After making players dream with the wonderful world of Ori, Moon Studios turned to a new genre. Goodbye Metroidvania, it's time to give way to war in No Rest for the Wicked. Available in early access since April 18, 2024, we were able to discover this action-RPG with very marked inspirations. And if the series of Souls is heavily highlighted, the isometric view of Diablo adds a new perspective to the genre.
This preview of No Rest for the Wicked was produced with a version provided by the publisher.
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Early access requires, the content is still very limited in this version of the game, in addition to suffering from technical problems of all kinds. The experience will therefore not have been the most pleasant, but the studio regularly corrects certain problems. We will therefore not dwell on these, even if the optimization is far from correct. However, they are not the only flaws we faced during this adventure.
The beginnings of a world in ruins
Despite its obvious inspiration from Souls in its mechanics, No Rest for the Wicked offers a much less dark universe. Certainly, a calamity infecting the inhabitants of this world and transforming them into deformed creatures is raging. But the different parts of the island of Sacra are still green and full of life. The Great Pestilence, the evil that strikes these lands, has just returned. And according to legends, only a Cérime can overcome it.
These exceptional beings are formidable fighters and have a unique blood that allows them to resist corruption. And the players embody one of these chosen ones, invited to this island to eradicate evil. Only, everything does not go as planned, because a rebel faction, the Rebels, attacks the boat on which we are supposed to disembark. The ship destroyed, here we are on the beach, surrounded by corpses, with nothing left but rags.
This is a great tutorial which, as with the
Souls, will conclude with a boss fight before revealing our main resting place, Sacrament. We learn the mechanics of combat, harvesting, exploration, saving, crafting, as well as the importance of merchants. But what we learn above all is that the game wants to be very difficult, and therefore does not hesitate to send very powerful enemies from the start to destroy us.
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Fights not always successful
A little challenge isn't really a problem. Especially when that's what the game quite consciously seeks to do. But in No Rest for the Wicked, the balancing is not good at all. The enemies are very strong, too strong for some. However, the AI is predictable, to the point that their sequences are easy to avoid. Once you've observed an enemy enough, the only way to get caught again is to be impatient or play with fire.
A slightly more annoying aspect is that Moon Studios forces the player to adapt to other factors. But not always intentionally, unfortunately. First of all, we can mention the combat animations. They are frighteningly slow, but necessary so that we adapt. Particularly with the weight of the equipment, which directly influences the speed and distance of the dodge. When you see an enemy starting an action, you must anticipate one or two seconds in advance to avoid their blow. And this only so that our character completes his action, and finally launches his roll.
Once again, nothing insurmountable. The title's biggest concern lies in its balancing and intradiegetic progression. Once the main city has been discovered, everything urges us to explore towards the northeast. However, the area is much higher than what we have reached at this stage. And for good reason, you actually had to return to the first zone, south of the city, to discover a new passage to the west. Problem being, nothing indicates this, and we find ourselves facing enemies who take almost no damage, but who destroy us.
A defect which is exacerbated in the only end-of-game content available, the Crucible of Cérimes. This is a series of rooms with increasingly difficult fights which ends with a formidable boss. However, if the first rooms are affordable, we are quickly overwhelmed by the power of the monsters. Before being confronted with a predictable but mind-numbingly difficult boss. It takes almost as long to clear this as it did to clear the previous 10 rooms.
Exploration but not too much
Apart from the obvious lack of indications, No Rest for the Wicked suffers from another problem, and that is its exploration. Which is quite dramatic when it comes to a central part of the game. As such, one might have no complaints about this aspect. The map is covered by a fog which recedes as the areas are discovered, there are resources which change depending on the region, thus offering progression in the crafting system to create more powerful consumables.
But all this highlights the real problems. The resource gain is insignificant for certain materials like copper or clay, while others like mushrooms are abundant. And each of them takes an hour to reappear on the map. With very limited points, you have to be extremely patient for certain creations. And if you have the misfortune of wanting to explore without having emptied your inventory, it's a tragedy.
This is divided into several categories, but has limited locations. Each resource or consumable can only be stacked a maximum of 20 times. Suffice to say that it is very common to fill up your inventory after a few minutes, and find yourself having to sort. Problem being, all of these resources are crucial. We must therefore return to town, deposit resources in a chest with limited slots, create consumables, visit merchants if necessary… Ultimately, we spend almost as much time managing our inventory as actually playing.
A poorly exploited perspective
However, if there is one thing we cannot forgive, it is this isometric view. In order for it to be pleasant in all circumstances, it must never bother the player. Out, in
No Rest for the Wicked, she keeps getting noticed for the wrong reasons. In full exploration, we find ourselves with a prominent setting that struggles to disappear. Impossible to clearly see certain paths, but also the resources. For a game that exploits verticality so much, this is a major fault that makes reading very difficult.
And it's not better when you find yourself in combat. Between the settings that take over, the platforms too small to accommodate two characters, and the numerous obstacles, you quickly get lost. Certainly, this allows you to exploit the landscape to your advantage by bringing down your enemies. But that forces us to play very defensively until we can achieve that. You will have to absorb the damage, use rations to heal yourself, and remain patient.
It is therefore with great frustration that we travel these lands at present. The potential is there, but the execution struggles to make us stay. Whether it's because of the poorly managed difficulty, or the reading of the game which often proves demoralizing. However, these problems are not insurmountable. And the developers already seem to have a lot of ideas for correcting all of this thanks to player feedback. But by wanting to launch early access with too much content, nothing really came to fruition.
Our first impressions of No Rest for the Wicked
Moon Studios' proposal with No Rest for the Wicked is particularly interesting. An action-RPG with a great challenge, an atypical artistic direction, and the prospect of spending hundreds of hours optimizing your character for high-level activities. Unfortunately, as it stands, and despite the absence of a large part of the content, the game suffers from a major lack of balancing. Finishes as well, whether at the technical level or in the mechanics. Which inevitably taints an already difficult experience due to the quantity of things to do and learn. However, the studio is working to improve all of this with many additions planned.
Understanding our grading system