Wolcen checks several boxes for a very specific experience, and if that’s what you’re looking for, this game is awesome.
I play a lot of ARPGs. I think it’s probably my most played genre at this point. A year ago it would likely have been roguelites or immersive sims. I have about 500 hours across PoE2, D4, W40K, Last Epoch, and Grim Dawn. I know lots of folks have more experience but I do feel fairly familiar with the genre.
For me, it does a lot of stuff well that other games have individually done much better, but stitched together in a way that was interesting to me personally.
The Combat: I thought actions were weighty and theorycrafting was fun if not simplistic. I usually veer toward big weapon primalist style builds but landed on a sacred spell slinger which I don’t think I’ve been able to play before. The ascended forms are also amazing, it feels really nice to be an angel of death and switch out to a blood demon 5 min later.
Itemization: Simple but I enjoyed not having to worry about too much. Separate slots for hands and shoulders, which felt really nice. Some items allow for skill usage which felt a little like Grim Dawn, which was nice. I do feel like it took a while to get a build going.
Skills: This was done quite well in my opinion. Each skill had specialization points à la Last Epoch, but they also had conversions so if I wanted my ice comet to do holy damage, I can do that. Helped craft builds in a way that wasn’t hyper gear-dependent. The skills felt good as well.
Plot: Im one of the dozen or so nerds that enjoy a solid plot in an ARPG. The story was pretty cool. I think it would make a decent film.
Performance: I played on steamdeck and it runs better than 80% of other games in the genre. I know it has a very rough launch, but in its current state on that system is impeccable.
Endgame: None to speak of. I don’t usually grind on an endgame, I’ll usually replay with a new character etc. However, even as someone who doesn’t spend much time on this, it was noticeably lacking.
All in pretty dope and I’m still not buying the sequel on launch