It almost went unnoticed at this year’s TennoCon thanks to the big reveal of Soulframe and Warframe’s latest content round, but Digital Extremes actually has yet another multiplayer game on deck – a collab between DE and Airship Syndicate, the latter run by Joe Madureira and boasting Ruined King: A League of Legend story on its resume. And as of tonight’s Game Awards, we’ve gotten a much deeper peer into the game the studios are calling a “character-based, online action RPG.” We’ve even got a name beyond the “Project Skylight” codename: Wayfinder.
A look at the brand-new trailer aired tonight shows a game that visually looks like a comfortable and familiar mash-up of art styles from World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and WildStar.
The world of Evenor is being consumed by the foul force of the Gloom. As Wayfinders, lights amidst the darkness in a world consumed by Gloom, players must control the chaos and reconnect a fractured world as they choose a unique path through an online world of endless action and adventure. To cease the Gloom’s devastating decay of Evenor, players will choose from a variety of Wayfinders (characters) to control, each with their own unique story, play styles, and abilities, harnessing their power together to defend Evenor from forces that seek to destroy it.
Uniting with fellow Wayfinders, players will use their Gloom Dagger to adventure into Lost Zones – dungeon-like areas touched and consumed by the Gloom – resulting in shifting change and chaos. Wayfinders can control the chaos with their Gloom Dagger, an ancient artifact of obscure origin, strategically implementing mutators that can dictate enemies encountered, items and resources dropped, and more. Wayfinders attempting to control this chaos will find the Gloom pushing back – implementing its own augmentations and modifiers to enemy damage, environmental hazards, and more where no two play sessions are the same.
● CONTROL THE CHAOS: Customize every play experience by stepping through a doorway of endless action with the help of a mysterious device known as a Gloom Dagger. Each adventure has unique modifiers and challenges you conjure and control, customizing what you hunt, and gather.
● BECOME A WAYFINDER: Born of the Gloom, Wayfinders wield arcane magic, mystical tech, or cunning weapons, to restore the balance of a broken world. Customize the way you fight by choosing your weapons and gear and augmenting your powers with the Echoes of your fallen foes.
● EXPLORE AND COLLECT: Embark on hunts and expeditions to discover new locations, battle new enemies and even awaken powerful Wayfinders. Collect and craft weapons and gear as you complete your Atlas and increase Mastery. Participate in live events with ongoing character-driven content updates.
● STRONGER TOGETHER: Wayfinders are stronger together. From adventuring with friends to developing your Apartment and its powerful buffs to a neighborhood, all of your social interactions, character and housing progression are tied together by the most important thread… each other.
Ahead of the show, we reached out to the team to ask about the multiplayer nature of the title and how MMO-like it could be. Here’s what the studio told MOP:
“In a lot of ways, Wayfinder is our spin on the MMOs that have inspired us throughout the years. We believe at their core, MMOs are about community, an evolving world, and persistence when you log off. Wayfinder hits all three of those MMO-defining notes and we’ll continue to grow and evolve the world and experience for years to come. While team size is 3 for Lost Zone adventures (with larger group content planned for the future) we are currently iterating and testing different max users in instances and have no hard numbers to share at this time, but rest assured: when adventuring in the world, you’ll find plenty of people to team up with for adventures in our large open world area.”
Apparently Wayfinder will be playable as soon as next week as PC closed beta kicks off on December 13th; beta signups are already live. Early access is planned for spring of 2023 on PC and PlayStation with an expansion to other devices by fall. And it’ll be free-to-play, “embracing Digital Extremes’ free-and-fair monetization philosophy.”
Skylight isn’t just the codename of our next adventure… it’s also the name of the main city in the game. Skylight is the last bastion of hope for humanity and a place you’ll call home.
Here is what it looks like in-game.@thegameawards full reveal is right around the corner. pic.twitter.com/Uu1OyBbMdB
— Airship Syndicate (@AirshipSyn) September 29, 2022
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