No Rest for the Wicked, the preview of a probable success

No Rest for the Wicked it is undoubtedly an interesting product. The game is developed by Moon Studioswhich a few days after the release of theearly access that we are examining today, declared through the CEO that he wanted to make this game the first chapter of a titanic work inspired by The Lord of the Rings. Let’s not waste too much time and let’s examine the game.

There is no rest for the damned

In the’year 841 The King Harol diesleaving the kingdom in the hands of his son who does not seem to be too capable of juggling between the political forces of the Vizier and the ecclesiastical forces of the Madrigal Seline: everyone pulls grist to their own mill, until we come to town. It turns out that ours is not exactly a human race: we are Cerimmystical sacred warriors endowed with extraordinary powers who have sworn to defeat the Pestilence, the true evil of this time.

This plague, which corrupts everyone and turns people and animals into monsters, is starting to spread throughout the world. This dark tone it’s really intriguing, because in net contrast with the fairytale glimpses and with the related light effects that are seen from time to time. The horrors that exist are truly scary in many cases, in addition to the fact that corruption makes the monsters truly difficult: it is fulfilling defeat them and feel superior to them.

Weapons and Baggage

In No Rest for the Wicked you will be able to choose what type of character to create, passing through the classic classes that exist in an action RPG and (needless to say! ed.) I chose the classic warrior in heavy armor equipped with two-handed greatsword: this involves several misfortunes and some small advantages. In the game my protagonist will be significantly slow, therefore dodging will be usable, but the animation will suffer, my attacks they will be lenses (but also very powerful!), and the parry is to be excluded (an animation that works very well if you have a shield or two blades).

As an advantage, I have exceptional strength on my side, and I can “shoulder” enemies, who will consequently be knocked down and will be subject to my blows, while they will be helpless on the ground. It is also possible to hit the enemy and make him fall off a cliff to kill him, convenient. If you love stealth, you can try your hand at taking enemies from behind and making critical hits, typical of Soulslike. Of course, the weight of objects on your person matters. so at every level upwhen they are obtained 3 points to invest in characteristics, it will be essential to insert some points in the “object transport” feature.

At the menu level we have space for various things, which will unlock over time killing bosses and “elite” enemies, delivering a certain object to an NPC located in the city. Basically you will have space for:

• Weapon in right hand
• Weapon or shield in left hand (or torch)
• Helmet
• Armor
• 1 leggings
• 1 glove
• Ring
• Trinket
• Fishing pole
• Pickaxe
• Shovel
• Ax

In short, a real war arsenal and more. There are many activities to do, ranging from the hardest fight to digging with a shovel, cutting down trees and picking a pickaxe, and yes, there is also room for fishing. You can use everything you find both in the city at them NPCs (which we will see shortly) either around the mapcooking tasty recipes to recover life points.

While fighting you can choose whether to carry out light or heavy attacks, each weapon has at least a couple of possible combosas well as a crazy variety of attack patterns: you will have to and can choose the your style given that even the same weapon could strike differently once held.

Cities and NPCs

The view of the city is undoubtedly spectacular: here you can buy a house, furnish it and also use it to sleep (an operation that will give you a temporary bonus when you restart the game). In the central square we will find the Carpenterready to transform our wood logs into slabs, the Enchantress which will be able to enhance our weapons or armor with magic or runes (here it gets a little complex because the enhancement will be random, too bad!). There’s the classic Blacksmithwhich will make the forge and its anvil available to us to enhance or forge weapons, as well as create actual ingots.

Also present is a lady who runs one Inn (which all in all performs the same task as your home, but is free) and the Cook who will teach you many recipes to heal or strengthen you temporarily. You will also find two sisters running one Haberdasheryuseful if you have chosen the wizard or similar, and two NPCs selling potions or various items. In short, there is no shortage of entertainment, as well as verticality.

A great start

The early access of No Rest for the Wicked confirmed what our initial vibes were: the game is huge, full of elements, things to do, secrets to find, enemies to face and compete against. There are those who have defined it as an “isometric soulslike”, and this is partly true, but from another point of view it is much less punitive than souls.

What’s that it does not work at the moment? Let’s start with the technical side, and by saying that in general you need an excellent PC to make it run properly: for the moment, thanks to the “brute force” of my build, I was fine, but if you approach the game with a 4050/4060 you’d better setting up right away a medium/low level of graphics otherwise FPS will suffer.

In game i teleportation points they only lead into the city, which is a real pain. Also it is absent clear pointer missions And there is no minimap to consult on the fly. Finally, resources like metal, wood And fish they repopulate very slowly and some only after many hours.

On the other hand there are several super positive aspects. Starting from the technical aspect, visually the game is one show: the emphasis placed on the characters and the character design are of the highest level, you could waste hours grasping every detail, every tile of every roof and every element on the screen that moves. The shot feedbackweapons and magic is phenomenal, and when an enemy is taken down, it truly makes you feel like a champion.

Despite the problems listed on the map, theexploration it is very satisfying and enjoyable, while the riddles and puzzles really well designed environments. Finally, we find one large variety of weapons, armor And consumable items already available right now, which gives us hope both for future builds and for those already achievable in early access.

We reiterate that there is still much to do: the endgame is barely mentioned for now, and is summarized in an arena in which to face enhanced versions of the bosses and enemies, but it is clear that it is a “sketch” thrown in at random, because in fact the map is barely discoverable and the city itself is 35% explorable. The beginning is undoubtedly exciting, we sincerely hope that Moon Studios takes advantage of user feedback and improves this little wonder.