Large sales, tens of thousands of online users and what seems like a triumph, but with many shadows to pursue
Wolcen Studios is living the dream and nightmare of every indie studio. Back in the first half of 2000 a French study presented its candidacy for a dream via Kickstarter, like so many others. The small group asked for $ 225,000 to create Umbra, an open and classless Hack'n Slash made with the CryEngine that wanted to revolutionize the genre.
They achieved more than 400,000 and embarked on an adventure that we bet must have been quite complicated given the development time and the severe design changes with respect to the original idea – yes, it is a game completely without classes, although in that no longer They are so revolutionary given the competition, but the idea of an open and explorable world has given way to a much more traditional and linear reality. Even the name of the project (and the study) changed to Wolcen: Lord of Mayhem. Four long years of paid beta through Early Access are sufficient proof that the group has been fighting until the last moment to present a decent game.
With the CryEngine (almost) you always achieve visually remarkable games
Suffer for success
The result in figures of his departure from Early Access on February 13 seems to indicate that the objectives have been achieved: # 1 in sales on Steam, maximum peaks of 120,000 concurrent users, a jump of 1426% of average users with respect to the figures I drove in Early Access, and all that for a paid game (€ 34.99). The kind of reception that inspires the indie dream.
But, as one would expect from a title with a strong online component with that massive peak of users, the servers began to collapse as soon as the doors opened. The Hack'n Slash is a very popular genre and there is always hunger for new bets, especially if they look as good as Wolcen – which looks great, everything is said. This has generated some chaotic days, not only because of the inability to play online, but because of server failures of several hours and serious errors with the maintenance of the database, which has caused many users to lose many hours of play . In the graph of Reviews of Steam users, it is easy to see when the problems begin and the range of positives and negatives expands practically evenly, making that "mixed" average that it currently has seems quite appropriate.
Evolution of Steam user Reviews, positive and negative
It is, of course, a game with virtues and defects. It looks great both in graphics and visual design, it has fun and interesting builds, a very good character customization system and a promising endgame, among other things. But important imbalances are also appreciated according to the sense in which you take your character, excess of skills and attributes poorly explained, hangings that require a computer restart and an infinity of bugs that will return us to the times when we duplicated weapons in the original Devil.
In short, a jewel in the rough that still needs work but shows great potential. In a few days we will have Reviews, once it can be tested with certain guarantees, but for the moment we recommend to endure a little before embarking on it, particularly if you can not pass the multiplayer element in this kind of games.
