The crowdfunding model has proved to be a successful route of development for a number of old school RPGs. Both Pillars of Eternity and Wasteland 2 found a strong following through Kickstarter, helping to rekindle the traditional RPG genre after having been abandoned by the usual publishing route. This is also the journey that The Waylanders has taken, a new RPG from developer Gato Studio.
The Waylanders is an old school RPG with its roots in Celtic mythology. There is a magical corruption that is spreading across the land, and the player character - along with a devoted group of companions - must find its cause and return the world to peace. Along the way, the player will break the chains of fate, travel through time, and battle all kinds of mythological creatures.
From a genre perspective, The Waylanders feels closest to the classic RPGs of old, with a tactical pause function that will feel familiar to fans of its peers. The Waylanders does keep things fresh, however, thanks to the introduction of Formations that allow the player to gather their party into specific forms to help better battle their enemies. This helps the player manage some of the more awkward moments of the game, such as some odd balancing, a difficulty curve that comes in peaks and troughs, and some tiresome damage sponge enemies.
Unlike the isometric RPGs that it emulates, The Waylanders has a very striking, cartoonish visual style. Character models are bold and vibrant, as is the game world, helping to separate it from other similar titles on the market. However, visual glitches stop the player from being fully absorbed, with T-posing models and stuttering camera movement (particularly in enclosed spaces) being the main culprits here.
The cartoonish visuals marry up well with the overall tone of the game, with light-hearted vibes and rogueish, cheeky dialogue helping to charm the player. It doesn't always work - darker moments like tracking down a particularly gory killer are quite jarring - but overall The Waylanders finds its own style well. The closest comparison may well be Kingdoms of Amalur, with chunky character models and a colorful world to explore.
The Waylanders puts a lot of emphasis on companion management, as they form an essential part of the gameplay experience and also a series of side quests. The quality of both the characters themselves and their side missions varies wildly, with many feeling a little half-baked and sticking too close to fantasy tropes - a little more Fable than Dragon Age. There are some highlights, however; Traste the goblin trickster provides plenty of fun from a gameplay perspective, while Berath has a character arc that explores the difficulties of being an immortal being watching mortals come and go, and the emotional toil that comes from that.
Unfortunately the issues with the side quests also feed through into a main narrative that feels very piecemeal. When compared to genre heavyweights like the aforementioned Pillars of Eternity's excellence, The Waylanders feels very surface level, with the story lacking context, lore and little depth to go along with the supposed apocalyptic threat. Instead The Waylanders keeps adding extra elements to the plot, such as the inclusion of time travel, when a more straightforward but deeper story could have been a better fit.
The ambition could have been irable, but The Waylanders is cursed with a variety of bugs. Some of these are minor details, like maps not working correctly and missing item descriptions, but others are far more egregious. When loading into new areas the player may find themselves inside the walls, needing to reload from the previous autosave and try again, or more inexplicably levelling up and finding that their character class has changed, leaving the player with the comically absurd view of the supposed hero of the world staring into the void in nothing but their underwear.
As such it is hard to recommend The Waylanders in its current form. Although it is charming and enthusiastic, its slapdash quality seriously hampers the overall quality of the experience. A middling narrative and minor bugs are easy to overlook if the overall game is enjoyable - which The Waylanders is - but potentially game-breaking issues will erode any good will the title may have gained.
The Waylanders releases 2 February 2022 for PC. Screen Rant was provided with a PC code for the purposes of this review.
The Waylanders
- Released
- February 2, 2022
