No Rest for the Wicked isn’t the game you expected

I haven’t spent more than a few hours with No Rest for the Wicked yet, but it already feels like something special, and I wholeheartedly believe Moon Studios made the right call with an early access launch.

Looking at the Steam reviews, this may be a bit of a hot take, but I’m not afraid to say it: No Rest for the Wicked could very well be the ‘big refresh’ that Soulslikes (we’re in dire need of a proper name for these) have been needing for a while. Mainly because it’s both a ruthless follower of FromSoftware’s teachings and an isometric action RPG with crafting elements that isn’t just another riff on games/diablo-iv” target=”_blank”>Diablo.

I’d only really paid attention to No Rest for the Wicked’s striking reveal trailer, which painted a far more traditional (despite the unique visuals) picture of the game than the previews released in the lead-up to the big early access launch which I unconsciously avoided. The thing is that, despite the firm isometric view and some surface-level similarities, I never expected Moon Studios’ post-games/ori-and-the-will-of-the-wisps” target=”_blank”>Ori project to behave like a fast-and-furious action RPG.

I’ve been happily playing an isometric fantasy game with weighty and punchy combat that doesn’t convey hard hits just through loud and meaty sound design and making the controller vibration go crazy. There’s for sure a hint of Diablo in there (mostly peppered all over the aesthetics and itemization), but it largely evokes the feeling of games/dark-souls” target=”_blank”>Dark Souls 1‘s early zones from an entirely different POV and with a far more eye-popping color palette. Much like Sherif, however, I’m not that convinced by the stack of crafting mechanics the game wants you to use.

Wait, you can also have a customizable home? Cool stuff that I totally wasn’t expecting to see in this game. The more you play, the more you realize it’s gently moving between genres and subgenres, offering the players who dared to explored the cursed kingdom left behind by King Harol more than they’d asked for. I get not vibing with everything the game wants to do, but I don’t think the promotional materials (which I checked out after playing it myself) fooled anyone.

Mind you, Moon Studios is being quite transparent about how they want the early access period to go and how they want to listen to player feedback and quickly implement direct answers, so the 1.0 release could be quite different for all we know and lean harder on the traditional action RPG side of things. Looking at how the review scores seem to be now stabilizing after the first few days, I hope the team instead sticks to its guns and eases newcomers into what No Rest for the Wicked actually is. Maybe it’s because I’m typically an open-minded person, but I like to be surprised as long as the execution works, and I sincerely think this game has the juice so far.

If anything, I’m sad that I can’t team up with a friend just yet. No Rest for the Wicked’s Pestilence-ridden world, which also contains several locations full of unexpected and calm beauty, begs to be explored with more people, and perhaps the crafting mechanics and that housing system will make more sense then. For now, my main goals are to reach the end of the currently available content, take tons of stunning screenshots, and maybe do a few runs of the Cerim Crucible dungeon.

Even if this is just the start of No Rest for the Wicked’s journey, chances are you’ll already get your money’s worth if you enjoy what’s in there during the first couple of hours, but my personal recommendation is to expect a Moon Studios game out of this one instead of an uninspired but pretty Diablo clone. Why would you want that? We have so many of those already! Let these people cook.