The Waylanders (2022)

When The Waylanders succeeds, the game is one of the most solid experiences I've had all year. But those successes are few and far between, while the rest of the title fails to keep itself afloat among a sea of bugs and poorly thought out gameplay decisions.

Everything about my experience points to GATO Studio either running out of time or money (or both) before they could complete The Waylanders. A story that starts off in a fresh setting and filled with interesting characters, nice visuals and outstanding voice acting is quickly derailed by technical flaws and an ever-growing list of bugs. I rarely complain about too many side missions or additional features like romantic endeavors being added to a game, but this is a perfect example where cutting out unnecessary features would have allowed GATO Studios to focus on the things that really mattered. Sometimes, less can be more, and that appears to be the case here.

The game is wonderful artistically, but it just has far too many problems right now to recommend. The developers, Gato Studio, seem to recognize this and are preparing updates, but once again I find myself reminding game studios how badly things can go if you release something before it is ready. It is really hard to gain back the trust of players after you lose it.

The Waylanders is to be commended for the way it takes Celtic mythology and extracts cool moments and conflicts. It’s a great jumping-off point to learn more about the Tuatha De Danann and the stories of pre-Christianity Ireland. It also tries to innovate party-driven RPG combat by focusing on formations and their advantages.

The Waylanders tries to imitate a variety of mechanics from leaders of the RPG genre, but fails to implement any of them effectively, while offering nothing original apart from the astonishingly poor dialogue.