Wayfinder is an action role-playing game developed by Airship Syndicate. Back in August of 2023, this game was originally released as an MMORPG published under Digital Extremes. Following the release, the game was marred by technical issues out of their control and a live service model that was not working out. That is, until June in the following year, where the game fundamentally shifted from being that problemed MMORPG, to a layered, massive and intensely fun ARPG.
Developer & Publisher // Airship Syndicate
Platforms // PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X|S
MSRP & Release Date // $24.99, October 21st, 2024 & January 28th, 2025 (Xbox Series X|S)
Reviewed On // PC
Wayfinder, is interesting when it comes to the ARPG space. Considering it was originally an MMORPG; a lot of the game still feels built to match that original idea. While also focusing on some of the aspects of the game that made it feel different. Combining two different genres of game design that come together to make something I have not played before. A massive and fleshed out fantasy world with constant replayability, and layers of exciting build crafting depth to keep the game interesting outside of its middling story. In my near hundred hours of playing, Wayfinder still has its hooks in me, and I feel like I am still scratching the surface.
From the World of Evenor
Wayfinder takes place in the fantasy setting of Evenor. Where the world is falling to a shadowy corruption known as the Gloom. When the corruption eventually spreads to the town of Skylight, a band of warriors called Wayfinders fight to protect a beacon that fends off the corruption but fails in their mission. It is only after a year of being lost to the Gloom that they are revived by a mysterious character named Omen. Who guides the wayfinders back to the real world to reclaim all that has been lost.
The story of Wayfinder comes in two parts. The first helps set up the world across a few dozen hours of play time. But in that second part, comes a more riveting tale with cinematic and more personal storytelling. For example, you will find many characters who lead you to different activities and areas. Almost like what you would experience in an MMO. But as the story progresses, things begin to change.
Certain characters are tied to interesting revelations. On top of that, the world around you begins to change in eerie ways. Parts of the Highlands starts falling to the Gloom, and the color palette shifts to that development. There are also long and epic sequences that took away my breath at times.
While the entirety of the story in Wayfinder does not match the rest of the game in quality. There is just enough to make paying to attention to what happens very much worth it. But for the gameplay side of things? That is where the excellence of Airship Syndicates expertise shines through.
The Weighty and Addictive Combat of Wayfinder
Wayfinder has some of the best feeling third person action combat I have seen in years. Whether you are playing the holy paladin Wingrave with his defensive abilities and swinging around a sword and shield in quick fluid motion. Or playing as Venomess with fantastic feeling third person shooting that does not feel clunky in the chaos of combat. Any character you pick to play, and what weapons you choose will feel fantastic.
Every wayfinder has a unique set of abilities that matches them personally. Such as Niss the shadowy rogue character with the ability to dash forward with a shadow clone to deal damage to everything within range. Lora can become a hulking arcane beast to wail on everything for a short period of time. Its these differences that definite each character and make experimentation worth the extra time.
Every weapon also has unique abilities of their own. Whether that be a shield and sword you can throw and ricochet between foes. A hulking great sword that can cleave the earth in front of you and summon lava to deal massive damage to everything caught in it. The guns are nothing to sneeze at either. As they can either shoot an anchor to weaken a foe and take more damage from shots, or a railgun that can summon a gloom creature to shoot a channeled beam at what you are targeting.
The variety in Wayfinder is incredible, with the ones I mentioned being my favorites from just a few of the weapon classes available. All found by random drops with different stats. But the variety does not stop there, as there are tons of different classes of enemies to fight in the game.
A Bit of Everything Fantastical
Wayfinder is comprised of three open world areas, and various different expeditions, or randomly generated dungeons. The first location in the game is the Highlands. A typical grassy and ruins filled zone with rivers and caves. But it is there that the most variety in enemies is contained. You have the bandits, goblins, water elemental foes and even giant worms. From there, you have Frostmarch which is easily my favorite. As it has an abandoned feel to it and also has giant stone swords in the sky. With scaffolding across ridges that remind me of Thousand Needles from World of Warcraft.
The final zone of the game is The Crucible which comes off as the smallest of all three. There is a gimmick to it, where you can use a grappling hook to traverse large spaces, which does feel cool. Both Frostmarch and The Crucible do not have the same level of enemy variety, however. Frostmarch comes close with wolves, giant ice spiders and bone draped foes. But The Crucible is easily the weakest, with enemies that feel more natural in the environment, but it felt like Wayfinder did not build to the best final area overall.
When it comes to the open nature of all three areas though, the closed in expeditions are much more enjoyable to explore.
Into the Dungeons Below
Expeditions in Wayfinder are filled with various activities, multiple chests and encounters that all lead to a final mini boss before leaving. Expeditions from the Highlands for example are either in the ruins of Aurelian, different mines or my favorite, the Gloom. The Gloom dungeons have elements to them that the other expeditions do not. While the ruins of Aurelian have a mystical air to them, with the mines feeling spacious and mysterious. The Gloom has a different feel to it altogether.
The Gloom feels otherworldly, with perfectly cleaved chunks of concrete that make simple platforming areas. As well as chunks of different environments that seem strung together coherently. There are also these giant plants you can destroy to unblock treasure rooms. The color palette alone draws me to it like no other in the game.
All expeditions are also excellently crafted despite how much I preferred the Gloom over the others. They give out loads of experience points, and other various rewards. With the option to add modifiers that change the entire behavior of the expedition. There also little activities to do in them, like a Trickster that lets you gamble for exclusive rewards, or a unique one in the Frostmarch expeditions. Where you find a crown on a stump and deliver it to a big tree while fending off constant enemy attacks.
Suffice it to say, expeditions are a great way to farm rewards and breathe in the world of Wayfinder. I just wish there was more variety in locales in the Frostmarch and Crucible expeditions. It is a minor complaint, especially when factoring in the ridiculous number of cool bosses to fight in Wayfinder.
On the Hunt in Wayfinder
I can count on one hand the amount of expedition settings there are in the game. But the number of bosses in Wayfinder by comparison is crazy. Despite starting off with run of the mill ideas, like a giant slime or spider. The game easily opens up with mystical bosses like the Argent Hand which are a group of spiritual monks that, after defeating as a group, become a much larger more physical focused boss with special area-of-effect attacks.
Originally, in my review of the Echoes update during the early access period, I found that the Reaver King, Aturach, fight was my favorite. While the idea of taking down two different bosses together before they can revive one another is not inherently original. It is still one of the best fights in the game by a mile. Only topped by Hollowlord Vendraal in The Crucible.
Vendraal is a towering boss that you have to do a delicate dance of frustration and mechanics. He slams his hands down on a part of the stage, and you have to damage him between bursts of energy from that hand. After each third of his health is taken away, you have to maneuver around the three stages with the grappling hook, expose his weak points and kill adds between each phase. I was not expecting such a cool and large-scale boss like this in Wayfinder. But his entrance is memorable and lives rent free in my head.
As Deep as the Ocean
On the surface, Wayfinder might seem like a case of “wide as an ocean, and deep as a puddle”. But that is not the case. There are multiple layers of depth to the game. On top of the variety in wayfinders and the different weapons you can use in the game. There is an Echo system that functions like gems from World of Warcraft, where they can boost certain stats. Such as health, defense and attack. But also, ability strength and critical rate and damage for attacks.
It is obviously very standard, but when it is combined with boss specific echoes, that is where things get more fun. Every boss in the game can drop an echo and it has specific behaviors. Such as the Argent Hand echo that drops an explosive that deals massive damage multiplied by your weapon damage. As well as the Beastmaster echo that can summon a bear, eagle or wolf to deal damage randomly. It is all incredibly fun and brought together by the Talent system.
The Talent system sounds simple, and it is. But it yet adds another layer on top of the many build crafting options in the game. Each node in the Talent tree offers minor stat boosts, and more space for echoes. While also offering a range of passives, like more weapon power in proportion to your overall health, or gaining a shield when you use an ability that pulls from your magic defense stat. The possibilities are almost endless and continually makes me wonder what Grendel would look like with a gun. What Venomess with Dual daggers, or a shield and sword build for Niss would turn out like. It is very fun to play around with and most combinations work with a little effort.
Technically All Over the Place
Wayfinder is a very pretty game, its art style is bright, colorful and used to create beautiful areas. The Highlands, Frostmarch, and The Crucible have moments that make me yearn for a photo mode despite not being a fan of that feature in most games. The animation work for wayfinder abilities and weapons is fluid and cool to watch in motion as well. With all of this being said, the game is very inconsistent performance wise.
I played Wayfinder with an RX6600, Ryzen 5 5600g, 16 gigabytes of RAM on a NVME SSD. The game loads very quick from the main menu, with instantaneous loading when you fast travel from waypoints in the open worlds which is very impressive and has a unique animation for each wayfinder that I adored. But the game can either run flawlessly in framerates going into 144, then drop down randomly in certain scenarios to below 30 even with FSR enabled. It is very unoptimized in that regard, but I grew accustomed to it due to the enjoyment I had playing through Wayfinder.
What does ruin my enjoyment, however, is when I fast travel and fall under the map. Which in Frostmarch, there is another added floor under that floor in Frostmarch where I experienced that glitch, allowing me to fast travel and resume my gameplay. But when experiencing a crash when doing a world boss or having a public event bug out is a bummer.
Light Accessibility Options
As far as accessibility goes, Wayfinder has options for difficulty, and not much else. There are no options for color blind players either.
Final Thoughts on Wayfinder
Overall, Wayfinder as a game saw a very transformative change throughout its early access. Airship Syndicate no doubt did not anticipate having to change a live service MMORPG to a fully functional and fun to play ARPG, however. The work that was put into adding multiple layers of build crafting depth, several large locations with lots to do and see. As well as a staggering variety of wayfinders, weapons, enemies and bosses all wrapped in a beautifully simplistic art style is easily recommendable. Especially at its very low-price tag. It is worth every penny, as it was to play every second that I did throughout its early access and many forms.
Final Score: 8/10
Pros
- Beautiful World
- Incredible Variety
- Excellent Build Crafting Options
- Memorable Boss Design
Cons
- Poor Performance
- Technical Issues
- Middling Story
Disclaimer – A Key for Wayfinder was provided for coverage.
