Wyldheart is a new online RPG that invokes the feeling of World of Warcraft’s role-playing servers or being immersed in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. MonsterVine got the chance to go hands-on in a guided tour as well as solo. This early look provided an overview of the experience, warts and all. Read on to learn about the experience and how they go about finding their audience.
A D&D-Inspired Co-Op RPG Experience
Wyldheart starts with you in jail – an RPG staple. Whether you were an outlaw put behind bars for their alleged crimes, an exiled noble who hit a run of bad luck, or a tinkerer who happened to pick up the wrong person’s “trash”, you ended up in the dungeon all the same. Customization is a big part of Wyldheart, with Human, Halfling, and Ogre species available of the 19 they plan to implement, as well as male and female body types. There is a wealth of hairstyles and colors, eyebrows, and eye colors, as well as sliders to make sure you’re able to be engrossed before even taking control of your character. Your journey starts as you try to find a way out of prison after being captured by a mysterious faction, digging through slime that may or may not be alive, and fighting skeletons who are none too happy to see you. Our party of three, including Dennis Brännvall, the creative director and Co-Founder of Wayfinder Studios, and Erin Bower, Marketing Director of Wayfinder Studios, had to move carefully through the dungeon as there were traps, enemies that came from behind, and mysteries to solve. Wyldheart achieves this in part with its search mode, where your character slows down, crouches, and can investigate the environment. This allowed us to find a suspicious mound of dirt, which we investigated, and found a hole that could’ve been perilous, as Dennis informed me. I decided to take the plunge and survived to find some crates to loot. My group tossed a rope down so I could climb back up with a rope-climbing animation that the team admitted was amusingly bugged. It’s important to note that, as of my hands-on demo, there were some functions one player could not do, such as setting a rope down before jumping into a crate-filled hole. Wayfinder Studios said they are working on AI companions for solo players for this reason, and I’m sure in many other instances where you would have needed a live player in the current build.
Dungeon Exploration and Immersion Systems
Wyldheart lets you have a squad of up to four players and is easily drop-in, drop-out, with benefits like catch-up experience, so whether you’re with committed buddies for a weekly session or you want to hang out with your nephew virtually as he’s on winter break, both are encouraged. Additionally, though you choose a starting class, it is mostly a classless experience, allowing players to specialize how they’d like, though keep in mind that part of the core gameplay is venturing into dungeons. You won’t be able to cook your way past wild boars and enemy soldiers, after all.
Delving deeper into the dungeon, there is no minimap, so players will have to keep track of where they’ve been. I did ask the developers whether they’d consider some sort of “bread crumbs” system for players like me who can get turned around easily, and they were receptive. Our first enemies made themselves known in the form of slimes, to which I learned friendly fire was on. Potions can also be thrown, so using a steady hand to make sure you don’t heal the boss will be important. You also have to contend with stamina and weapon durability in this action RPG, which Wayfinder Studios stands behind fully as part of the immersion.
Combat Challenges and Early Issues
While the guided preview of Wyldheart was clearly very early, the combat was murky at best. Trying to parse when to attack, when to guard, and when it was “safe” to recover stamina seemed like more of a gamble than anything. The starting enemy, consisting of slimes, whose movements and attacks are ambiguous, did not help this matter. Also, a fair number of enemies appeared to be bugged or did not have smart enough AI to actually pursue and threaten me, like when I saw a skeleton archer pelting a column instead of me. While some of this does evoke imagery of a group of LARPers clumsily battling foes, I can’t say that, in its current state, it makes for a good player experience.
With all these choices, there were some interesting decisions you could make to better survive dungeons, like barricading doors you’ve passed through so reinforcements don’t ambush you, or lighting a brazier to throw at a slime boss to do massive damage. Wayfinder Studios looks to reward players for thinking outside the box with interactions like these.
Player Choice, Permadeath, and Roleplay Mechanics
After vanquishing the slime boss, we encountered a dying man who used his last breaths to pass on an item, which you learn may be the Chalice of Saint Alwen. This chalice is key to stopping the Winter King, but that is where my guided playthrough ended.
Some dialogue is voted on, and the option that has the most votes will be the one that your squad will reap the consequences of. A narrator was planned but not implemented in the build I played.
Another element to keep players immersed is setting up camp to save, as well as many other options like cooking, eating, repairing, and good ol’ emoting. You’ll want to camp even if your party is raring to go, as nighttime is considerably more dangerous, and you will steadily lose hope, represented by purple hearts. It is a risk/reward option by design, but beware – losing all your hearts will result in permadeath. Even if you do find yourself on the wrong end of permadeath, Wyldheart handles this in an interesting way. While of course you could just roll a new character, Wayfinder Studios has some interesting alternatives that don’t break immersion, such as going on a quest to revive the fallen character or using a resurrection spell. You won’t find any golden exclamation points leading to quests, Brännvall cites as another immersive element. As you explore and rummage through dungeons, towns, and other environs, your character will pick up rumors that act as starting points for what could be quests.
The overworld is made of hexes, and travel takes time. Wayfinder Studios is working with a published author to make handcrafted environments, so hopefully your quests will be more interesting than killing 15 boars for a MacGuffin.
A Promising Vision With Work Ahead
While the look at Wyldheart was very early, having a strong vision and intended audience could provide the next great hangout for groups of four or fewer. That said, Wayfinder Studios has work to do to bring the Wyldheart experience in line with these goals. Beyond some nice weather effects, I did not experience much compelling content in combat or otherwise. Wyldheart is planned to enter Early Access by the end of the year and launch at 1.0 by next year – the team says they do not want to remain in Early Access for an extended period. Wyldheart also has a Kickstarter campaign, where the developer is seeking feedback. Players may want to get on board early, as the game’s price will rise over time.
