No Rest for the Wicked

This game was a very pleasant surprise. Basically Diablo mixed with Souls-like mechanics. Personally, it also reminded me a little bit of Kingdoms of Amalur at times. As an ARPG, it mixes classic RPG progression with Souls-like combat, but thankfully without feeling clunky, as it is often the case with these games. You level up, spend XP and distribute stats like in a traditional RPG, while combat revolves around dodging, blocking, parrying and timing your attacks. Death only costs gear durability, and Whispers (teleport points) are usually close enough that the game never feels as punishing as a typical Souls game. A big part of the loop is also farming resources for crafting and upgrading consumables, gear and vendor stalls. The level design is one of its strongest points for me. Areas are intricate, interconnected and full of progressively unlocked shortcuts à la first Dark Souls. Exploration is enticing, even though the loot is RNG, because of the atmosphere and the curiosity to see what's around the next corner. The city of Sacrament works both as the central hub connecting the different areas, like Firelink Shrine, and as your base of operations, with vendors and crafting. You can also buy and decorate houses, gain comfort buffs while sleeping, and add crafting stations for basically everything: food, potions, weapons, armor, furniture, etc. The story is nothing groundbreaking, but engaging enough and well integrated into the world. The art style is not cartoonish, but more like a unique fairytale painting brought to life. The cutscenes are especially atmospheric. The music fits the atmosphere nicely without ever becoming intrusive. Co-op is handled pretty well, imo. You can create a single-player world and share it online with up to 3 other players. Quest progression is tied to the realm, while players keep their XP and loot. Once a player is granted access to a realm, they can join whenever they want and keep playing, even if the realm admin (original creator) is offline, unless the admin kicks them. After 78 hours of co-op, I only had desync issues once or twice, nothing major. The current balancing needs some work. There are no real classes, so everything depends on stats and gear requirements, but some builds are clearly much more viable and easier to play than others. A shield + wand build can block, parry, fight in melee and cast extremely powerful spells, while archers after the recent nerf feel stuck at short-mid range unless they go hybrid. More build balance would definitely help. Performance still needs optimization. I've had frequent frame drops, especially in newer areas. The game can also be oddly CPU/GPU-bound depending on the scene, with heavy GPU usage, CPU spikes, traversal stutters and inconsistent frametimes. Overall, it's really damn good ARPG with excellent exploration and combat. Still a bit rough around the edges, which is understandable since it's still in EA. From what I've seen so far of what's coming with the 1.0 release, I'm genuinely excited about its new class system, new zones and its future in general. I'd honestly recommend grabbing it now, as I doubt the price will go down when 1.0 is released. The team deserves a lot of respect for sticking with the project and continuing to improve it despite all the issues they've had with their publisher. That kind of commitment definitely shows.