Summary review:
Wildmender is a unique crafting survival game set in a wasteland-like desert. With nothing but a canteen, a lonely natural spring, and a confused floating sprite – set out on a journey to bring life back to this once-flourishing landscape. Wildmender has simple graphics but creates an awe-inspiring atmosphere. The character customization is decent for the visual style of the game. The soundtrack is beautiful but becomes quite repetitive as you make your way through the unforgiving land. There are optional settings to customize your difficulty to make the game as relaxing or as challenging as you’d like. Clothing and colour options open up as you progress through the story and finish quests. Combat is a mechanic in the game that adds some spice not doesn’t control the narrative. There is a wide variety of plants, seeds, and craftable items to make your own lush, ambient oasis. The game is multiplayer, with cross-platform support. This story may not appeal to everyone, but my overall demo impression is positive. This game has a lot of great things going for it and I am excited for its release on Sept 28, 2023, for PC Steam, PS5, and Xbox series X.
Things I like
- Unique gameplay concept
- Stunning atmosphere with simple graphics
- Abundant variety of plants and items
- Immersive water mechanics
- Custom garden & plant placement
Things that need work
- Frame rate issues during streaming/recording
- Limited character appearance choices
- Simple storyline so far
- Some optimization needed
- Progression is confusing at times; lacking direction or instructions
I was able to spend some time playing the Wildmender demo; a really unique game where you bring a deserted world back to life.
When I first saw this demo, I was a little hesitant because of the combat components but it’s not the main focus of progression and just adds a bit of spice to the overall game.
The opening title screen is a scenic image with some beautiful music playing, you’re greeted by a bunch of options here. You can customize your character, change your settings, report any bugs, get help, join a player (multiplayer), and start a new game!
The settings give you a lot of options when it comes to adjusting the game to your required options and you can also adjust the difficulty of the game, how fast things grow or need water, and certain events that happen. The one thing I struggled with is the framerate wanted to go as high as ever and it lagged me out while streaming a bit – hopefully, this gets fixed during optimization or a frame rate cap is added on release.
In ‘Customization’ you can change your character’s appearance. The choices are limited but I like that you can choose any colour for a few of the options and in the game you can craft and change your clothing. You can also choose your colours in the inventory menu in game as well.
The overall graphics of the game are really pretty. They’re not overly detailed but the atmosphere they can produce, especially the plants and lighting is really beautiful. I didn’t encounter many visual glitches in the demo.
The story starts out very simple. You awake in a wasteland beside a bubbling shrine. You need to bring the land back to life. You start small and continue to add to your newly growing garden. The plants provide you with shade and protection, and some provide you with food – a resource you need to manage as you are a living being requiring both food and water. You quickly learn that there are spirits to talk to and learn from, without spoiling it too much. Unlocking abilities and craftables from the memories you collect makes re-growing the land much easier.
The variety of seeds, plants, and items you can craft seem plentiful even in the demo – I’m really excited to see how much farther they go with items, outfits, and plants! The plants vary from ground herbs, to fruiting plants, to shrubs and bushes to massive trees. You’re only limited by your imagination…and maybe your water source.
Speaking of your water source, the water shrine continuously bubbles out water around it and wets the soil. You can actually see the darkening of the wetter soil as it saturates. As you level up the shrine, you can dig and guide the flow of water to really customize your little oasis and even build bridges over your small streams. Later in the game, you can begin to unblock other water shrines as well.
The storyline seems to progress down a path of unlocking more recipes, powers, and areas of the map. I won’t go into too much detail as to not spoil the story but it seems to pick up rather quickly.
My overall impression of this game is really good. The demo was enjoyable with moments of serenity and moments of panic (always bring extra food!).
They have a wonderful Discord server and their community is great, with a fantastic team! Check out their Twitter/X for more information.
Wildmender releases on September 28, 2023 for PC (Steam), Playstation 5 and XBOX Series X with cross-platform support. Wishlist it today!