Talk about Moon Studios It is practically synonymous with talking about quality. The Austrian development study has given a lot to talk about, both with Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps. And thanks to a highly emotional narrative, fun playable mechanics and a scandalous artistic section, both titles managed to make a place in the hearts of thousands of players, as well as recipients of numerous recognitions. Now, when the whole world was eagerly awaiting a third part, those responsible decided to take a new direction and try something different with No Rest for the Wickeda brutal yet beautiful action RPG, whose dark and attractive world tests our determination minute by minute.
No Rest for the Wicked It’s a different type of animal. Healing items have a 10-second cooldown after use, equipment loses durability every time we die, and missions reward a few coins. For its part, the combat is challenging, the enemies hit very hard and scale their level along with ours. Here, dying is very easy. In this way, the game seeks to destroy our confidence, constantly taking us to the terrain of discomfort. While it is true that it does not reach the levels of frustration typical of titles like Sekiroit seems that the studio had designed the game with the idea of making us suffer during the first hours.
Despite this, the first thing that catches the attention of No Rest For The Wicked, is how incredibly beautiful it looks. Just like in the saga Ori, Moon Studios He did a tremendous job in his new job. We are faced with an extremely stylized title, which refers to oil painting, but in motion. The game itself looks fantastic, with incredible detail and a dark fantasy setting that is a visual delight. It is one of those proposals that invites you to press ‘F12’ to compulsively capture the screen. Of course, this also carries over to the animations and character models, building a cinematic staging.
In this sense, the intelligent use of the camera contributes a lot. For example, many action RPGs (Devil, Torchlight, etc.) use an isometric plane, whose position remains unchanged throughout the adventure. More or less the same thing happens here, with the exception that eventually the camera moves creating sequences that seem ripped from a film, putting a lot of emphasis on what we see on the screen. That is to say, sometimes the game itself wants to highlight the beauty of natural monuments, forests or ancient buildings, trying to convey the feeling of amazement that the protagonist of the title must feel to the players themselves.
Making the game feel like a small movie has its counterpart. The camera sometimes works against you, making navigation on the map difficult. Sometimes it is difficult to know exactly where we can and should move, since you cannot rotate. And in such large and vertical scenarios, such functionality becomes essential in order to avoid unnecessary deaths. As a result, it is also common to try to go through areas that were not actually designed, or even thought of, so that we can travel through them. In fact, in some areas we can even accidentally fall off the map, which translates into certain death.
The combat goes against the typical philosophy of any action RPG, where everything revolves around facing huge hordes of enemies, carrying the ‘power fantasy‘ to stratospheric limits. No Rest For The Wicked takes a different path, since it practically feels like a soulslike. The fights are much more ‘intimate’, since it is rare that we have to fight two or three enemies simultaneously. In addition, they usually hit very hard, have a lot of health and act intelligently. In other words, if the intention is to approach this game as if it were a “any devil”, we can receive countless and frequent beatings.
The fights in general have a fairly slow pace, where it is necessary to learn and memorize patterns, look for windows to fit two or three attacks and put distance with our rival before he hits us. Enemies are not stupid, but use their entire arsenal of moves, which includes dodging and parrys that can leave us completely sold. In addition to all this, it is also important to manage stamina, because each attack or flip will consume part of it. And the best thing is the enormous variety of weapons that we can use, which radically change the way we approach a fight.
Although the combat is quite spectacular, especially when we face a boss, the star of the production is the world and its design. In this sense, it is clear that Moon Studios took note of the work of FromSoftware, since we also have ‘bonfires’, interconnected scenarios and shortcuts, but also a lot of verticality. This makes exploration a delight, because we always find something new, whether it’s an area we’ve overlooked, a treasure chest, or even stunning landscapes. And yes, it may sound absurd that the “reward” for reaching the top of a mountain is a panoramic view of the area, but taking into account how beautiful the game looks, it is a detail that is greatly appreciated.
Another interesting aspect is that in No Rest for the Wicked crafting and resource gathering play an important role. It should be noted that there are no survival mechanics, but fishing, cutting down trees and extracting minerals are used to create healing objects, weapons, armor, or potions, among many other things. However, all of this can also be used to rebuild the buildings in the city of Sacramenta, which serves as our base of operations. Eventually, it will even be possible to buy our own home, furnish it and welcome other players who can join the adventure, that is, once the cooperative mode is implemented.
Needless to say, the title is still in Early Access (Early Access), so some unknowns remain in the air. The story does not develop much, but it gives us a glimpse that political conspiracies, twists and betrayals in the purest style Game of Thrones, will be the order of the day. The characters themselves are quite interesting, with very strong personalities that are reinforced by exquisite design and excellent voice acting. In this sense, Moon Studios knew how to capture an emotional narrative in Ori, with unforgettable moments and sequences that touched our most sensitive fibers. It’s hard to think that they will take a similar path here, since a much more epic aura is perceived, but it is likely that the team in charge of writing the game will manage to make us shed the odd tear.
Something similar happens with the daily and weekly missions, which are always the same. This is because – at the moment – we can only explore two areas of what promises to be a vast world. Therefore, once the narrative thread concludes, we can continue playing but spending most of the time collecting resources or eliminating certain types of enemies in exchange for a few coins. The curious thing is that, although it may sound repetitive or boring because we will know each area like the back of our hand, the enemies change, making re-exploring a place previously visited, become a new experience.
Of course, being still in development, it is common to encounter some errors. Some are minor, such as being temporarily stuck with some element of the environment, inconsistencies in translation or moments in which the controls do not respond when trying to consume a healing. But there are also more serious ones, such as sudden “hangs” that take us out of the game, and instances in which the character freezes, being able to walk but unable to carry out any action.
It’s a relief to see that the development team is trying to solve all these problems through constant patches. And while the game itself is pretty polished, there are still plenty of issues to fix, the most notable being performance. The truth is that, despite appearing otherwise, No Rest for the Wicked demand for a PC relatively powerful to be able to enjoy it properly. In addition, the graphical options are somewhat scarce, with only 4 presets that do not impact performance much. To all this, it must be mentioned that the game does not yet support DLSS, although an update for this will eventually arrive.
No Rest For The Wicked It is a very promising game that can only get better. For now, Moon Studios has not provided consistent information about how long this Early Access stage may last, although they shared a roadmap listing upcoming updates. Be that as it may, in its current state it offers a fresh formula within the action RPG genre, thanks to fun combat, a captivating world and an artistic style that leaves us speechless at every step. It still needs maturation, but it has everything to become another fantastic work by Moon Studios and, definitely, one to take into account.
