Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

I only discovered Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem when the servers were shutting down and it popped up in my “cheap ARPGs to waste spare cash on” searches. For three bucks, it felt like a harmless gamble. A lot of the negative reviews come from the launch era (when the game was apparently a bug festival) or from people who expected multiplayer. I went in knowing it’s single‑player only, so none of that bothered me.

What you get is an ARPG that aimed high and face‑planted hard - but left behind surprisingly high production value. Cutscenes look great, every line of dialogue is fully voiced, and the game is packed with interesting mechanical ideas.

The Rage/Willpower resource system is genuinely clever: Magic and combat skills feed into each other, opening the door for hybrid builds. In theory. In practice, skills are tied to weapon types, which limits creativity. I wanted to play an ice ranger hybrid, but since hybrid setups require a one‑hand weapon plus a catalyst - and I found a great bow early - I ended up going with a more traditional Rage build. This kind of inflexibility is a common complaint: the potential is there, but the weapon restrictions get in the way.

The passive system is where Wolcen shines. It’s a rotating web of nodes across three rings, and you can literally spin the sections to line up the archetypes you want. If you don't want to deal with it you spin the wheels so you get to the standard-fare trees - But you can also come up with a mixed melee, ranged and magic progression, almost every combination is possible! Most nodes are standard stat bumps, but some unlock entirely new mechanics - extra projectiles, damage bonuses if you avoid hits, and so on. Everything can be respecced cheaply, so experimentation is encouraged. I started building a glass‑cannon damage dealer and eventually shifted into a sturdier crowd‑control build because it simply felt better.

Combat difficulty is uneven. Most of the game is a relaxed power trip, and then suddenly you hit a spike that forces you to think instead of mowing down mobs. You get three automatic revives per level on standard difficulty, and you’ll probably use them when you least expect it. Bosses are fun but not especially punishing - unless you bring an ice build to an ice boss, in which case… good luck.

The story is serviceable: great cutscenes, a few memorable NPCs, and the usual mix of cults, ancient evils, and chosen‑one energy. There’s also an Ascension form that turns you into a divine beast with flashy abilities. I mostly used it as a bonus revive and a safe way to learn boss patterns. Cool idea, slightly wasted.

So what does it all boil down to?
If you want a well‑produced single‑player ARPG that’s now almost bug‑free (aside from some textures loading late for a few seconds), and you enjoy tinkering with systems, Wolcen is absolutely worth the tiny asking price on sale. If you’re looking for a forever‑game, this isn’t it. It never fully “clicks,” and the balance feels off - not just in gameplay, but in tone and structure.

But underneath the flaws is a mine of good and novel ideas, strong art direction, and excellent voice acting. Treated as a one‑and‑done experiment with lots of toys to play with, there’s plenty to enjoy. And honestly? A sequel that builds on these mechanics could be an instant classic.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Even tho the game is dead regarding updates and new content, it does a lot of things right. It's easy to pick up and play, the transmog system is so good should be standard of the genre. Music, story and graphics are great.
Pick this game if:
- It's on a promo
- You don't care about online play
- Enjoys ARPGs on a casual level

This game had some potential. For now, maybe get it for $5 on sale. Spells feel really good and the story is one of a kind.