23 August 2023 , 11:50
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The spirit (and hulking character designs) of Darksiders lives on in Airship Syndicate’s colourful take on a fantasy MMO
You only need look at any one of the seven playable heroes in Wayfinder to recognize the studio making it. Big, chunky, comic book-style proportions are found with every character limb and its accompanying armour set, indicating right away that Airship Syndicate hasn’t lost its creative touch from the old Darksiders days. The sights of the world and characters might look familiar for those who dabbled in Darksiders, but Wayfinder is very different in that it’s a PvE-focused MMO designed to be playable with friends.
The game recently entered early access but I got to go hands-on with a dev build live from the Gamescom 2023 show floor. What I played seemed very robust considering it's so early on in its lifecycle. Speaking to the team at Airship Syndicate it’s clear they have ambitious plans; plans they seem well-equipped to pull off given that Wayfinder is being published by Digital Extremes – the people behind a little live-service game called Warframe. You may have heard of it!
The world of Wayfinder is bright and colourful, but still distinct in its own right compared to a lot of other fantasy MMOs thanks to comic book artist and studio head Joe Madureira. Unfortunately for its heroes, though, an ailment known as Gloom has begun plaguing the land, inspiring you and friends to try and keep it at bay by undertaking hunts, dungeon runs, and open-world missions.
I got to play as two characters as part of my hands-on preview: Niss and Venomess – the latter being an agile character that really saw the hack-and-slash style of combat come to light. There are seven characters total, all offering variations of speed, damage and defence that makes them unique to play; but the key differentiator each one’s four unique abilities.
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Way forward
The idea behind Wayfinder is that you build up your version of all seven characters, taking on missions within the procedurally generated dungeons or open world area to unlock better gear, weapons and abilities. The concept of making the weapons just as upgradable as the heroes is rather unique, and it’s easy to see how Wayfinder could potentially soak up hours upon hours of your time as you seek to find the right combination. A bonus is that weapons can be equipped by any character.
Airship Syndicate did share that there have been some teething issues. Since its early access launch, Wayfinder has suffered from long entry queues – supposedly as many as 40,000 players for one server at its peak. The dev guiding me through the session voiced their frustration at this, particularly since early access isn't free. You'll be paying £17.99 / $19.99 /AU$29.95 for the privilege, but that does include access to the Wayfinder battle pass – called the Rewards Tower – that lets you unlock perks and rewards of your choosing .
This makes it hard to recommend for everyone right now given the flurry of technical issues. Once you get in, though, anyone who does pony up for Wayfinder early access will be treated to a solid foundation, with seven heroes to try out, multiple different procedural dungeons to endlessly run, and one open-world area (for now) in which to explore and complete side missions. If you'd rather not cough up the cash right now, the good news is that Wayfinder is eventually planned to go free-to-play later down the line.
This being an MMO might mark a very different approach for the folks at Airship Syndicate, but the core values of Darksiders’ style and influence is there. After all, the original idea behind Darksiders was to have four friends play together as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
With Wayfinder, Joe Madureira and his team is on the right track to give fans of hack-and-slash action a viable way to enjoy this online co-operative fantasy.
Wayfinder is available to play in early access now on PS4, PS5 and PC