Our first impressions of No Rest For The Wicked, the ambitious new action RPG from Moon Studios, are currently in early access.
No Rest for The Wicked is finally playable in early access and from the first hours of the game the idea is very clear: Moon Studios is going for broke. The work of the Austrian development team seems to want to lay the foundations for something that will undoubtedly prove enormous and profound over time. These first hours of play have provided us with many certainties and some rigorous doubts: here are our first impressions of No Rest For The Wicked, currently in the early access version.
Story and gameplay
Our "adventure" begins with a simple and reduced character creator, who immediately presents us with the artistic style of No Rest For The Wicked, something decidedly innovative and never seen before in terms of character proportions. It is not known whether the creation of the character will then see an addition of content, or whether it will maintain this effective simplicity.
Once we have created our protagonist and given a name to our game world, we are greeted by a very impressive introductory scene, capable of showing what the mood of No Rest For The Wicked is first and foremost and its muscles in artistic and graphic terms, which undoubtedly left us speechless. In this initial phase of the game, we find our protagonist on board a ship headed to the island of Sacra, on which this very serious infection capable of transmuting human beings into unspeakable abominations has spread: it is therefore up to us to investigate this "epidemic ” to find a solution.
On board the ship we will therefore learn the dynamics of the gameplay through the initial tutorial and we will understand from the first battle how much the game is certainly inspired by Diablo in terms of visuals, settings, and loot system, but still tends to wink at souls- like in terms of gameplay. In fact, each battle must be faced by analyzing the enemy, calculating the dodge/parry times, and the movement distance of the attacks. All combined in the calculation of the residual resistance, which varies based on the weapon and armor worn: we can in fact opt for example between rapid double daggers with reduced damage, or push ourselves towards heavier broadswords and swords which tend to slow us down and consume more stamina.
Even the hud of No Rest For The Wicked seems to recall the world of souls, but fortunately, the title turns out to be decidedly less punitive than the series of games created by Miyazaki: we will certainly find ourselves having to put in a good number of attempts to beat the different bosses and mini-bosses scattered around the game world, but fortunately by dying we will not lose anything in our possession, at worst the equipment will deteriorate and it will always be possible to repair it at one of the available blacksmiths.
Once we have learned to manage the game environment and its enemies (and increasing the statistics more similar to our gaming style and equipment), we will be able to face even the most difficult bosses.
A dark and huge game world
The game world of No Rest For The Wicked immediately reveals itself to be enormous, but not distracting. The title developed by Moon Studios manages to stimulate exploration without losing sight of its missions and, in the long run, is boring. Once we arrive at Sacrament, it is clear how the developers' objective is to guarantee a profound experience that is not linked to simple farming, but intent on pushing us to experience Sacra and what it has to show us, for better or for worse.
In artistic terms, Moon Studios has created a semi-masterpiece that aims to show us something completely new and never seen before, all embellished with a painstaking study of lighting that manages to enhance every corner of the game world without ever repeating itself. Special mention must also be made to the game physics, studied down to the smallest detail: the rain gives sensations of depth and darkness, it refracts perfectly on every surface in a decidedly realistic way and this also applies to explosions and the fall of enemies or of our character (always more than possible, after all Moon Studios made it big thanks to those masterpieces that were both Ori).
The price to pay, however, for this type of physics in play is that No Rest For The Wicked turns out to be a rather "heavy" title, even for PC configurations updated with the latest components available on the market: this flaw is certainly a factor that the development team will have to take into consideration for the future, although at the moment several rather substantial updates have already been released, an indication of how much Moon Studios aims to release the game in more than optimal conditions.
Having overlooked the problem of the "heaviness" of the game, it is essential to underline once again how the artistic sector of the game proves to be profoundly inspired, innovative, and far from what the sector has proposed so far in action-RPG contexts. Wandering around Sacra in search of loot is in fact a pleasure, the exploration took us to decidedly breathtaking settings.
In conclusion
No Rest For The Wicked turned out to be a pleasant surprise, a mix of different game styles and gameplay dynamics well combined with each other, which suggests a deep desire on the part of Moon Studios to support the title in the long term. But was it necessary to release it in Early Access? We're not so sure. A special mention also goes to the audio sector, never banal in its choices and always spot on to support the gameplay without overpowering it, but embellishing it and increasing its pathos.
Moon Studios has certainly done a precise and inspired job, which in the future could certainly position No Rest For The Wicked among the action RPGs to play, provided, however, that the developers manage to keep it alive, always releasing new and interesting missions that are different from each other. After all, Moon Studios have been clear, since their intent is to revolutionize this now-old category of games according to their point of view.
Will they succeed in this undertaking? In our opinion, the path taken is the right one. Early access succeeded in its aim of showing the muscles of a game certainly made with a lot of passion, although it is not free from defects (predictable in this phase of development).