14 DAY TRIAL // A beautiful lake, where a chance meeting reveals a cave to explore. A weird cave where I blink across a gap to get some sparks. A combat meeting on the road to a temple, where I lose half my health, which leads to a detour to find some meat and maybe a potion. These are just a few of the locations you will find early on in a run-through Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy.
The game is made by Ludomotion and published by Big Sugar. It is at the moment offered in Early Access on the Epic Games Store, with a launch planned before the end of the year, and it seems to also be coming to Steam in 2022.
The Wayfarer’s Legacy draws inspiration from the likes of Zelda but also rogue and open-world titles. You take on the role of a hero, tasked with destroying the Staff of Yendor. Each new campaign puts the player in a generated world and asks him to interact with characters and the world to find ways to complete his mission.
Unexplored 2 features classic exploration, combat, stealth, environmental puzzles, resource management, camp mechanics, and more. And, finally, death. The world has plenty of hostiles and, even with a well-designed character and good combat skills, at some point, everyone fails.
This is where the game delivers its biggest innovation. When a character perishes the world moves forward, with the various featured powers influencing its new state. Players get a brief look at items they get from their previous run and then go back to the character creation, ready to try out a new approach.
Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy is a good-looking game. The top-down perspective is fixed, giving developers the freedom to create a beautiful world with plenty of detail. Every area has an organic feel to it, although it is generated by an algorithm. Dusk in this game feels more interesting and melancholic than in many AAA titles. The interface is also well thought out. Ludomotion has also done great work in the music department, with a soundtrack that underlines the epic adventure element of the experience.
Conclusion
The developers at Ludomotion will continue to add content and polish the experience in the coming months. My biggest wish would be for them to a mode that limits the threat from the Empress and focuses more on the world and the characters that you can meet. Even if that does not happen Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy is shaping up to be one of the best role-playing exploration titles of the year.
Review code provided by the publisher.
