No Rest for the Wicked will be a great ARPG if it can get over the hill
No Rest for the Wicked is tedious by design. Healing items in the action RPG have a 10-second hold period after use, so you’re bound to die often. Equipment loses durability each time you die, and the cost of repairs quickly adds up. Bounty missions you take on to cover them pay like shit, but that’s the job. Over and over, the game punctures any confidence you build over the course of your adventure, increasing enemy numbers and introducing new, vicious foes often to shake familiarity. That frustration complements the story’s themes. When you consider the project’s development, however, it’s almost justified.
Once you finish creating your character, you’re greeted with a welcome message from developer Moon Studios, best known for Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel. “Over the past six years, we’ve poured our hearts and souls into creating a next-level ARPG experience,” the message reads. The big-swing effort is immediately palpable, with a prologue set on a ship that oozes charm and an art style that mimics a painting in motion. The combat is blunt and responsive. The more I played, the more I couldn’t help but wonder how a game that leaves such a charming impression can still be deemed a “work in progress.”
Released on Steam Early Access on April 18, No Rest for the Wicked takes a top-down approach to the ARPG genre. This isn’t Diablo, though, but a game closer in DNA to Dark Souls. The novelty is in how the play is structured, making use of an interconnected map that you slowly uncover and go back and forth through while completing quests. Moon Studios also weaves in crafting and gathering systems, adding a dash of the survival genre, up to the point of features like purchasing a home and building furniture for it.
You face these tasks as a Cerim, a member of an ancient sect whose sole purpose was to vanquish a plague that once haunted the realm. In the face of yet another plague, the church decides to act first and preach later with its inquisition, while
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