I have to admit, I was a little shaken during character creation, as No Rest for the Wicked's character designs are extremely unsuitable for close-up. Small heads on shoulders that are difficult to carry on floor-length, bell-shaped deformed arms. The residents of Sacra compete with Popeye and one of the ape family of Urang-utans at the same time and therefore simply look bad in the character long shot. I'm allowed to say this because some of my best friends are urangutans!
But once you get over that and start to see the game as it is intended – from the top view – you realize that there is a method to this exaggerated physiognomy. The combat system relies on the fact that you can accurately recognize the movements of the arms, which wouldn't be too easy in a zoomed-out perspective like this one with normal, puny human arms. As a result, No Rest for the Wicked's fights, which range from nimble to rather sedate depending on the equipment you have on, are wonderfully powerful. There is a lot of energy in the sweeping swing movements, which is discharged in brutal tumbling animations or effectively flying, vividly illuminated debris from boxes and barrels.
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Cinematic production despite the monkey arms
Now there are also a fair amount of cinematic cutscenes that could give you a headache given the strange proportions. But the direction does a great job of putting the immensely expressive faces in the foreground, whose oil paint look is pleasantly reminiscent of the Netflix series Arcane. I think the films are incredibly well done, also because they bring us closer to the characters without breaking with the established, painterly style. The English dialogues are convincingly acted and the constellation of characters in the scenario of a human-mutating epidemic on a remote island promises exciting intrigue and discord right from the start.
The game itself should by no means be seen as a Diablo competitor. In fact, it is a much more direct action role-playing game that should appeal to Soulslike fans without placing the same demands on their skill. No Rest of the Wicked does without a soul mechanic that requires long journeys to your corpses, doesn't fill up your healing items at campfires, which are called “whisper” here and are symbolized by a magical buzzing in the air, and doesn't let the enemies in resurrect one on one. The mechanics for increasing your attributes are also subtly different if you level up in the classic way as soon as the experience point bar is full and you then distribute three skill points to your attributes.
Still, No Rest for the Wicked is pretty crisp. Especially at the beginning, the enemies hit hard, with the shield up, none of the scarce stamina is regenerated, and ranged attacks in particular require you to always be wide awake on your guard. It's a game about stamina and range management. Additionally, your equipment suffers severely from screen death. If its durability is reduced to zero, the item can no longer be equipped until repaired. The game aims to use this mechanic to implement logistical elements that are quite attractive on paper.
Wear and weight mechanics take some getting used to
Currently – as you can see from the user reviews on Steam – some players are still taking serious offense at the wear and tear on the equipment. I've got six hours under my belt so far and I have to say that it hasn't spoiled my fun so far. Although the repairs seem a bit expensive at the moment, I like to pay attention to the durability of my things and curate an inventory of replacement weapons. However, I realize that it's a shame to invest the little money you have just in maintaining your favorite equipment when things aren't going so well at times. Again: With the mass of things that you can find and turn into money, this is put into perspective to some extent.
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Images from No Rest for the Wicked
Otherwise, I like how the game ticks. I guess the normal movement speed is more like a brisk walk. That blocks don't eat up all the damage and a parry carries a lot of risk. I liked how it forced me to transform from trail runner to defensive swordsman. I also find it interesting that the weight of the equipment, which the game quickly declares to be “heavy” at the beginning because you first have to increase your equipment load value a little, doesn’t just have disadvantages. With light equipment, a nimble dash is your evasive maneuver, with normal equipment it's an elegant roll and with heavier equipment it seems much clumsier. But then you also have the weight advantage, an additional push that knocks opponents over.
And then there's the world itself, which looks simply stunning and offers plenty of opportunity to stray from the main path to discover side quests, shortcuts and treasures. What surprised me most was how mobile people are in this world. It's not uncommon to discover a hidden ladder, climb a half-collapsed wall to a chest, or balance on a narrow plank high above the raging sea to a collapsed tower.
In No Rest for the Wicked, the world is the star
You really stumble from one fantasy film-ready moment to the next and can hardly get enough of it. This is how I enjoy exploring. In any case, it is difficult to put into words how intensely atmospheric the dark Sacra has an effect on me, with its changeable weather and the changing times of day. Every image section is bursting with so much detail that you'll want to take a screenshot every two meters. The crown is of course the central hub city of Sacrament, in which found resources and building materials are invested in order to gradually rebuild them. A game with such a home has been on my board since Suikoden.
In any case, the basis is impressive, even if the balance of the game economy or the effectiveness of the parades still need to be fine-tuned, which currently do not promise enough damage. Here and there enemies get stuck in the area or I sink into the ground and in terms of performance, No Rest for the Wicked still demands too much from some PCs without offering detailed options with which you could intervene more precisely. The already announced implementation of Nvidia DLSS cannot come soon enough.
But otherwise? Yes, this is a cool start to an impressively good-looking new action-RPG brand that even the makers of the excellent Ori wouldn't necessarily have expected in this form. And if it's just because the style here comes across as so oily and nasty that it definitely catches you off guard. In any case, you are welcome to support this project – and if it's still too early for you, you should definitely keep an eye on it!