I’ve played both Ori games. I survived the Water Tower in Blind Forest. So I knew that, even though developer Moon Studios was changing genres for its next game, No Rest for the Wicked, I shouldn’t expect to breeze through it. And sure enough, after playing the first 90 minutes of an early build, culminating in a punishing boss fight, I had to earn every new piece of gear, every bit of loot, and every inch of progress. No Rest for the Wicked is beautiful, it is challenging, and it is rewarding. You are not a walking death machine here, like in Diablo. Instead, your enemies are the walking death machines, and you’ll need to learn how to survive them. It’s more like Dark Souls in an isometric-view action-RPG form.
As we’d already been told by Moon Studios in our recent IGN First exclusive coverage, No Rest for the Wicked isn’t a high-speed slaughterfest like Diablo 4. Instead, it’s much closer to Dark Souls. You’ll need to time your attacks, parries, dodge rolls, and enemy engagements just right in order to survive each fight. But I’m getting ahead of myself. After enjoying the opening cutscene and rolling your character, you’ll wash ashore and immediately notice Wicked’s beautiful painterly art style. It has a family resemblance to Ori, visually speaking, but it’s much bleaker. Where Ori was vibrant, Wicked is sullen. This isn’t a complaint, though. Its beachside starting location and constant rain and windswept foliage make it feel like a pirate story that’s gone terribly wrong. This is a good thing, visually, as it gives Wicked’s world character and makes it constantly feel alive. It’s a lived-in place, though what lives there doesn’t seem too happy about it.
Wicked’s gameplay starts like most action-RPGs do: by smashing every barrel and killing every inconsequential crab in an effort to improve from the nothing you start with to something, anything. And while those initial vermin pose no threat, you’ll soon be introduced to the enemies called The Risen that very much do. It’s here where your lessons begin. The main lesson? Apply your soulslike skills. Be very, very deliberate in your attacks and movements, because one wrong move can get you killed. Picking up ingredients and cooking health-restoring meals at various campfires ahead of time is crucial to surviving battles with multiple foes. Stamina management in battle is vital, as too much dodge-rolling will result in you being unable to move or attack. In short, you’ll be a momentary sitting duck.
The neat thing about the danger present in every bad guy, though, is that when you crush them into a bloody pulp, it’s incredibly satisfying and rewarding. But if you do die – check that, when you die, you’ll respawn at the nearest Cerim Whisper point, with your health restored (though not your weapon durability) and with the dead enemies still dead and the wounded enemies still injured. Those same Cerim Whisper points also refill your health when you activate them. Whew!
There are NPCs to talk to, of course, and shopkeepers to do business with. I really like how you can move around in the world. You can clamber up and down vine-covered walls, scurry up ladders, hop up short walls, and tiptoe across narrow planks that lead to secrets. All of it couples with the living-painting art style to make it feel like it existed long before you started playing. Meanwhile, a handy map helps guide you to the next objective while conveniently also showing you how thoroughly you’ve explored each region, item-wise. And when you level up, you’ll have skill points to distribute, while the classic action-RPG paper doll-style inventory should make most players feel right at home. I appreciate that every item clearly displays whether or not it’d be an upgrade over what you currently have equipped.
In a sadistic tease, my preview version ended just as I had gained a few le vels and was starting to feel a little bit powerful. Or I would’ve, if I weren’t immediately beat down by the same boss monstrosity we exclusively showed for you at the start of our IGN First coverage a couple weeks ago (see video above).
All in all, the first hour and a half of No Rest for the Wicked gave me a good sense of what to expect, and it left me wanting more. I suspect it’s going to win over a lot of you when it launches into Early Access in the coming weeks. It’s been almost exactly four years since Moon Studios’ last game, and what this first taste of Wicked makes quite clear is that those four years have been well-spent. If it’s not on your radar already, it’s about to be.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our occasional interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
