Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

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.

I'm really enjoying this game -- was I supposed to hate it?
Seriously, not seeing why all the negative reviews?
The combat and itemization and 'workflow' (inventory, equipment, powers, upgrades, etc) is all on par w/ the best ARPG's I've played.
So far what I've experienced, it's worth getting, especially on sale.
Re: other 2 complaints I've seen:
1) the story.
Meh, no worse than any other ARPG I've played. Perhaps introduces too many in-universe concepts via dialogue, which rarely has a narrative impact and doesn't really work to increase tension or drama. Otherwise, it's par for the course.
2) online play
Can't speak to that, because I play ARPG's for the solo experience.
Overall, I'm having fun, look forward to completing it, and probably trying the other classes/builds.

While I recommend this game, I only recommend when it's on sale. My price was $3, and I consider it well worth the money.

I was hesitant to buy this at first. Many reviews were bad, but for $3, the skill tree looked cool. I'm glad I bought it.

First, let's understand the hate this game gets. It no longer offers online play, which is bummer. I would have put many more hours on this if I could play with others. Sadly, that era has ended. More deservingly of hate, from what I've read, the company that made the game let down the community by what feels like a failure to complete the game. You can see it in the way the story develops (more about that later), but I wasn't playing for the story. I was playing for the fun and character building.

As you play through Act 1-3, you'll realize that this game would have been amazing in it's glory days, and you'll be confused about the negative reviews. Well, you'll understand when Act 4 hits. The story gets thrown out the window and Act 4 progression is basically an end game sampler. I continued to have fun with the game, but the story that was gaining my interest went out the door. With that said, Act 4 was still fun, and the end game is even more fun. Ultimately, I would put tons of hours into this game and recommended it at full price if there was still online play.

So, for $3, I recommend this game. I made a dual pistols dude, finished Act 4 and played some endgame. I never felt a great deal of challenge from the game, but I don't need that to have fun. I simply enjoy the character building. Not to mention, in my opinion, they nailed the endgame content. A part of me wants to pour another 20 hours into the game for endgame content, but I think it's time to move on.

Pros:
+The art direction is kind of cool. Feels a little like Warhammer, and I love those character designs.
+A nice spin on the skill tree. Pun intended.
+Leveling progression is satisfying. I didn't need a guide to build a playable character.
+The story is actually pretty interesting. I usually, skip cut scenes in heavy dialogue fantasy games, but they had me interested in the story.
+Wonderful endgame. Some reviews call it roguelike, but I think that's not a good description. It's more like a time loop, and you don't loss much at all when the loop restarts. It's a nice and casual, continue making your character stronger and stronger vibe, with minimal risks.
+Switches well between keyboard and controller.

Cons
-The story is great Acts 1-3, and then they just flush it all down the toilet. The story ends, but it's like the budget ran out and instead of a 12 episode TV season, we get a 90 minute movie that was written by someone's eight year old grandson.
-Character building progression never changed my gameplay by any significant means. In other words, I started playing one way, and even though I found some cool skills on the skill tree, nothing really change the way I played. Maybe it's a me problem, but I never found anything significant on the skill tree that was game changing.
-The game no longer offers online multiplayer, but it did.
-The game was obviously cut short in both story and Acts. It feels like the just slapped on Act 4, which is basically the sample endgame, and told the community, "Yeah. We finished the game. Be happy." Shame.
- Random controller glitches. Something content doesn't seem controller friendly. Sadly, that's common with this genre of game. I also experienced frequent input lag. It may have been a controller issue, a glitch, or maybe a feature. IDK.

In conclusion, I recommend this game when it's on sale. If there was infinite time in life, I'd play this a few more times. It was fun, and I think you'd have fun with it too.

Imagine you buy this on sale for 10$ and get a single player ARPG thats decent, without any service model, without forced online and cosmetic store. It had problems at launch but now its a hidden gem if you can look past a bit of jankiness.

Not sure why all of the hate on this game. I have really had a blast playing through the campaign. No this is not as big as Grim Dawn or as deep as Diablo, but not everything needs to be. Also not sure about the bugs I read about in other reviews. I have not run into a single issue as of yet.

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!

This is an excellent solo experience.
I really enjoyed the environment designs, this game has one of the best backgrounds I have ever seen in any game, the skill mechanics are great and the fighting feels nice.
This is one of the best isometric ARPG I have played.
The only downside is the chapter 4, which is part of the story, BUT was fused with end-game grinding, I am simply not amused by that, end-game should be after the campaign has been completed, having it to be grinded with end-game farming is not a good game experience. Chapter 4 is a really lazy dev choice and is not worth playing.