GamesAction RpgNo Rest for the WickedI never once thought of Dark Souls or Diablo when playing Moon Studios' previous games, but the dev’s new action RPG feels like the perfect evolution of ideas and talentWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesAction RpgNo Rest for the WickedI never once thought of Dark Souls or Diablo when playing Moon Studios' previous games, but the dev’s new action RPG feels like the perfect evolution of ideas and talentWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Moon Studios)
Instead, we have No Rest For the Wicked. And, my goodness, am I glad Moon Studios has pushed itself even further, spreading its tendrils deep into the Soulslike action RPG space.
Just right
(Image credit: Moon Studios)
THE NEXT EPISODE(Image credit: Moon Studios)No Rest for the Wicked sees the Ori devs jump from Metroidvanias to Diablo thanks to another gorgeous game
THE NEXT EPISODE
(Image credit: Moon Studios)No Rest for the Wicked sees the Ori devs jump from Metroidvanias to Diablo thanks to another gorgeous game
(Image credit: Moon Studios)
No Rest for the Wicked sees the Ori devs jump from Metroidvanias to Diablo thanks to another gorgeous game
In the 90-minute-long, in-development No Rest for the Wicked demo I got to play through, I was given a taste of how things will unfold in the game’s fictitious “world of death” set in the year 841. Story-wise, I learned that the long-serving King Harol has died and that his arrogant, bit-of-a-dick son Magnus has taken over the throne – just as an unholy plague named the Pestilence has taken grip of the game’s Isola Sacra setting. Filling the shoes of a Cerim, a holy warrior of sorts who possesses the power to overcome and cleanse the Pestilence from the land, I battled my way across Isola Sacra in the shadow of political unrest.
In practice, this saw me getting to grips with the game’s ultra-precise real-time combat, where every blow, dodge and roll requires deft timing, a splash of luck, anda lotof patience. One of my favorite things about my favorite action role-players is how they challenge my resolve. The best games in this space will hurt you time and again, but will never do so unfairly, making every combat decision feel like it counts; and that if (or, rather,when) you fail, it’s becauseyoudid something wrong, not because the game is punishing you. No Rest for the Wicked understands this very well, and as such fighting is a total joy – so too is learning patience in both victory and defeat.
(Image credit: Moon Studios)
“This is an abstract comparison, but No Rest for the Wicked feels like when comedy actors sidestep into prestige drama.”
“This is an abstract comparison, but No Rest for the Wicked feels like when comedy actors sidestep into prestige drama.”
A genre-familiar array of runes, armor and weapons let you build out your character – whose name, appearance and gender can be sculpted via a pretty thorough post-menu screen creation suite – with uber-aggressive and larger than life bosses gating each new explorable zone in turn (Warrick the Torn: you are a bastard), and whimsical NPCs on-hand to offer snippets of lore and sell you items and wares.
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Through all of this, again, No Rest for the Wicked looks fantastic, boasting a painterly art style that set tongues wagging followingits reveal at last year’s Game Awards, and, combined with its ear-piercing audio, consistently left me scraping my jaw off the floor during my short hands-on time. With the promise of online multiplayer – where up to three friends can join in your campaign’s online co-op mode – a sophisticated leveling system, and a hub-like town named Sacrament that’s filled with mini-games and side activities, such as fishing and farming, No Rest of the Wicked is ambitious and impressive in equal measure.
With all of this, No Rest for the Wicked is as mesmerizing as its studio forerunners, but with a distinctly darker vibe. This is an abstract comparison, but No Rest for the Wicked feels like when comedy actors sidestep into prestige drama. As much as you loved Hal’s hijinks in Malcolm in the Middle, for example, there’s no denying Brian Cranston’s quintessential performance as Walter White in Breaking Bad. One couldn’t exist without the other, of course, and that’s the beauty of No Rest for the Wicked and Moon Studios – the latter’s path, hard work and learned experience has led them to the former. Whether or not it can “reinvent the genre”, as noted on theNo Rest for the Wicked Steam pageremains to be seen. But I’ve thoroughly enjoyed what I’ve seen so far – and now I cannot wait to see more in due course.
No Rest for the Wicked is due to launch in Early Access on April 18 on PC (Steam).
Big fan of narrative-heavy games? Check out thebest RPGssaving the world right now
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
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4
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5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5
Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”