I’m one of those weird people who likes to play beta versions of games whenever I get the chance. As a writer, it’s in my nature to aid people with things like guides, and I have an (sometimes) unhealthy obsession with games, so helping developers improve their games is a nice mix of both.
However, like many people, I also apply the beta version to determine whether I like the final product. I’m treading carefully as some issues are part of the beta, but it’s a great way to gauge whether the core experience is for me. That’s what I did with it Find over a year ago and I haven’t fully warmed to the MMO style since the game is always online and my inconsistent wifi doesn’t work well. Even then, I didn’t want to see what being an MMO brought to the table. Judging by the initial reception to Early Access, others felt the same way.
However, while I would normally walk away never to touch this game again, Find this is a unique case. During Early Access, the game moved away from its MMO roots and focused on something more focused, driven by single-player and co-op ambitions, rather than something much larger and more time-consuming. Despite some shortcomings that are challenging to remove, Find it has become something much more worth the asking price. Moreover, this is a great example of how some games are simply better without the apply of live services.
If you are not familiar with Find after the Early Access remake (or I just never knew about it), it’s a single-player or co-op action RPG in which you play as one of eight Wayfinders, characters with unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. While one character focuses on helping the team with damage reduction and healing, others focus on damage over time, weakening targets, or raw DPS. As Wayfinder, your goal is to stop the spread of the Darkness, an interdimensional infection that consumes all life it touches, plunging its regions into shadow and chaos.
Not the most unique premise, but where Find what stands out is strange because some of its roots are still upheld. It may be a novel genre, but much of the quest structure, dungeon layouts, and boss designs are ripped straight from MMOs. Honestly, it feels more like a single-player/co-op MMO than an action RPG, even if that may contradict itself. I’ve never been much into MMOs (unless you count my obscene number of hours spent playing Warframe), mainly because of how much pressure you can have in dungeons or raids with other players. At best, one or two people might not be paying attention, and at worst, someone is spamming the chat about how you didn’t do the exact button combinations they would have done if you were a different person and not their clone.
Getting rid of this while still allowing you to queue with random players is a game changer as it allows you to either create a one-man army or create a team and make novel friends. I played through the entire game solo, and while some encounters were very challenging, it was always possible with enough effort and careful positioning. I also played on the second highest difficulty, so maybe that’s what I asked for.
No matter who you’re playing with, there’s plenty in the game for you to dive into. Leveling up all of these characters can take over a hundred hours if you work at it, and there’s plenty of side content just in case you’re craving more. Build creators have more than enough options for customizing skill upgrades to improve the way specific skills interact with each other, talents that provide additional stat boosts and novel benefits, and a whole host of “Echoes” that can be applied to your gear to provide even more more statistics updates. It’s tough to get lost in it, but it will never be too overwhelming, provided you have a good understanding of Wayfinder’s strengths and weaknesses. As an example, I focused my build on Venom on weapon power and critical hit rate, dealing tons of damage with each hit while applying infinite amounts of poison. She was easily my favorite character of the eight, but both Grendel and Silo did well.
In addition to great character designs and progression, Wayfinder the dungeons are among the best in the industry. While they can get tiring after the first dozen or so runs of a particular layout, they never feel overly welcome when it comes to the content of the main story. Even if you do have to replay dungeons, there are plenty of ways to freshen things up, such as modifiers that change how you approach dungeons, procedural layouts that are different each time, and events that provide unique puzzles or combat encounters.
However, despite these dungeons’ strengths, it’s the bosses that steal the show. Most of them have their roots in MMO games Wayfinder bosses perform unique moves that you wouldn’t always expect in a game with such a narrow approach. I don’t want to give away too many surprises because learning about these bosses is part of the fun, but each one provides unique challenges that reward careful timing, positioning, and powerful DPS. I usually dread the moment I’m about to enter a boss arena in games, but this care and attention to detail has easily made bosses my favorite content.
As a cherry on top, the game is beautifully presented. The voice acting is well done and emotional, the soundtrack gets your blood pumping while providing a nice atmosphere in some of the dungeons, and each of the regions is beautifully crafted. It’s infrequent for a game with a cartoonish graphic style to turn out to be picturesque, and yet Find strikes that balance. Whether it’s dense forests interspersed with ruins, icy lands, or lush caves, it’s tough not to stop and admire the landscape often.
While I could sit here and sing his praises, some stains from Wayfinder The origins of MMOs have not been erased. Most importantly, the plot and writing style can best be described as word salad. Exposure drops fall into your lap at the rate of loot drops, while nouns are thrown at you so quickly that it’s tough to keep track of them. Combine that with abandoned plot threads and a story that wanted to end after the second main area (although the third location is very nice), and it’s not the most convincingly crafted. You probably haven’t checked Find I’m expecting a narrative masterpiece, but that doesn’t diminish its flaws.
Side quests also pale in comparison to the main quests. Many of the tasks feel more like fetch missions or “kill 10 enemies” missions, which makes them simple to forget. One notable side quest had me go to a dungeon with a specific modifier to collect two items, and then go to an unmodified version of that dungeon to interact with the NPC who gave me the quest. Then it made me do it again, and again, and again. I finally gave up and returned to the main story, especially since I had gained enough XP to catch up anyway. It’s simple to ignore, but I’d be lying if I said I haven’t seen much better elsewhere.
Although it’s not that substantial of a problem, Wayfinder optimization and polishing also caused problems at times. I only had one crash in 30 hours, but frame rates vary greatly depending on where you are in the world. Depending on locations and battles, I was getting anywhere from 30 to 120 FPS, which means I had to turn down some settings and cap it at 60 FPS to get something stable. There were also plenty of bugs, like final boss enemies disappearing after my one-time death or certain objectives not spawning unless I completely restarted the dungeon.
