Review: Wayfinder

I’m one of those strange people who enjoys playing betas for games when I get the chance. As a writer here it’s in my nature to help people through stuff like guides, and I have an (at times) unhealthy obsession with gaming, so helping a developer make their game better is a nice marriage of the two.

Yet like a lot of people, I also use these betas to help determine whether I’ll enjoy the final product. I approach these cautiously as some issues are part of the beta experience, but it’s a great way to judge whether the core experience is for me. That was exactly what I did with Wayfinder over a year ago, and I came away not entirely sold on the MMO style since its always online status and my inconsistent WiFi didn’t mesh well. Even then, I struggled to see what being an MMO brought to the game. Judging by the initial reception to Early Access, others felt the same.

However, while that’s where I’d normally walk away never to touch the game again, Wayfinder is a unique case. Through the course of Early Access, the game has driven itself away from its MMO roots into something more tightly focused, driven by single-player and co-op ambitions over something much larger and more time-consuming. Despite some shortcomings being tough to scrub away, Wayfinder has brought itself up to being something far more worth the asking price. Not only that but a shining example of how some games are simply better without live service being tacked on.

Wayfinder (PC [Reviewed], PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5)
Developer: Airship Syndicate
Publisher: Airship Syndicate (formerly Digital Extremes)
Released: October 21, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

If you’re unfamiliar with Wayfinder following its early access makeover (or simply never knew about it), it’s a single-player or co-op action RPG where you play as one of eight Wayfinders, characters with unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. While one character is focused on supporting the team with damage reduction and healing, others are focused on damage over time, target debuffing, or raw DPS. As a Wayfinder, your goal is to stop the spread of the Gloom, an interdimensional infection that claims all life it touches, plunging its regions into shadow and chaos.

This isn’t the most unique premise, but where Wayfinder stands apart is oddly in how some of its roots are still upheld. It might be in a new genre, but much of its quest structure, dungeon layouts, and boss design are ripped straight out of MMOs. It feels closer to a single-player/co-op MMO than an action RPG honestly, even if that might contradict itself. I’ve never been into MMOs too extensively (unless you count my obscene amount of hours in Warframe) mainly because of how much pressure you can have in dungeons or raids with other players. At its best, you might have one or two people not pulling their weight, and at worst, someone’s spamming in the chat about how you didn’t execute the exact button combos that they would’ve as if you’re a different person and not their clone.

Stripping that away while still letting you queue up with random players is a game-changer since it lets you either be a one-man army or squad up and make some new friends. I ran my entire playthrough solo and while some encounters were very challenging, it was always possible with enough effort and careful positioning. I also played on the second-highest difficulty, so perhaps I asked for that.

No matter who you’re playing with, the game has a lot for you to sink your teeth into. Leveling all those characters up can take upwards of a hundred hours if you work at it, and there’s a lot of side content in case you’re itching for more. For build crafters there’s more than enough to customize between ability upgrades to enhance the way certain abilities play with each other, talents to provide incremental stat upgrades and new perks, and a whole host of “Echoes” to apply to your gear to give even more stat upgrades. It’s a lot to sink your teeth into, but it never feels too overwhelming provided you understand your Wayfinder’s strengths and weaknesses well. As one example, I focused my build on Venomess toward Weapon Power and Crit Rating, proceeding to do a ton of damage with each strike while applying endless amounts of poison. She was easily my favorite character of the eight, but I got some good mileage out of both Grendel and Silo as well.

Alongside some great character designs and progression, Wayfinder’s dungeons are among some of the best in the business. While they can get tiring after the first dozen runs of a particular layout, these never seem to overstay their welcome as far as main story content goes. Even when you do have to repeat dungeons, there are plenty of ways it freshens things up such as modifiers that change how you approach that dungeon, procedural layouts that are different each time, and events that provide unique puzzles or combat encounters.

Yet despite the strengths of these dungeons, it’s the bosses that steal the show. Thanks to its MMO origins, most of Wayfinder’s bosses take on unique movesets that you wouldn’t always expect to see with a game sporting a narrow focus like this. I don’t want to give too many of the surprises away since learning these bosses is part of the fun, but each tends to provide unique challenges that reward careful dodge timing, positioning, and strong DPS. Normally I dread the moment I’m about to enter a boss arena in games, but this care and attention to detail made bosses easily some of my favorite content.

As a cherry on top, the game is presented beautifully. Voice acting is all well done and emotional, the soundtrack gets your blood pumping while offering some enjoyable ambiance for certain dungeons, and each of the regions is crafted beautifully. It’s rare to see a game utilize a cartoonish art style and still turn out picturesque, but Wayfinder strikes that balance. Whether it be its dense forests interspliced with ruins, icy frost lands, or lush caves, it’s hard not to stop and admire the scenery frequently.

While I could sit here and sing its praises, some of the stains from Wayfinder’s MMO origins weren’t washed out. Most notably, the plot and writing can best be described as a word salad. Exposition dumps are dropped onto your lap with the frequency of loot drops, while nouns are thrown so fast at you that it’s hard to keep track of. Combine this with abandoned plot lines and a story that wanted to end after the second major area (though the third location is very nice), and it isn’t the most compellingly crafted. You probably didn’t look into Wayfinder expecting a narrative masterpiece, but it doesn’t detract from its faults.

Side quests also pale in comparison to the main quests. Many of the quests feel more akin to fetch quests or “go kill 10 of x enemy” type mission design that make them very forgettable. One notable side quest had me go into a dungeon with a specific modifier to collect two objects, then go into a non-modified version of that dungeon to interact with the NPC who gave me the quest. Then it had me do that again, and again, and again. Eventually, I gave up and went back to the main story, especially since I’d grinded out enough XP to be caught up fully anyway. It’s easy enough to ignore, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t seen far better elsewhere.

While not as big of an issue, Wayfinder’s optimization and polish did cause issues at times too. I only had one crash in 30 hours, but the framerate varies wildly depending on where you are in the world. I had anywhere between 30-120 FPS depending on location and battles, meaning I needed to turn down some settings and limit it to 60 FPS just to get something stable. There were also plenty of bugs, like final boss enemies despawning after I died once or certain objectives not spawning unless I restarted a dungeon fully.

My gripes aside, I’m pleasantly surprised by just how far Wayfinder has come since I first played that beta. From its lukewarm early access launch, the game has transformed into an experience that’s well worth your time if you’re a fan of the ARPG/MMO genres. It’s the sort of game that brings me hope that, even if this isn’t the spark, many more developers will see the value in pivoting their live-service ambitions into something more manageable for a small team. As Wayfinder shows, doing so can result in an experience that’s not only better for the developers, but better for players too. I also pray for more single-player/co-op games with MMO elements, but I imagine those prayers will be answered rarely if ever. One can dream.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}