When No Rest for the Wicked was released in Early Access, there was excitement, bt it wasn't without issue. Initially, the game had a staggeringly unsteady frame rate and other technical issues — which is to be expected from a game in Early Access. But developer Moon Studio has rolled out patch after patch, rectifying these issues and more or less changing the game over a series of weeks. I had the opportunity to play No Rest for the Wicked in its earlier stages, marred by frame drops and freezes, and more recently, as the game itself has evened out. And what I’ve found lies beneath is a game that blends the isometric and action RPG genres together in a tantalizing way that could shape up to be something exciting, even if it isn’t exactly original.
No Rest for the Wicked has the player assume the role of the Cerim — an ill-regarded warrior on their way to Isola Sacra, an island beset with a mysterious plague. Upon your journey home, the ship you have taken is accosted by raiders led by a fierce young woman who intends to keep the influence of a theocratic monarchy from its shores. These moments are punctuated with cutscenes, overexaggerated but gorgeous in their execution as characters are both hideous and beautiful in a deliberately muddied art style. Everything is rough around the edges, dirty and ugly, much the world of No Rest for the Wicked. As these series of events play out, laying an interesting foundation for the story, the ship you travel on is set ablaze, and you are thrown from its deck.
Scrambling out of the waves, I find the body of a drowned sailor, the gulls feasting on his entrails. A small ball of blue light hangs in front of his corpse, and I examine it to obtain a greatsword. Bereft of any equipment, clothed only in tattered leather and rags, I equip it — shouldering the weapon, trudging through sand and mud to get my bearings. The weapon is slow, ungraceful; crude yet effective as I smash my way through poorly erected barricades and fight my way through a fortress of well-armed soldiers barring my way to Sanctum, the last safe haven left on the island.
Archers from broken and crumbling parapets shoot arrows at me as I sprint through a mostly empty courtyard. Several men bar my way, armed with swords and shields. I swing my sword, heavy strikes knocking them back as they slowly whittle away at my health with each stab, strike, and arrow. It’s a delicate dance, a trade that those who have played FromSoftware’s catalog of action games will be familiar with.
Because No Rest for the Wicked samples more from Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls than it does Diablo, despite its isometric perspective, stamina management, and weight are a huge component to the overall flow of combat and general game flow. And while I was tempted to run from encounters on more than one occasion, choosing to stand my ground and fight my way through two or three enemies at a time was always the better option. Every time I narrowly avoided death, rushing back to a campfire I had found nestled between crags of rock and stone just outside of the fortress to cook mushroom soup.
On my way to Sanctum I rescue a blacksmith that offers to repair my ruined gear, the small assortment of goods he sells unlocks a choice few recipes, unlocking a handful of new food items I can cook at campfires. These food items provide more healing than swallowing handfuls of raw mushrooms and apples, with some including boons to help bolster my stamina for more challenging fights.
I find chests with armor that I chose not to wear, as it increases my equipment load, making me sluggish and eating up more stamina than I’d like with every dodge. As I continue to explore I pick up an ax, a short sword, a pair of daggers, and a hunting knife that I abstain from using. I’ve decided the greatsword is what I’ll stick with, and I do, at least for the time being.
Despite the challenge fighting multiple enemies provides, I found the game relatively easy. So long as I pace myself and focus on the right target. I encountered my first roadblock in the form of the very first boss — a large, malformed creature composed of limbs and an empty, gaping mouth named Warick. While giving shades of Ludwig The Holy Blade, this abomination is far less talkative. It swings a massive greatsword at me, howling as it leaps into the air. I get too greedy, I lunge forward without healing, and it kills me. I respawn at one of several points on the map, these locations indicated by glowing blue balls of light encased in wispy tendrils of light.
Thankfully, the enemies I fell on the way haven’t respawned, so I make my way back to the monstrosity easily. This time I actually use the items in my inventory, increasing the sharpness of my weapon and bolstering my stamina.
No Rest for the Wicked is unique in that way, at least to me. For the hundreds of hours I poured into Elden Ring and Bloodborne, in Nioh and its sequel, I never used items. Anything that could enhance my damage, make me swifter, or provide some elemental boon was sold. I had no interest in using it. But because No Rest for the Wicked chooses to slowly respawn enemies over a generous amount of time, I couldn’t farm levels as efficiently. I was forced to engage with the various systems in the game, which was a first. There was no real brute forcing, at least with the greatsword. I was slow, the weapon cumbersome, and I had to make due because this was the path I had chosen — pumping everything into health and stamina meant I couldn’t effectively wield daggers or bows, or even cast spells granted to me through staves.
You build your character through the allocation of attribute points, with your attacks designated by what weapon you choose to wield. After defeating Warwick, I was able to finally reach Sanctum which opened up even more options to change the way I could play the game. While the foundations remain the same, a delicate push and pull in choosing to strike, dodge, or parry, changing up your weapon affects the tempo of each encounter. After my nail-biting encounter with Warwick, I had enough of the greatsword and traded it in for a hunting knife. This weapon was faster, more efficient and with the amount of stamina I had, anything that had previously provided any challenge was quickly dealt with. As the game opened up, new enemy types appeared, and optional quests alongside missions appeared, so I began to explore.
No Rest for the Wicked in its Early Access stage gives you more than enough to cut your teeth on. I traveled back to the shore where I had washed up to rescue the innkeeper as I gathered wood to rebuild the establishment. I found a hidden grove where an enemy, burrowed deep underground, knocked me off of a cliff, killing me instantly. I collected meat from wolves I had killed as a side objective given to me by a guard. All of the busy work felt rewarding, as I got new pieces of gear, cooking recipes, and other goods as rewards.
However, eventually, these resource nodes — trees, copper and iron nodes, fishing spots — all ran dry and I was forced to wait for time to pass in order to replenish what I had harvested from these spots. This can disrupt the general flow if you’re too efficient, but it helps stretch what content is available in Early Access. I had to wait to repair the inn, build a lift which makes traversing Sanctum easier, and had to hold upgrading vendors. But one major issue players can face is the lack of resources to make food items, which you will rely upon to heal. Sometimes these nodes do not replenish fast enough, which will leave you scrounging around for whatever you can find, eating apples without any real benefit, hoping that the slight regen it provides will get you through a difficult encounter.
It’s things like this, and deciding between increasing your carrying capacity over upgrading your health or stamina, or even allocating points into dexterity or strength, that adds to No Rest for the Wicked’s difficulty. There is a level of precision that the game expects, or at least finesse, that could turn players off if they’re not aware of what they’re going into. And with the game’s unstable framerate, it can be downright frustrating. Even with a NVIDIA 3080ti and an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor, I experienced frame drops. This was mostly solved after I locked the game to 60FPS. Additional upgrades are also locked behind more challenging fights, similar to the one with Warwick that locks you from progressing to Sanctum. These include the ability to increase the carrying capacity of specific items, such as gear, crafting materials, and consumables. So you can easily be hampered by lack of progress, which again, adds to the general difficulty of the game.
However, all of the positives are groundwork for what could be a really exciting game. Its core gameplay has proven to be more than satisfactory and deliciously engaging — even if using slower builds feels like throwing yourself against a brick wall. But there’s still enjoyment in that. Overall, it’s a fantastic package comprised of gorgeous environments, room for experimentation in terms of character build and an interesting narrative. It will be interesting to see where No Rest for the Wicked ends up, even a week, month, or years from now.
Full disclosure: A copy was provided by PR for the purposes of this review. Reviewed on PC. Reviewed before latest patch released.
