Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

I have a little history with Wolcen ,i tried it a few years ago and my computer had some problems,here on steam this is my second experience with this game.
Unfortunately my review comes at a time when developpers announced their plan to end the support for multiplayer and endgame content however there's enough content in the single player campaign and to be honest i was interested only in that. The after grind is not for me and there are better alternatives for that.
If you never heard of this game there are similar games like Path of Exiles or Diablo series,this can be a great choice if you're interested in action rpgs with dungeon crawling and loot-based progression.
I really liked the dark fantasy theme and visually the game is a feast for the eyes and for my surprise the voice acting was great for this kind of game. After some browsing i discovered popular voice actors from games i played before like dragon age or witcher 3.
In terms of gameplay everything was smooth with no major issues or bugs.. the movement was fluid and the dodge/roll responsive. With a huge arsenal of spells and combinations of talent trees you can create a unique character, featuring a classless system Wolcen doesn't lock you into a specific class !
Another mechanic i enjoyed was the Apocalyptic Form, this transforms you into avatars with unique and powerful abilities ,there are multiple avatars you can unlock each with its own theme. Beyond the cool factor and amazing visuals there are strategic advantages during though battles or boss fights.
At this point in time i can only recommend this if you're looking for the single player content, for a great price during a sale of course.
Pros:
- Great story with twists and betrayals
- Voice acting
- Visuals
Cons:
- If you want more than single player campaign,read the negative reviews
My review score
Story - 9
Gameplay- 8
Graphics- 8
Sound - 9
Overall - 8.5

Whether this game is 'good' or not comes down to one thing. What price did you buy it at?
Buying for $29.99? ❌
Buying for $2.99? ✅
For $2.99, the cost to value ratio is insanely good. And I like that this is more Grim Dawn than Path of Exile. Not as good as Grim Dawn, but also, not 'disappointing' by any stretch of the imagination for a $2.99 purchase.

The current review score for this game is abysmally low (dec 2024, 55% positive) yet I really enjoyed it.
The game isn't without flaw but among the genre I found it far more enjoyable than most hack&slash.
GOOD:
I was surprised by the great soundtrack.
The excellent voice acting may also be a reason why I found the story engaging even if it was often clumsy.
You are often accompanied by companion that talk a lot. Even villains can be talkative. I keep in mind 'Lambach' who I find original because of its silly dialogs.
The game doesn't deliver all its content in the few first hours and rinse&repeat. Be it skills/enemies/story/environments, it's progressively introduced and it wasn't too repetitive until the last chapter.
The last chapter is made to be played endlessly in an original way.
The environments don't seems to be generated procedurally. The player isn't thrown in a big squared map filled by random stuff, it never reach the level of genericity of some other hack&slash. They are still variations in the enemies/optional area/chests when I left the game and reloaded the same level.
The fights, the skills are so satisfying. They are visually impactful, it may also be partially related to the camera, closer to the character.
The skills independently gains levels and unlock various modifiers interchangeable at anytime.
The characters can roll to avoid attacks.
BAD:
In my opinion, the biggest shortcoming is the lack of presenting or embellishing. Like a journal to recap the story, or a compendium, listing the characters/factions/lore.
Some game options can remain hidden be cause not explained/presented to the player.
The continuity in the story between each chapter (there are only 4 chapters) can be weird. Once more, I would have have appreciated a flavor text or something else to make it more natural.
There are very detailed stats and skill descriptions, but sometimes it's lacking or confusing. The worst example: a skill augment the damage received by a enemy, but it never say by how much percent.
It's hard to see buff/debuff.
NO crash, but 2 or 3 minor bugs are still presents and I experienced them only in the last chapter of the story. The "funniest" in my opinion is when I finished the game, the credits failed to show up... And in one of the final cutscene, the floor wasn't displayed.
I had one dungeon that I had to restart because a door never opened. The most annoying bug was this one but leaving the game and reloading fixed it.
Dialogs during fights can be cut in the middle of a sentence, but I don't know what is the trigger. So after it happened 3 times, each time my character started to speak, I stopped my fight and turned around enemies to be sure to listen the entire thing.
I don't know if it's truly a negative point but the difficulty may seems a bit too easy for players who have already played hack&slash before. It's only at the last chapter that I risked the life of my character. To be truly dead, it requires to lose all your health points 3 times in a row.
Overall Wolcen gave me this ambivalent impression: the game is filled with many details where I could feel the love of its developers to do things better than needed but at the same time they never seem to fully want to show all the good things their game has. They try to make the best game as possible, but give up at the last part where they should try finalize its presentation to deliver its strong points with more impact.
It's a game where I really hope to see a sequel which retains everything that I enjoyed.

Great action rpg for 40 hours. I like that this game is this way, I dont want to play it for hundreds of hous. Great visuals, gameplay, setting, also story is nice.
Not every RPG needs to be endless!

I will start out by saying I am new to the Action RPG genre, and having little to no experience in the genre I rather enjoyed my time playing Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem. Before starting I saw the mixed reviews and was not sure what to expect, but right from the early going I was delightfully surprised to like and even be impressed with many aspects of the game. The game play was fun and I was kept mostly engaged throughout the story. Wolcen isn't the most challenging game even on the harder mode, but I didn't find this to be a drawback. The end game does become repetitive but still offers ways to up the challenge. The combat was solid and even in the end game it was still fun mowing down endless hordes of enemies. There are many enemy types and some have a really cool design to them which helps keep the game fresh. There are many types of weapons and spells to choose which all can be tweaked to your own liking to better suit your build. The perk tree is massive but doesn't feel overwhelming, you can even rotate the perk tree to allow even more customization to your character. You can make some really OP builds and there are a lot of possibilities. I enjoyed the story even if it was a little cliche and predictable, but it had some depth to it and was on the longer side. Some parts of the story were hard to follow but still in the end I was satisfied. The graphics were a strong point of the game. From the cinematic like cut scenes, to the detailed environments and enemies, its a pretty game. The music suited the game nicely and added to the medieval feel of the game. There were some parts of the game that reminded me of The Lord of the Rings which I thought was cool.
That being said there were some aspects of the game that were inconsistent and held the game back. The game lacked polish in areas, there were some graphical glitches and audio glitches but nothing too severe. On occasions a piece of loot could not be picked up off the ground. I did experience infrequent crashing though the game did a good job of keeping your progress. Some parts of the game like the hub area and project map felt a tad bleak and lifeless. There is an online component to the game with an related achievement that allows you to play Co-op, but that feature will be removed September 17th, 2024. The price is fair for the quantity and quality of the product, though there are games in the genre that are free and many would argue better games. However these negatives weren't enough to deter me from liking the game and my time playing it. Wolcen might not be winning any awards for best in category but I still thought it was a good game and one I would recommend.
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This game is just ok. It's unoriginal in visual style and narrative. It also has a few flaws that don't really ruin gameplay. Recommended if you like a standard Diablo clone (though Wolcen is more specifically a Path of Exile clone). Try to buy it at a bargain price, because whatever bugs you may encounter are probably never going to be fixed.

Bought the game at release and never opened it again, untill now. Most of the issues have been fixed, so it's worth playing now