The survival genre has long been dancing with the ARPG for some time now. In truth, the ARPG genre has always been shaking its tail feathers with the soulslike genre. So what happens when three genres end up doing a little wiggle together? Well, Wardens of Avalon seemingly wishes to provide the answer.
Building from the ashes of a fallen Camelot, Wardens of Avalon is swimming in the same DNA pool as No Rest for the Wicked. For those not familiar, this means you’ll be fighting enemies, gaining power, gathering resources, and building a home base in order to repeat the process over and over.
With that basic outline, playing Wardens of Avalon makes things clear: this is a game built for longer-term progression without relying too much on the grind. By grind, I mean the process of repetition typically expected from the Survival genre.
In the short time spent in Wardens of Avalon, it felt like an action RPG first, with the survival aspects coming second. It’s not exactly a bad thing, as it works as a justification for your actions, but it runs the risk of isolating one factor of the game over the other. Resource gathering feeds into building up your town, which in turn allows you to craft items, which you wear in combat or use to gather resources.
Forming the spine of the gameplay loop, it is a shame that combat feels a little off. Weaving in and out of range of enemies, unleashing melee attacks or spells, it works but lacks that bite. It’s not fast enough to carry a sense of energy, nor is it weighty enough to be hard-hitting. Existing awkwardly between states, Wardens of Avalon’s combat leaves a lot to be desired.
Combat does change depending on the weapons you are using, or even the spells you can muster, but it always feels like it’s merely warming up, yet never breaking into a sprint. Parrying and dodging foes make up a large part of the engagements, tapping into a soulslike tone due to the punishing nature of taking hits. Death sees all of your loot in your bags hit the floor, remaining for you to attempt to pick up when returning to the scene.
Wardens of Avalon is clearly trying to give its world scope, with multiple areas to explore, packed with enemies, items, and resources. The issue, at least present in this preview, is that it doesn’t feel particularly exciting. Anticipation was rarely built as I got closer to crafting an item or building. Instead, it felt like early fetch quests on loop, the sort of feeling you get when leveling a character in the early stages of an MMORPG.
There is something lurking within Wardens of Avalon that promises an engaging experience. Combat may not be satisfying, but you can see a direction that can be refined and given more identity. Crafting is basic, but basic doesn’t mean it can’t grow into something more rewarding. Some aspects, like the fairly dull visuals and generic art direction, are deeper issues, but they can be smoothed out with improvements to the core gameplay.
Ultimately, Wardens of Avalon aims to be a solid game, but not one that really excites. In a market where V Rising still commands a presence, and No Rest For The Wicked is growing, Wardens of Avalon may struggle to land outside a very diehard market. Not quite enough to feed survival fans, not sharp enough to cut ARPG fans, nor deep enough for soulslike fans.
An uncomfortable feeling that slowly crept up on me, which I alluded to earlier, was that Wardens of Avalon feels like an MMORPG without its hooks. The combination of different elements in this preview was evident, but not strong enough to suggest the game will release as something that needs to be played.
