being drip-fed leading to a worse combat experience 3:35. Combat is one of the issues you listed as more relevant than mtx But It's laughably obvious that the ONLY reason they did this was to sell players weapons, or ways to get weapons, or some variation of faster weapon unlocks Monetization led to subpar game design, its clear as day. And that's not the only example; its EVERYWHERE if you how to read between the lines
Improvement doesn't mean anything though. You can only polish a turd so much, but in the end it's still a turd. You can check the charts and see it really didn't change much. It was hitting around 1-2k after the 1.0 but that quickly dropped. It peaked at like 4k on 1.0 launch. It really doesn't matter how much you fix something if at it's core, it was mediocre.
I am happy for Airship. They are a dedicated group of artists that truly loves their craft, everything they have done is packed with visible love, the "downsizing" is a hurtful part of this history, but in their case, and i emphasize... in their case, i can see it was a difficult decision, that was made when they were practically abandoned by their publisher (I admit to not know every detail so correct me if i am wrong), but they spread the "downsizing" between their executives to allow the whole team to be able to make a comeback. I think that seeing this final result, that with blessings may grow even more... i think the biggest cuprit was DE, responsibility is still shared, but DE really fumbled the ball with this. But again, i am truly happy that Airship team didn't simply gave up and grit their teeth to give it one more try, i will try too to give them my support, and for the devs that were unfortunately fired during this i wish all the happiness and fortune.
When a studio is willing to trash their GaaS model for something more player-friendly, they absolutely deserve recognition. Trying to turn every game into a platform for a cash shop is killing so many games in the womb. I hope Airship sees nothing but success from the decisions they've made, and I'm going to take another look at the game now because of their efforts.
For someone who hasn't played it and has no expectations of what kind of game its "supposed" to be, it definitely looks appealing. It's been on my wishlist.
You will be disappointed. It's come a long way BUT for the price you have much better games to choose from that would give you WAY more value. They've come super far, but it's not worth the price still especially in comparison with others that do ALL the same stuff for free or about the same price.
As an original Backer. beta tester and enjoyer of Airship Syndicate games. I couldn't be happier to hear this turn around. I always liked Wayfinder from the get go, pretty cool lore and world. This really I a reborn from the ashes scenario and I implore folks to give it a shot
As one of the many people burned by the early access, I will probably buy this if, not even to play it, to support the ethical nature by which a developer does it right. Pay cuts, consequences, accountability. No pushing the cost onto the consumer, no penny pinching, and a complete game. It's about the principle. And this tells me the people at Airship Syndicate understand why Early Access was a true embarrassment, and it sounds like they fixed nearly all their problems in a year.
I'll be picking this up sometime after Christmas. I really appreciate all the efforts the devs put in and it looks great. Looking forward to it, thanks for the review, Austin.
One of a surprise for me this year. Game is super fun. Sunk 150hrs on it already. Game is generous when let you: - Switch character at any time. - Weapons are not locked for class. You can try all weapons you like. - Respect skills, affinity, talent trees is easy and free. Encourage you to try different build. - Play offline or coop as you wish. Cross play available. - Lot of customization right from the start and you can unlock ton more when you play. Fashion is real endgame for me.
Hardly. It still gets massive stutters on WAY better PC's than the Steamdeck lol. Unless you are content with 30-60 fps I guess. But for an action game, that's just not great. Certain games can be verified on there, but still look like shit. Verification just means it turns on and runs.
I've always had an eye on Wayfinder and I'm super happy to see a turnaround like this, I hope it gets the attention it deserves, and I'm sure this video will help. I'm broke as dirt but I plan on picking it up as soon as I can afford it, and I imagine at least 2 of my friends would be interested in doing the same. Good job Airship Syndicate!
Very happy about this, because the game did look really good at first. I didn't play it because of the issues and reviews but it looks really decent now :D
Austin you've convinced me. I've just brought this on my Ps5 only £15.99 at the moment and being a darksiders fan I'm in. Look forward to meeting my fellow wayfinders .
Awesome to see you cover the game and give it a fair shake after the team poured so much into its transformation. Thank you for making such quality content
I think a game like this would really profit from some fun and responsive damage feedback. Some cartoon blood like in the old Halo's would really help that tinny feeling of hitting solid metal especially since hitting stuff is the focal point of the game.
Picked it up because of you Austin and i love it. Great art style and a fun combat loop I've put hours into it already and the time flew by Thanks again
I bought the game off this recommendation and this has been the biggest miss I’ve EVER had from this channel. I regret this purchase so badly, do not be like me and waste your money on this product. I’m sure my comment will get buried but I hope I help even one person not purchase this game. It is fucking terrible. The tutorial literally had me googling Sony's refund policy, I cannot believe how terrible it is. Feels like a mobile game from 15-20 years ago.
Glad you came back to this. They've put a lot of work into retooling the game, unfortunately any Google searches result in outdated information that might put new players off.
Played Wayfinder after they moved from shitty mmo to bad and boring single player with optional co-op. The gameplay is still like an mmo. Played this in september and I cannot recommend this.
The adversity of this dev team is inspiring and should be applauded. I really hope people give this one a download and Airship Syndicate gets the love and support they deserve.
Thank you for following this game so close and giving us this update. I was praying they would be able to somehow fix their issues as the game looked so appealing. I'm definitely going to jump in now!
The thing about Wayfinder's art is that the company was founded by Joe Mad, who is one of the two creative directors of Darksiders and Darksiders 2 (a series I will ride for until the end of days (pun intended)). The other creative director went on to create Darksiders 3 and the Remnant series, which Austin mentioned. This is primarily why I also genuinely like playing Torchlight Infinite, despite being a p2w ARPG, it's still engaging and I can chill while playing it.
This is a very stark and quite a unique example of how monetisation is ruining the gaming experience. People who argue a lot of these things are "convenience" or "cosmetic only" or you can "grind for it eventually" are kind of right, but you can see here how shallow or tedious games can become to encourage or force you into monetisation to get the most out of it.
I'm so glad to see your review finally up. I've been playing for a couple weeks now and it's fantastic. It's an absolute bargain at $25. And Remnant II was great, glad to see it mentioned.
I had so much fun with the core systems of this game when I tried them during the free beta. At that price it's an absolute steal to get a condensed version of that incredibly fun experience! Thank you for bringing this to my attention, can't wait to dive back in. :)
So glad you guys are covering this! I'm rooting for Airship Syndicate on this one. The new ARPG set up is fun with engaging systems. One price, no monetization bs and a pretty big world to explore.
oh man, feels good to see a studio's passion finally pay off. I'm reminded of Gigantic, whose developers, Motiga, came in to work for free for MONTHS just to get the game out, only for it to completely fail to take off and for Motiga to close down anyway. Through no fault of their own, a passionate, committed studio went down for the sins of the father(Arc launcher + no press + gamebreaking RAM bug.) it's just good to see a good game and good studio do well.
This isn’t remotely my type of game and I’m a dad of 3 so have a severe lack of gaming time. However, I just got a steam deck so been looking at trying something I wouldn’t normally go for. This looks great! Even better it’s SD verified so that’s me sold. Solid review Austin, you really make a compelling case for this game and I’m excited to try it out!
Started playing this last weekend on PS5, having a great time with it. So glad for a single player (offline even) game like this. May be the closest we ever get to a game like Too Human, so I'll enjoy this one as much as I can.
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Knowing how many Austin swepts under the table in his take on Veilguard despite the many glaring issues that Ralph showed in his review, i do not trust Austin's reviews anymore.
Thanks for the review! Is it solo friendly for a new player, and can you switch character in middle of the campaign or need to start over? Thank you!
As one of the many devs on this game, thank you for your video and covering Wayfinder. And thank you to everyone in the comments. It means the world to us reading how supportive everyone is and appreciating what we put into this game.
Had no idea this was a thing until I saw this video. I will be purchasing tonight ! I wish you guys all the best !
We salute the great work and heart you poured into this game. As a fan of Kingdoms of Amalur and other ARPGS, I love how this game looks and will purchase it today!
I picked it up today and I can say you guys did a hell of a job. It's super fun. I've been looking so long for a fresh classic ARPG that isn't a soulslike. Thank you for not giving up.
Hope to see Battlechasers 2 sometime in the future. The first one was miraculous!
As an experienced AD in games, this projects challenges really spoke to me. How you tackled the incredibly stressful financial issues, stayed with the project, rebuilt and refined the game, and finally landed it properly, is frankly amazing. You should all be so proud, what a brilliant team! I'm off to buy it now. Love the art direction!
Dude Airship Syndicate needs a W. Hopefully this helps, would hate to see them go
for real, they got fucked by riot, to be fucked by digital extremes. lots of bad luck.
@gleipnirrr obviously something with the team that's not working if two publishers have got rid of them.
Digital extremes shut down their entire publishing division. @@Rrr20058bvsc
@@Rrr20058bvsc If you look into the actual situations, it's really not that complicated and pretty easy to understand it wasn't on them. They even explain a bit of it at the start of the video lmao.
So, Wairship Syndicate? Or would you put the W somewhere else?
I guess they found their Way
The irony in the name of the game is amazing.
Ba dum tss
YEEEAAAAAHHHH!!!!!
Facts. 🤣
Big 🧠 comment 😂
Airship Syndicate deserves all the praise. Great studio and I hope to see them do more in the future.
I’ve been enjoying 1.0 a lot. Anyone out there who has ever thought “man I with I could just pay once for all this stuff in this gacha/free-to-play ARPG that I really like,” this is for you. No time gated crafting, microtransactions, just all the fun stuff for half the price of a AAA game.
I absolutely love how very clearly taking Digital Extremes business model out of the game dramatically improved the game.
Right? Almost as if respecting players' time and money leads to more enjoyable game design.
I mean DE has started respecting people’s time more recently
@@arts3802 yeah fucking when
@@tylerloconte8974 When all new frames to come out have a pity system now? The game has drastically reduced grind in the last 5 years speaking as someone who's come back to it recently after taking a 3 year break. It basically started when Rebecca took over
Wayfinder, unlike Warframe, didn't have the insane gameplay (relative to their own eras), unique aesthetic, character customization, weapon variety, and ambitious novel systems to support the initial live service monetization.
It really sucks that leadership taking paycuts to help their company is such a rarity.
If a company is in trouble, the first people to take a hit should be those who manage it, not the ground workers
Are you saying the people making the decisions should feel consequences? Ridiculous. Why cut the pay of the people responsible for the situation when I can just easily fire some peons? Dozens or even hundreds of people will lose their livelihoods and many will suffer but the line must go up.
@@soarcheetah Yeah, won't someone think of my poor yacht? I'd have to sell my 4th house if I took a paycut!
It seems like most CEOs are incentivized to fail, take the golden parachute and then move on to some other company where they can do it all again.
Indeed, this would also solve the money oriented manager and attract more passionate game oriented managers
unfortunately gamers will not respect it and this game will be a flop because gamers flood to gacha and liveservice slop instead.
Alright boys, time to support a deserving game dev, let’s jump in!
lezz gooo!
Appreciate it.
@@playwayfinder Thank YOU guys for such a great game
They still made trash and had to change it to even have a chance of recovering money. Not trusting any devs at all.
I've been playing it since its 1.0 launch. I love that this feels like an mmorpg... but without the daily hassles. Joe Mad's artstyle is always crazy good. What a blast!
Is there cross play? Which platform is the best for it?
@@zmmmzmmmz there is cross play yes
PC performance can be rough on midrange PCs (like below 30XX series). However, I have it on PC with a 3070ti and I'm super happy with it. There is cross play, and from what I see online, PS5 players are plenty happy with it. It is coming to Xbox also
@@smitty7326 im playing with my ancient
gtx970. Its not too bad its at least playable. About 40 - 50 fps
3 player co-op somehow makes it feel like an MMO? I wouldnt say 3 people ever makes the definition of "Massively", but...
Joe Madureira is an absolute genuis artist, no wonder this looks so good from an art direction POV
I love his work on Darksiders but I think this looks pretty generic to be honest. Reminds me of LoL or WoW.
@@amysteriousviewer3772 yeah honestly I was really hyped when he founded the studio, wish this was a bit more unique.
@@amysteriousviewer3772 Such an odd comment to make. This has been Joe's style since he hit the comics scene in the early 90s. If it reminds you of LoL or WoW, that's because they took his style.
@@ihatevnecks7015so did Overwatch and Fortnite
@@ihatevnecks7015 Yeh got to agree, This is just literally like his comicbook stuff but in 3D. Its pretty much the same style as his Battlechasers game which was in development around the same time as Overwatch, so its more that games like Overwatch etc potentially being influenced by his art style which he has had for around 25 years. As for it looking like Wow Im pretty sure I remember one of the lead Art Director's for WoW Samwise Didier saying how much of a fan he was of Joe's work in an interview in an old PC mag, so not surprised on that.
I was just complaining that nobody was covering 1.0 a couple days ago. This game is quite good and deserves more recognition!
This sounds like a blast to play with friends and without any of the live-service drawbacks. Hope the devs get enough support after everything that happened, I'm definitely putting this on my wishlist.
I've logged hundreds of hours since day one of early access and i agree with every pro/con you brought up.
Airship Syndicate is my 2nd favorite indie dev ( right behind Supergiant
I'd say it's overpriced tbh. I have 600 hours myself and even for the early-access/beta pricing I thought it was already way too much. And I am not a fan of single player games (And dont feel like using discord to find a group that's just stupid) so now it's worth much less to me personally.
But even without that, I still don't think it is worth the price point. And I'm not alone. Game isn't selling that much better since the official release and the numbers haven't gotten much better either. They did a good job, but it's WAY too little too late.
Super positive review, really happy you guys covered this one. The video already has 30,000 views - let’s hope it drives some sales to what seems to be (now) a pretty great game.
2:53 As soon as you said "the game no longer needs an online connection to play," this game went from something I'd never even bothered to look at to a game I plan on at least demoing. It's not that hard to make players happy if you do the right things!
Why? Everything is online. Why would that matter? Your online anyway....every gamer has internet. Its rare to be without internet at anytime. Sooo who cares about not needing the internet to game....its a mute point nowadays. When would that matter?
@Nil2none A few things. First, please rethink your claim that every gamer has internet connectivity that is stable and consistent enough to be able to play games that require a constant broadband connection, it ignores the lived experience of quite a lot of gamers, in fact. Second, it's "moot point", not "mute point". Third, there is no reason why a single-player game even with optional co-op should require an online connection unless it's full of bs monetization.
@@Nil2none You have never been to a third world country have you
@@Nil2nonelol what if i want to play this game on the go ?
You don’t needd to be constantly online and you should be offline regulary. Online requirements for anything but mmos should not be a chain around my neck
@@Nil2none All games that require an online connection will eventually be rendered unplayable. Once the servers close, that's it. Look at The Crew and the huge pushback Ubisoft got from that. Being playable offline means that it will be playable, effectively, forever.
First of all, play this game - it's great fun.
In case you're not aware, in terms of playing other characters: you can switch character in game, you don't start a new run or campaign. Just go to the character screen, select character, then you are now that character. It's so good to be able to switch to another character to do a dungeon, or try a new weapon combo.
Also, the customisable house is a lot of fun. Collecting items out in the world then decorating your house is great, lots of freedom of how you can place stuff too.
it's on sale for 20 bucks on PS5. Looks like exactly the kind of groove I'm looking for.
Hell yea I just bought it myself lol
After a couple of days, what do ya think?
@@Isogyre_ Played it, beat it, and for $20 bucks, I am not dissatisfied.
So glad they went this direction! Can't wait to jump in.
I'm happy they finally landed on their feet with this 1.0. And I'll happily support this game because the APRG looks really fun to me.
Glad to see the devs make a comeback, I had written the game off after its initial launch. It's rare for a game to be able to change focus after launch.
I’m glad y’all came back to this, with how bleak some gaming news has been this year seeing this rise from the ashes is great to hear
hope you decide to support airship
I am SO happy Austin got around to this. I've been playing 1.0 since launch and I can't put it down. Already got 60 hours. It's a new favorite for sure.
Ironically this looks way more interesting than Digital Extreme's Soulframe. Alright Austin... you got me. I'm going to buy the game. This channel has pretty much never steered me wrong.
Always appreciate your perspective and detailed reviews Austin. Appreciate you and Ralph so much! BTW, the editing at 2:15 was awesome. Love this channel !
Downloaded it on the steam deck after a brutal early access and absolutely love it, I hope consumers can find a way to make this approach financially lucrative
Tells for giving us another shot.
been playing this for the past week and loving it. Im so glad you guys decided to tell their comeback story. This was an S tier review
The fact this game even got to a 1.0 launch is nothing short of extraordinary. Airship were faced with probably the most adverse circumstances any modern game dev studio has ever experienced. To have your publisher go up in smoke like this could have killed any game, no matter the size or budget.
Their unwillingness to give up in spite of this, to restructure and get development back on track, to perform such fundamental changes to the game's core systems, all that while holding fast to their (and their former publisher's) code of ethics and values and finally get it over the finish line to at least decent critical acclaim *NEEDS* to be commended.
They are still going to go bankrupt. You can't release a game to a 100 players and expect not to fire everyone. Only a matter of time.
@@TheRealCaptainLavender Well in that case the Devs got one hell of a story to put on their resumes, so they get hired again.
I appreciate the thoughtfulness in your reviews and the fact you’ve maintained such a high quality as you have taken over some of the reins from Ralph
We love playing co-op games with my wife and this looks like a homerun whenever we get a second PS5 to play this. Hope they keep going, love the art style and the gameplay!
For those curious about the game:
-Yes, the game feels great to play and there's no mandatory grinding to be done.
-You can change characters at any time in the menu; all of them have distinct abilities that make their playstyles quite unique.
-The enemy variety is surprisingly great, with lots of enemy variances depending on the dungeon's infusions and the region you're in.
-You get lots of rewards at least each 5-10 minutes, with the characters customization being a highlight.
-Sound design and music are very strong, they fit with the overall vibe and quality of the game.
While it's not perfect, specially with some enemy gauntlets, some weird hitboxes and the presentation of the dialogue being lackluster, the overall package is polished to the point it could rival some AAA titles.
is it possible to solo the game?
@yahmehroh7093 I've been doing that for my nearly 40 hours. The game is mostly fine in difficulty, the only exceptions being the infused dungeons, which often have one or two new hazards depending on those you select. An example would be if you want poison areas mixed with fire enemies. Only a few segments feel very difficult, but I've barely died.
As long as you level up, equip items and use your abilities, you're fine to go.
@enman009 thanks man!
@@yahmehroh7093 You're welcome, my friend!
@@yahmehroh7093it definitely doesn't rival AAA
Thank you for covering this. Not a lot of big TH-camrs are covering this. This deserves more coverage than the veilgard.
I'll be buying it, even if it's purely to support the developer. We, as gamers, need to send the message that it's OK to fail and change direction for the better.
Man, what a turnaround. Kudos to Airship Syndicate for managing to pull this off.
What turnaround? A positive review is not a turnaround lmao. Game only peaked at 4k on official launch, which means they are guaranteed to make absolutely ZERO dollars in profit. Especially without the live service portion now as well. It's a failure. It's why digital extremes ditched them to begin with. Game on launch was bad, game on 1.0 was bad. Better =/= good.
Pretty fecked how quick Digital Extremes dropped them.
Why? Make no money, get the boot.
Even now with all the changes, game is still mid at the absolute best. I'd be surprised if they ever make a profit or much money back from this game especially now without micros.
As someone with 600 hours, there just isn't enough to do that is varied. The combat gets boring real quick.
Airship Syndicate clearly has a lot of love poured into this game, you can feel it as you play. I bought 6 copies and gave them to friends, such a dedication and passion need to be rewarded.
Congrats to Airship Syndicate on this turn around. It just goes to show you how much better a game that is designed to just be a fun experience with tangible progression is vs some live service bullshit. I hope other studios take notice, and cut the time gated live service crap. That model needs to stop.
Or... let both exist because they appeal to different people and theres tons of examples of liveservice being done WELL. (DE literally being one of the most well known companies for this lmao). Both can exist, stop making it an either or situation. Theres tons of games like this, yall just dont care about them (risk of rain, windblown, inkbound, ravenswatch, remnant 1 and 2, library of ruina, ETC). Stop acting like the space is dominated by liveservice bad actors. Live service isn't the problem > BAD GAMES are the problem.
This game would have been a banger if the publisher/servers werent scuffed. The monetization was fine and if you look at the reviews from the EA launch (the one shown in the video) the overwhelming majority of them are related to SERVER ISSUES. Not the game itself, not the monetization, but the fact you would lag, rubberband, lose items, broken multiplayer, unable to play with friends, unscheduled wipes (yes that happened), etc. VERY few actually cared about the live service aspect because you could barely even play the damn game.
Sorry for the wall of text but I loved this game and people creating this narrative that DE/AS were greedy liveservice money hungry devs is just flat out wrong and disrespectful imo. I was with them in their community discord and events the entire time watching it all go down. They put their hard work into this BEFORE DE screwed them with the servers causing all those issues. I'm happy it still exists (no gamer should WISH death upon games unless its genuinely a bad game which this obviously isnt) but to say it was compromised before due to liveservice is just flat out demonstrably untrue.
@@skylerfreeman1173 You don't get it. Bad games are the problem.....but prioritizing live service.....LEADS to bad games. Its a clear & obvious trend that when a studio is overly focused on trying to extract as much money as possible from its player base, there's little attention left on making an actual quality game
Every hour spent cramming in a bloated microtransaction system is an hour not spent fixing bugs, improving gameplay, making a compeling story, etc. That's not to say you can't have both, but the order has to be clear to everyone. Good game 1st, Live service 2nd. Anything else is going to end up disappointing
@@glint6070 You can say that about ANY part of game development. Prioritizing cosmetics, combat, social interaction, crafting, endgame, pvp, story, take ANY facet of a game you want - theres a reason mmo's have different flavors for various people. You guys just latch onto liveservice monetization even when it functionally makes very little difference in a game because you Dislike it, which is FINE.
Game development has so many facets to it and there are also PLENTY of bad games without trash monetization as well. Saying one leads to the other can be true, but *ACTUALLY* in the vast majority of cases it isnt because simply of how numbers work considering there are hundreds of games made per yer... (thats a hugely undercut number but lets say that).
Good game 1st obviously > I said that. Look at games that aren't live service and still perform bad. Theres tons of reasons why lmao. I can understand the hate for it, its warranted - i never justified it. I'm saying IN THIS CASE specifically it was also demonstrably untrue.
@@glint6070 Or, as I said. Let both exist. You could literally say this argument for anything game design related but you choose to focus on monetization (arguably the easiest or most difficult part of design) because you Dislike it. Which is fair and fine. Combat, story, pvp, endgame, crafting, lifeskilling, dialogue, animation, etc etc. Its why different games appeal to various people...Games are huge works fam. Its okay to dislike bad mtx. I never defended having bad mtx. Its demonstrably untrue that they were the crux of the issue in THIS specific game, and I said that + why.
Obviously a good game should come first, also something I said... I gave a whole list of the actual game-breaking issues and where to find the evidence to back it up and the only thing you focus on is the monetization. I think theres something more telling about that even if the OP is talking about monetization - the fact you can see a shopping list of insane problems and then focus on the liveservice monetization is just crazy to me and the original fanbase of this game i'd think. (since you know... they no longer exist due to said issues lol)
@@skylerfreeman1173 You seem to believe that the issues you listed & monetization are unrelated. Let me convince you otherwise
Austin gives an example of weapon unlocks being drip-fed leading to a worse combat experience 3:35. Combat is one of the issues you listed as more relevant than mtx
But It's laughably obvious that the ONLY reason they did this was to sell players weapons, or ways to get weapons, or some variation of faster weapon unlocks
Monetization led to subpar game design, its clear as day. And that's not the only example; its EVERYWHERE if you how to read between the lines
They should make a case study of his games development. It’s interesting how much the game improved once the focus pivoted (according to the review).
Improvement doesn't mean anything though. You can only polish a turd so much, but in the end it's still a turd. You can check the charts and see it really didn't change much. It was hitting around 1-2k after the 1.0 but that quickly dropped. It peaked at like 4k on 1.0 launch.
It really doesn't matter how much you fix something if at it's core, it was mediocre.
I am happy for Airship.
They are a dedicated group of artists that truly loves their craft, everything they have done is packed with visible love, the "downsizing" is a hurtful part of this history, but in their case, and i emphasize... in their case, i can see it was a difficult decision, that was made when they were practically abandoned by their publisher (I admit to not know every detail so correct me if i am wrong), but they spread the "downsizing" between their executives to allow the whole team to be able to make a comeback.
I think that seeing this final result, that with blessings may grow even more... i think the biggest cuprit was DE, responsibility is still shared, but DE really fumbled the ball with this.
But again, i am truly happy that Airship team didn't simply gave up and grit their teeth to give it one more try, i will try too to give them my support, and for the devs that were unfortunately fired during this i wish all the happiness and fortune.
When a studio is willing to trash their GaaS model for something more player-friendly, they absolutely deserve recognition. Trying to turn every game into a platform for a cash shop is killing so many games in the womb. I hope Airship sees nothing but success from the decisions they've made, and I'm going to take another look at the game now because of their efforts.
Play this for a while in early access and had a blast! Thanks for the reminder to check this out again!
For someone who hasn't played it and has no expectations of what kind of game its "supposed" to be, it definitely looks appealing. It's been on my wishlist.
playing senna is extremely fun
You will be disappointed. It's come a long way BUT for the price you have much better games to choose from that would give you WAY more value. They've come super far, but it's not worth the price still especially in comparison with others that do ALL the same stuff for free or about the same price.
Been playing this with my buddy last two days after work. Been having a blast so far.
As an original Backer. beta tester and enjoyer of Airship Syndicate games. I couldn't be happier to hear this turn around. I always liked Wayfinder from the get go, pretty cool lore and world. This really I a reborn from the ashes scenario and I implore folks to give it a shot
So highly applaud Airship Syndicate for this! Proud to have this one in my library!
As one of the many people burned by the early access, I will probably buy this if, not even to play it, to support the ethical nature by which a developer does it right. Pay cuts, consequences, accountability. No pushing the cost onto the consumer, no penny pinching, and a complete game. It's about the principle. And this tells me the people at Airship Syndicate understand why Early Access was a true embarrassment, and it sounds like they fixed nearly all their problems in a year.
I'll be picking this up sometime after Christmas. I really appreciate all the efforts the devs put in and it looks great. Looking forward to it, thanks for the review, Austin.
Cool that you revisited this gem. I bought it when the 1.0 patch came out on Steam and I'm planning on getting it on Xbox when it becomes available.
One of a surprise for me this year. Game is super fun. Sunk 150hrs on it already. Game is generous when let you:
- Switch character at any time.
- Weapons are not locked for class. You can try all weapons you like.
- Respect skills, affinity, talent trees is easy and free. Encourage you to try different build.
- Play offline or coop as you wish. Cross play available.
- Lot of customization right from the start and you can unlock ton more when you play. Fashion is real endgame for me.
Steam Deck verified, btw.
Hardly. It still gets massive stutters on WAY better PC's than the Steamdeck lol. Unless you are content with 30-60 fps I guess. But for an action game, that's just not great. Certain games can be verified on there, but still look like shit. Verification just means it turns on and runs.
I've always had an eye on Wayfinder and I'm super happy to see a turnaround like this, I hope it gets the attention it deserves, and I'm sure this video will help. I'm broke as dirt but I plan on picking it up as soon as I can afford it, and I imagine at least 2 of my friends would be interested in doing the same. Good job Airship Syndicate!
Very happy about this, because the game did look really good at first. I didn't play it because of the issues and reviews but it looks really decent now :D
You gotta love stories like this. Thanks for bringing this situation to light.
Austin you've convinced me. I've just brought this on my Ps5 only £15.99 at the moment and being a darksiders fan I'm in. Look forward to meeting my fellow wayfinders .
Thanks for this review. I'll probably pick this up with a couple of my family and have some fun.
Awesome to see you cover the game and give it a fair shake after the team poured so much into its transformation. Thank you for making such quality content
I've been playing it again for the last 2 weeks & I'm loving it.
Still can't get over how good this turned out!
Why so many of these bots?
OMG SAME! I especially love the part where they did that thing!
Battle Chasers by Airship Syndicate was one of my favorite games a couple of years ago so I might actually give this a try.
Is that the game digital extremes published for a very short time? (Or something like that?)
Never mind, didn't even have to watch a full minute to get my answer. 😅
God, now you got me wanting Wildstar to come back in the same way. No live service, just one price and no fear of servers shutting down
Your work on this is so clear!
So insightful!!
Your comment on this is so clear!🎉
alright, Austin, i'm gonna pick this one up. great review ~
keep up the amazing work
I think a game like this would really profit from some fun and responsive damage feedback. Some cartoon blood like in the old Halo's would really help that tinny feeling of hitting solid metal especially since hitting stuff is the focal point of the game.
I'm now excited to try this out. I was originally interested, but now I'm more likely to purchase.
Every other big youtuber who did a wayfinder 1.0 review lately has said its a sponsor, except you. And dont even try to say it isnt.
bought it, alway want to support devs that show the willingness to make changes for the better
Tried it. It's ok. Gets repetitive very fast. Wouldn't really recommend it. This Austin guy is out of touch bro.
Nt
it's SO bad. I deeply regret buying it on playstation, this was a complete waste of 20 dollars. I can't believe how bad the tutorial was.
Picked it up because of you Austin and i love it. Great art style and a fun combat loop
I've put hours into it already and the time flew by
Thanks again
Spectacular work by Airship Syndicate!
I'm extremely happy with the turnaround as a player, and will support them in any way possible.
I regret buying this
What a comeback story. Well done Airship Syndicate!
I bought the game off this recommendation and this has been the biggest miss I’ve EVER had from this channel. I regret this purchase so badly, do not be like me and waste your money on this product.
I’m sure my comment will get buried but I hope I help even one person not purchase this game. It is fucking terrible. The tutorial literally had me googling Sony's refund policy, I cannot believe how terrible it is. Feels like a mobile game from 15-20 years ago.
Glad you came back to this.
They've put a lot of work into retooling the game, unfortunately any Google searches result in outdated information that might put new players off.
This guy also liked veilguard 👀
for self entitled social justice warrior woke-spotting, please refer to other YT-channels, thx.
@@greenmind5328 I love how you imply something that was never mentioned. It's very much possible that Veilguard's gameplay is not great.
This is a good game
Finally someone big talking about this game! Can't wait to see more content created around it!
Played Wayfinder after they moved from shitty mmo to bad and boring single player with optional co-op. The gameplay is still like an mmo. Played this in september and I cannot recommend this.
The adversity of this dev team is inspiring and should be applauded. I really hope people give this one a download and Airship Syndicate gets the love and support they deserve.
1 view fell off
Thank you for following this game so close and giving us this update.
I was praying they would be able to somehow fix their issues as the game looked so appealing.
I'm definitely going to jump in now!
Ive been on the fence on this, but your review made me purchase it!
So glad youtube recommended this video. Found my new comfort game
It's rare to see such a turnaround. I'm so happy for this team. One of those positive Steam reviews is mine!
That's.. nice.
Skip
The thing about Wayfinder's art is that the company was founded by Joe Mad, who is one of the two creative directors of Darksiders and Darksiders 2 (a series I will ride for until the end of days (pun intended)). The other creative director went on to create Darksiders 3 and the Remnant series, which Austin mentioned. This is primarily why I also genuinely like playing Torchlight Infinite, despite being a p2w ARPG, it's still engaging and I can chill while playing it.
Super glad to see you cover this. I've enjoyed this game through every phase.
Very happy to hear this. You could tell there was passion behind it.
This is a very stark and quite a unique example of how monetisation is ruining the gaming experience. People who argue a lot of these things are "convenience" or "cosmetic only" or you can "grind for it eventually" are kind of right, but you can see here how shallow or tedious games can become to encourage or force you into monetisation to get the most out of it.
I'm so glad to see your review finally up. I've been playing for a couple weeks now and it's fantastic. It's an absolute bargain at $25. And Remnant II was great, glad to see it mentioned.
I am so happy this game finally got a proper release. Been one of my most anticipated games of late
Awesome review. This wasn't on my radar at all after the initial launch, but i'll be giving it a go for sure now.
I had so much fun with the core systems of this game when I tried them during the free beta. At that price it's an absolute steal to get a condensed version of that incredibly fun experience! Thank you for bringing this to my attention, can't wait to dive back in. :)
Buying this right now. These are the types of devs that need to be recognized
So glad you guys are covering this! I'm rooting for Airship Syndicate on this one. The new ARPG set up is fun with engaging systems. One price, no monetization bs and a pretty big world to explore.
Yep. The changes have been great. Hyped for mod support most rn
OH, Austin voiced this one. I was like wtf why do you sound so different? you okay? are you sick again? lol
oh man, feels good to see a studio's passion finally pay off. I'm reminded of Gigantic, whose developers, Motiga, came in to work for free for MONTHS just to get the game out, only for it to completely fail to take off and for Motiga to close down anyway. Through no fault of their own, a passionate, committed studio went down for the sins of the father(Arc launcher + no press + gamebreaking RAM bug.)
it's just good to see a good game and good studio do well.
This isn’t remotely my type of game and I’m a dad of 3 so have a severe lack of gaming time. However, I just got a steam deck so been looking at trying something I wouldn’t normally go for.
This looks great! Even better it’s SD verified so that’s me sold. Solid review Austin, you really make a compelling case for this game and I’m excited to try it out!
I'm glad that people are giving this game a second chance and re-evaluating their first impressions from the initial early access launch.
Started playing this last weekend on PS5, having a great time with it. So glad for a single player (offline even) game like this. May be the closest we ever get to a game like Too Human, so I'll enjoy this one as much as I can.