No Rest for the Wicked has potential for ARPG greatness once cracks are filled

No Rest for the Wicked is out in early access and it’s already shaping up to be a top-tier ARPG, but there are some early issues to iron out if it’s going to rival the best games in the genre.

The Ori games are among some of my personal favorites, so when Moon Studios announced they were coming out with No Rest for the Wicked, I could barely contain myself. The art style looked incredible, and I’m always up for a challenge, so the Soulslike inspiration was a welcome addition to the game’s development. 

No Rest for the Wicked starts with a short but impactful prologue that explains why you need to travel to Sacra and a little bit about your role in helping the people on the island. Without giving too much away, it introduces some colorful characters who can’t be pinned down at once with ‘bad’ or ‘good’ status.

It’s an interesting start, to say the least, because you aren’t aware of the different factions that exist in this world yet. But, as you play more, it becomes more evident that nothing about this place is black and white.

After playing for 20 hours, I can comfortably say that I was not disappointed in my original excitement for the release of No Rest for the Wicked.

No Rest for the Wicked will teach you hard lessons

Once I got used to the combat system, found some weapons, and figured out how to heal, I managed to get to Warrick the Torn without much strife. In fact, I started to get a bit cocky, but the first boss quite literally beat that out of me. 

It was a bit preposterous how difficult Warrick was to take down compared to the enemies I had come across before. Especially because he was a significant barrier in getting to Sacrament, I had to take a break and rethink my approach.

It ended up being a case of being unprepared and not finding my playstyle. No Rest for the Wicked is not super clear about everything you can find in Sacra, and for good reason – the game wants you to discover as much as you can.

This includes the encumbered system, which is an interesting take on how to build your class. The heavier your armor and weapons are, the more sluggish you will move around – but with more protection. The opposite is true for ‘fast’ to ‘normal’ carry capacity, and this took some time to figure out.

It’s not something that I would want to see a change in, necessarily, despite the frustrations that arose while trying to get used to the armor and weapon mechanics. No Rest for the Wicked wants you to experiment and find your own playstyle. It’s very unique, and that’s what Moon Studios set out to do – make a different kind of ARPG.

What it does mean is that you will learn difficult lessons if you don’t take that time to experiment. It took me about two hours of trying to finally beat Warrick, but by the time I reached the final boss available in the campaign, I was able to take it down in about 30 minutes after two tries.

So, even though the system is different and somewhat difficult to understand at first, it does give you a meaningful sense of progression – you just need to engage with it.

Gameplay is punishing but oh-so-satisfying

No Rest for the Wicked’s gameplay is punishing if you don’t pay attention to how you need to move around your enemy’s attacks. Once you get a hang of the patterns they fight in, though, it becomes incredibly rewarding. 

You won’t find yourself charging through enemies without having to pay attention to those patterns, but as a result, the combat and gameplay will remain satisfying throughout. And, if you do get a little too confident, your enemies will be quick to remind you of their strength. 

For an early access game, I was surprised to find I didn’t run across many issues with hits not registering or getting hit myself when I dodged perfectly. There were some bugs, of course, but they were largely negligible or what I would expect from an early access release.

The other great thing about the combat system I found was that the game tends to work on day-to-day cycles. So, if I managed to kill some enemies in on area and died in the next, I wouldn’t have to fight all the enemies I had just gone through – just the ones that ended up beating me.

Plus, once you get enough resources to start infusing and upgrading your gear, you get so many great options for how you want to charge your weapons. I basically stuck to Brothers Keepers (dual daggers) for pretty much my entire playthrough, especially once I infused them with a gem that gave them extra lightning damage. What a ride it has been. 

You can get lost in the beauty of Sacra

It’s a little too early to tell where this story will go, because only the first chapter is available to play in early access, but so far it’s something I find myself wanting more of.

When it comes to world-building, Moon Studios have clearly put a lot of love into crafting the island of Sacra and the story told within it. Sacrament, despite its dilapidated state, is full of people who each have their own stories – all centered around Cerim legends, who some don’t even believe were true.

Something is very wrong here, and you don’t know who to trust. That’s how I like it. The narrative is very much in its early stages, but it has already pulled me in and has me wanting more, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

Not to mention the art style – reminiscent of a Disco Elysium and Dishonored lovechild – which beautifully shows how the world around you has fallen from something that could have been great once into a ruinous and gloomy place.

One thing I never found myself asking was “What do I do now?” For an early access game that doesn’t have its full story out, I was impressed by how much I could actually do. 

Letting players build up Sacrament doesn’t only make you a savior of Sacra, but it makes you a citizen. It’s an interesting way to get you invested in the story of the people who live there, especially because the more shops you upgrade, the more recipes and upgrades you get. 

Then there’s the Cerim’s Crucible, which is an endgame activity you can only access once you have finished what the campaign is right now. It’s incredibly challenging, so you’ll probably need to go back out into the world and continue leveling, gathering resources, and building Sacrament up before you can take on the enemies and boss inside. 

There’s great potential once the issues have been solved

It’s clear that Moon Studios have currently crafted the game in such a way that you need to explore a lot of the map. This is particularly evident in the sheer number of resources you need to upgrade shops in Sacrament, weapons, and take part in the Cerim Crucible. 

If I had one pain point at this stage, it’s the fast travel system. It’s interesting and not quite something I have seen before, but I found that it set me back more often than not. 

You can only travel between a chosen Cerim Whisper in the world to Sacrament and back. This makes it easier to get back to the city – where you’ll do your crafting, upgrading, selling, etc – but it means that if you want to go between Sacrament and The Shallows while looking for some Pine Wood, you’ll have to go all the way there first. This is fine until your last Cerim Whisper save was just before you fought the Riven Twins.

It just gets slightly tedious, because the resources you need to craft and upgrade are already a great incentive to go between areas without fast traveling too much. So, if anything, I would say that could use some tweaking to be a bit more accessible.

Inventory management also needs some work if players have to explore the world for everything they need. Increasing slots is a bit of a slog, and there are too few to start off with. 

A significant issue quite a few players have brought up – not being able to change the key binding. Playing on a mouse and keyboard was noticeably more difficult than on controller, and especially for players who have any disabilities that make using certain keys difficult, this can be a significant barrier to enjoying the game.

That said, Moon Studios has already released two hotfixes addressing some of the issues that players have brought up, and they are currently working on a solution for the keybind issue. Since the game has only been out for a few days, it’s a really good indication that meaningful changes to these issues will come soon.  

I would even say that, with some changes to mechanics and small pain points, No Rest for the Wicked could be an award-winning entry into ARPGs. It’s slightly too early to tell, and it has some way to go, but there is a lot of potential in the way Moon Studios have crafted this game already.

It’s definitely worth a look if you like ARPG’s and Soulslikes. Honestly, even if you’ve never played either, I would say it’s worth investing in No Rest for the Wicked. Aside from some minor complaints, it was an absolute blast to play through. I can’t wait to see what they add next.