Look at that: I don’t always talk a big talk — sometimes I actually end up playing the game I said I will. Like a year-plus later. BUT STILL. I’ve been wanting to check out Wayfinder for a long time now, but the right moment never presented itself to me until now.
Last week’s official launch of Wayfinder after a very troubled early access period felt like a good time to check it out. I’m actually somewhat encouraged to play it, too, since I’ve heard some positive things about it from friends. But whether the game itself is good and whether it’ll succeed in a post-launch environment are two different — if somewhat connected — questions.
I guess I want to start with my conclusion and work backwards a bit. Wayfinder is a genuinely good, engaging title. Apart from it not being more of an MMO in terms of on-screen population, guilds, and chatter, it’s got the feel of much of a seasoned online RPG. It’s easy on the eyes, has great character handling, feels rewarding, and offers perfect bite-sized gaming sessions — which might make it a good secondary or tertiary game for some of us, but it’s too small in scope to be a mainline title.
I love that the developers are MMO fans, and that love comes through in so much of this game. About the only thing that truly upset me at the start is that Wayfinder is wedded to specific pre-made characters that we collect and use versus freeform characters that are ours. In this, it’s less like an MMO and more like Overwatch 2 or League of Legends, which unfortunately distances the character from the player because the player does not create that toon or project him or herself onto it.
I started by picking from one of three initial characters, a mobile sniper/grenadier named Silo. And right away, those WildStar vibes come through very strongly in Wayfinder, just if WildStar was set in a vaguely post-apocalyptic setting where much of the world has been conquered by what sounds like the Care Bears’ nemesis, the Gloom.
But yeah, big WildStar homage with the vibrant colors, the exaggerated cartoon style, the double jumps, and the fluid animation. All of this is praise from me, because the feel of a game is incredibly important to me. Wayfinder lets you move around the world in a fast and fluid way, with zip lines and a single tap on the shift key to transition into sprint. There are even waystones (or whatever they call them here) that let you near-instantly transition from one place to another on the map.
No matter the MMO inspirations or prestige, Wayfinder isn’t that kind of game. The best way to describe it in terms is a combination of Guild Wars 1’s co-op zone maps, Palia’s coziness, and World of Warcraft’s delves. You go out, you get a mission or discover a pocket dungeon that’s slightly randomized, you complete it solo or with friends for rewards, and you go back to the city to spend those rewards. It’s a tried-and-true format that hangs off of the most flimsy of narrative structures and doesn’t overwhelm the user with overly huge or complex areas.
The way that this game eases you into its format is generally well-done. It’s a bit tutorial, then some dungeon action, then more tutorial, and so on until you’ve got the basics down. I like that I wasn’t waiting forever until I got into the action or started making progress with my character, but I was also learning through drip-fed information over the first few hours.
There were two elements that I didn’t like at the start, however. The first is that the UI, while attractive looking, is a little too spread out over the screen. I would’ve vastly preferred a hotbar of skills in the middle center than having those abilities allllll the way over to the right, like I was playing a mobile or console game. And the map, strangely, can’t be scrolled, only zoomed in and out. It’s not a good world map.
The other element that met my disapproval is how many different currencies are thrown at the player at the start. This is one of my MMO pet peeves, and I wish it hadn’t transitioned to this game. There’s so many of them, and while the tutorial briefly explains what each of them does, good luck remembering any of that when all you want to do is click these windows away so you can go have fun.
Once I got into the feel for exploration and combat, though, Wayfinder clicked with me. I didn’t play this because I had to for this article; I wanted to keep playing because it was compelling. I had a great time exploring these little dungeons, looting chests, poking around for secrets, figuring out traps, and trying to maximize my reward chests for each run (you get a maximum of three, I think, as long as you do a certain amount of content and don’t die too much).
Combat is fluid and as strategic as an action-RPG can be. It took me a little while to get used to a slower shooting rate that Silo’s rifle allowed, meaning that I had to make those hits count rather than spray-and-praying. I did have a great time throwing out fire bombs to packs and then kiting them around while they burned to death.
Bugs? I only encountered one in my play sessions, which is when I zoned into a small basement and got stuck underneath the floorboards. After being unable to hop my way out, I used a waypoint to teleport out, came back in, and everything was fine.
Let’s talk about loot for a moment because this is a game with lots of interesting loot. I know that sounds basic and like a given, but it’s really not with MMOs. So many of our online games throw gobs of junk at you as rewards, but little of it is exciting or useful.
In the first few hours of Wayfinder, quests, chests, and mobs kept throwing a ton of stuff my way that had my eyebrows quirking up and a delighted, “ooh!” coming out of my mouth. Yes, there was all of the standard currency and experience payouts, but I was also getting sprays, emotes, housing items, and keys to progress on this reward tower that — I think — culminates in unlocking a new character. It felt substantive and exciting, which is what you want loot to be.
Speaking of decor rewards, I want to talk about Wayfinder’s housing system too because it really bowled me over. It’s amazing. Early on in the game, you’re outright given an apartment as a thank-you from the city for fighting on its citizens’ behalf. I heard that from a quest giver and was thinking it’d surely be some one-room closet like the one Elder Scrolls Online gives everyone.
Nope — this was a huge gorgeous estate with multiple levels, wide windows, and even an outdoor balcony. The size was nice, but my next question was all about the placement tools, which is something that can make or break a housing system. Would Wayfinder make it easy to deck out my pad?
Yes. Oh yes. I say this without exaggeration: These are some of the most silky smooth placement tools I’ve seen in an online RPG. Within seconds — not minutes, seconds — I had a room decorated, as you can see above. There’s a wonderful freeform floating camera for placement that gives you full freedom of movement so that you can put anything wherever you want. I can see a lot of people getting really creative with this system.
After a year of early access, Wayfinder cruised to a full launch with a product that feels complete… yet with plenty of growth potential. I’m eager to keep exploring this title but worried that not enough people will pick this up to warrant more development. About 3,600 people on average were playing when I was, which was respectable but obviously not Throne and Liberty numbers.
I wonder whether the decision to downsize the game’s scope from a semi-MMO to a single-player/coop title may have cemented its defeat as a long-term prospect. There was a missed opportunity here to swing for the fences, but perhaps that was impossible to do with the resources at hand.
In any case, Wayfinder remains on my computer, and I’m looking forward to pushing further into this title.
Do you love spectating and speculating about upcoming MMOs? We do too! Every week, Justin tackles another upcoming title on the MMO Hype Train with opinions, analysis, and blind fervent hope. Choo choo all aboard!
