About a year ago, I had the opportunity to play an early access build of Wayfinder in development by Airship Syndicate. On its initial early access release, Wayfinder was presented as a free-to-play online-only co-op-focused MMORPG-lite. At the time, while the base systems felt solid and the combat had potential, many were concerned about typical F2P title woes such as microtransactions, paywalls, and the like.
This was before the original publisher backed out of the development process, leaving Airship Syndicate with a tough choice: close it all down or reimagine their hard work and investment as something new. Wayfinder 1.0 is the culmination of that reimagining. With Wayfinder 1.0, gone is the focus on online-only play, micro-transactions and the MMORPG-lite structures and what remains is an online/offline single-player/co-op Action RPG.
This short history lesson is important to help offer some context to the state in which Wayfinder is being reviewed. Many of the core systems are still present but redesigned to fit this new focus. Many of the elements that were originally designed to be behind a paywall have been freed and now simply come as part of the game’s new $25 price point. So, while this is a review of Wayfinder 1.0, it will, at least to some degree, be reviewed through the lens of that history.
“With Wayfinder 1.0, gone is the focus on online-only play, micro-transactions and the MMORPG-lite structures and what remains is an online/offline single-player/co-op Action RPG.”
Wayfinder is a single-player/co-op offline/online Action RPG. The story sets the player on a journey to help restore a shattered world that is slowly being destroyed by a mysterious element called the Gloom. Plucked as an echo of a valiant hero who has sacrificed themself to hold back the Gloom, players can choose from a series of Wayfinders to take on the monumental task of unravelling the mysteries of the Gloom while trying to restore the dying world around them.
While engaging enough to keep me moving through the story, the narrative itself isn’t the main driving force of Wayfinder. While serviceable and well-voice-acted, the narrative never creates a sense of urgency or deep investment in the NPCs or the Wayfinders you choose to play. While they all do have some backstory, it feels unimportant to move the plot forward and lacks any real character development or depth. You are essentially a tool the narrative uses to help progress the story forward. As a result, while the story and its delivery are solid enough, there is never a deep investment in what is happening.
Part of this underwhelming narrative immersion seems to be a result of how Wayfinder handles character creation. Wayfinder strays slightly from traditional ARPGs in that players will not create a unique character to use to explore the world of Wayfinder.
Instead, they will have the option of three starter Wayfinders who become like hot-swappable kits that can all be levelled up to take on the world around them. Additional Wayfinders can be unlocked through a combination of exploration and combat giving players a wide range of characters and playstyles to choose from. While it leads to some great progression, it does detract from one becoming invested in the greater narrative.
While the story struggles to keep player attention the aforementioned player progression systems help rectify this misstep. In this regard, the MMO roots come shining through. There are multiple progression mechanics to manage throughout your time in the world of Wayfinder, all working together to help shape and hone your character and playstyle. Wayfinders, weapons and gear can all be upgraded and awakened (at later levels) to help you push through more difficult content. Craftable accessories can be upgraded to help push your power level. Consumables, likewise, add another layer to the number of progression systems in play.
While Airship has done a solid job of helping introduce its various progression systems, there is a lot to contend with. This isn’t a critique, though. On the contrary, as there are no micro-transactions of paywalls that hinder these systems, there is an extra incentive to keep playing since everything is unlocked through gameplay.
“Wayfinder strays slightly from traditional ARPGs in that players will not create a unique character to use to explore the world of Wayfinder.”
While I’m still pushing my main to the highest power level I can, I’ve easily been able to power level additional Wayfinders thanks to mission awards in the form of XP boosts that can be applied to any Wayfinder I’ve collected. Likewise, while gear and trinkets have an item power level, none have a requirement level, meaning you are free to slot an epic high-end weapon of a brand-new character.
The freedom to play the way one chooses is one of the core strengths of Wayfinder. Everything from swapping Wayfinders to levelling gear to even choosing the level of difficulty you want to play on is easily accessible, hot-swappable and very forgiving. As an example, the difficulty level of the game can easily be switched mid-combat, allowing you to adjust the difficulty on the fly as needed. This can be especially helpful when soloing difficult bosses. Likewise, you have control over whether or not to scale the enemy’s level to match the zone or your level, giving you an impressive amount of freedom in the experience you have.
This carries over into many aspects of the game. Wayfinder, at its core, is separated into an overworld and dungeons that can be accessed either by discovering them while exploring or, once discovered, launched from Wayfinder’s central hub city. Once you’ve done the initial story run through any dungeon, Wayfinder encourages you to go back into those dungeons through a series of side quests, each requiring specific dungeon modifiers that have a direct impact on the experience you have inside the dungeon.
Everything from enemy engagement to environmental hazards to resources changes based on how you set the modifiers on the dungeon before launching. The result is a very customizable dungeon experience. As for the overworld, Airship has included a series of world events on timers that take place as you are playing through the game. At any given time various encounters and patrol missions are happening that invite you to tag along to earn some extra loot. It’s a great system that works quite well and allows you to once again cater to the play experience to best fit your desires and needs.
While the dungeons are procedurally generated at the moment, they seem to carry the same basic layouts and elements every time you run one. This can get to be a bit tiresome after multiple runs. I hope that we will continue to see an increasingly greater array of level designs and layouts in later patches to help keep things feeling fresh.
As for the overworld, aside from the main city hub there are three zones to discover and explore, each with their own distinct look and feel. In this regard, Airship has done an excellent job with its world design and layout. Each zone feels unique and distinct, offering its own unique enemies, puzzles and areas to engage with. The world looks great, and its unique art style will help it look great even as the game ages.
“The freedom to play the way one chooses is one of the core strengths of Wayfinder.”
Another MMO characteristic that has stayed with Wayfinder despite its shift in focus is its vast array of currencies and materials collected. This is one aspect of Wayfinder that could use some refinement. At the moment, there is a dizzying amount of things to keep track of, and often it takes a while to figure out where to farm the needed item or currency. Streamlining some of this, especially currencies, would help players spend less time researching where to get that special coin so they can buy the shiny new mount and more time working towards grinding for said mount. It’s by no means a game-breaking element, but it could be done with some reworking.
One area that it feels like Wayfinder has worked hard to refine, however, is combat. Combat in Wayfinder is a treat. Leaning heavy on the action, Wayfinder’s combat feels fluid and fun. Both ranged, and melee offer a lot of diversity in playstyle based on the weapons you choose to wield. As for choosing a weapon, Airship has opted to allow all Wayfinders access to all weapon types, giving players greater freedom over their play experience.
With this kind of freedom, it would be easy to think that choosing a Wayfinder becomes a purely cosmetic choice, however, this simply isn’t the case. Each Wayfinder comes equipped with their own unique set of abilities to bolster their combat prowess. Each ability looks and feels great to use and adds another layer of fun to the combat experience.
My only critique of the system at present is that each Wayfinder only has four abilities, all of which are eventually present on your action bar. While having limitations on the number of active skills is fine, it would be nice to have a few more skills per Wayfinder to choose from. At present, it can feel a bit one-dimensional, which limits otherwise solid combat mechanics.
Finally, a robust talent system aways players as they discover and use each Wayfinder. At the moment, it’s a purely passive talent tree that simply bolsters your existing abilities. This has the potential to be a great space to add future abilities for Wayfinders, giving players another reason to be strategic in their talent tree selection.
Traversing the world of Wayfinder is handled quite well. At first, you’ll spend most of your time running on foot around the first major zone, leveraging strategically placed zip lines, vaulting over rocks and jumping around the world. After accepting a specific quest, however, players will be introduced to the mount system, which works much like most other ARPGs. Once a mount is selected, though, exploration becomes a whole new game. The addition of increased mobility in the world is a welcome decision. To further reduce the back-and-forth players’ experience, Airship has included unlockable waypoints that open up fast travel to that location upon discovery. It’s a nice touch that is a welcome quality-of-life feature.
“At launch, Wayfinder is in the best state it has ever been in.”
Another feature that is quite fun to use is the transmog system. Once a piece of gear is discovered, a transmog copy of it is saved to your account, which can be accessed and assigned from a menu on the character sheet. You can even go so far as to pre-select weapon skins. The whole system is fun to use, and thanks to how the system is structured, any gear collected for other Wayfinders while exploring is still saved to the transmog page, saving you a lot of time farming for transmogs on other Wayfinders.
Another feature that took me by surprise was the player housing system in Wayfinder. It’s surprisingly robust and detailed, easy to use and offers some valuable perks to your gaming experience in the form of buffs and other daily rewards for popping by your apartment. While the basic layout of the space doesn’t change, there is an incredible amount of freedom to dress the space up any way you would like. As for furniture, items are often rewarded for completing missions. Additionally, players can buy or craft items from one of the local NPCs. It’s a surprisingly well-designed system.
At launch, Wayfinder is in the best state it has ever been in. The reworking of MMO systems, removal of micro-transactions and the refocusing of the title have all worked in its favour for the most part. While few systems could still use some refinement, great progression and excellent combat, along with some fun customization, help propel Wayfinder forward and make it a very enjoyable game to play.
It strikes a fairly solid balance between its MMORPG-lite roots and this new single-play/co-op online-offline design, which gives players as much freedom as possible to play their way. While there is still room for refinement and improvement, Wayfinder is shaping up to be one of the more impressive indie titles to release this year.
