No Rest for the Wicked is enjoying strong Steam player numbers, but the reviews are getting worse and worse

Nearly 34,000 concurrent players at peak: The numbers for the early access release of the action role-playing game No Rest for the Wicked are impressive. That's what Moon Studios' game has been for the past 24 hours among the 50 most played games on Steam.

However, the news is not all good for the developers. Because the percentage of positive user reviews on Steam currently only knows one direction: downward.

A lot of criticism of technology and missing features

Of those at the time of publication of this news just over 4,000 Steam reviews are currently only 58 percent positive, which corresponds to a rating of “balanced” on Valve's major download platform. A few hours earlier the value was 61 percent positive buyer opinions.

For the comparatively poor rating it seems especially the performance to be responsible, which according to many players is currently still fluctuating too much. User WarPaws writes: »I play on one [PC mit, Anm. d. Red.] 4080/13900K at 1440p, and the game can hit the low 20s in combat [FPS] fall. It also stutters a lot, which can occur during movement or combat, making performance headaches even worse.”

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No Rest for the Wicked shows 25 minutes of dark world, bosses, endgame and survival

Furthermore, there are missing standards in the reviews like free key assignment or a “back to desktop” option was criticized. The gameplay seems to be designed for controller control, which is why keyboard players are currently having little fun, partly because of the triple assignment of the sprint, jump and dodge buttons. Adzelor writes: »The game was not ready for early access. A few more weeks would have been a good idea.'

The design decision also ensures that Equipped equipment takes constant damage (especially when the character dies) and needs to be repaired, causing a lot of discussion. “This is the worst weapon durability system I've ever experienced,” says BrownChad.

What we at GameStar think of No Rest for the Wicked you can read in the first test conclusion our author Dennis Zirkler:

There is also praise

More than half of the Steam reviews are positive and of course there is also a lot of praise: among other things, the graphics are very well received by the commentators. The staging, story cutscenes and the (exclusively English) soundtrack make people rave. This is what user rasabt writes: »It is an audio-visual masterpiece. Perhaps one of the most beautiful games currently available.«

Although the developers' perspective and statements make No Rest for the Wicked seem like an action role-playing game, it is actually a badass Soulslike.

The Soulslike combat system is praised for its fairness despite (or perhaps because of) No Rest for the Wicked at the same time ruthless and very tricky is. »The combat is very souls-like with the big boss fights. It's like any Soulslike: once you get a feel for it, you'll be absolutely fine,” says TheSpexyBeast. »I've only played for a few hours and, despite the obvious weaknesses, I'm having a lot of fun.«

Anemaz can't understand why the obviously unfinished release as an early access title is being criticized so much: “It's been fun so far, nice graphics, nice fights. I believe in Moon Studios. Remember it's Early Access! More things will be added and I'm sure the current 'issues' will be resolved soon.”

The developers react

In a blog post on Steam Developer Moon Studios (Ori and the Will of the Wisps) thanked those who bought the early access version and Performance improvements announced. As a result, features such as free key assignment and a pause option in single player have already been put on the to-do list for the near future.