As a ’90s kid, there are certain names that immediately perk me up and grab my attention when I hear them. One such name is Joe Madureira, a comic book artist who rose to prominence during his work on the X-Men comics in the mid-’90s, grabbing everyone’s attention with a then-unique anime-inspired style. So needless to say, when I learned in the 2000s that he was moving onto being a creative director for his own game series,Darksiders,I perked up then as well, and them perked up further when he founded developers Airship Syndicate last decade. Of course, it helps that the majority of games made under him, especially with Airship Syndicate, have turned out to be impressive.
So I was excited to check out Airship Syndicate’s latest game, Wayfinder, though I admit that I was a little cautious at first. After all, this is clearly shaping up to be the team’s most ambitious game yet, being a full-fledged MMO action-RPG game with third-person combat. It’s a departure from their past few games, to say the least. Even with the backing of Digital Extreme, would they be be able to succeed when it comes to delivering a quality game? Well, after playing it, I immediately realized how stupid of a question that was, seeing as how there were Darksiders veterans working on this game. And while some limitations meant the game’s most unique aspect couldn’t be fully experienced yet, what was there is still incredibly fun.
Perhaps not surprisingly, one of the most notable attractions are the Wayfinders themselves, figures tasked with having to find a way to control the chaos that has been plaguing the land of Evenor. The character designs are top-notch as usual, with each one also having their own unique set of abilities. In my case, I gravitated towards Kyros, a wizard that wields arcane magic and whose face is cloaked in darkness, possibly because they were also shown wielding a massive scythe in a lot of promotional stuff. In the game proper, you aren’t limited to what weapons your character can wield, but come one, it’s a huge scythe and I’m only human.
With a character picked, it was time to head out into the mysterious area known as the Gloom, via way of a giant portal. When selecting the mission you want to go out on, you have the option of selecting unique modifiers and challenges if available in order to get different rewards, which is a particularly nice touch. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything of note available to me during my playthrough, nor did I have any additional players with me to form a full party. Despite these handicaps, though, I headed into the Gloom and immediately took to the gameplay quickly and easily, hacking and slashing at goblins and casting spells upon them with ease thanks to impressive controls. After wiping them away and grabbing some loot, finishing one mission in the process, I figured it was time for a boss battle.
As it turned out, though, the previous enemies were at a lower level, and the massive mother spider I was facing was around the same level as me, meaning that it was time for a lesson in humility. After taking my initial licks, though, I headed back in and got a greater feel of dodging mechanics and the various spells, being better prepared and dodging whatever attacks I could, healing when needed. Eventually, Kyros emerged victorious, and wound up with loot that could be used for better weapons and gear. Alas, I didn’t have the time to upgrade any weapons and see how they played, but by then I had experienced enough to convince me that Wayfinder could become a success. With its gorgeous style and slick combat, it should be interesting to see how Wayfinder evolves into an even bigger MMO upon its initial release later this year.
