No Rest For the Wicked early access review – a shaky start, but there's potential

No Rest for the Wicked feels like a bit of a missing link. In the same way that Salt and Sanctuary bridged a gap between Metroidvanias and the Souls series, No Rest exists as a stop on an imaginary evolutionary journey from Diablo-style action RPGs and the aforementioned Souls both Demonic and Dark. Taking the isometric view and randomised loot from the former, and the exploration and more measured approach to combat from the latter, No Rest attempts to craft something new from familiar ingredients.

No Rest for the Wicked early access reviewPublisher: Private DivisionDeveloper: Moon StudiosPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Early Access currently available on Steam only. Full release also coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S.

At first, I thought it was a horrible mistake. After a brief tutorial, you’re shipwrecked on the island of Sacra and left to find your way to the nearest settlement. Almost immediately, the clash between the two disparate game styles becomes apparent, and the focal point of this dissonance is loot.

Dark Souls and Diablo have two completely opposing philosophies when it comes to loot. In the Souls games, almost every piece of gear is deliberately placed, and even randomly dropped loot comes from specific enemies. Your pool of healing items is small, but it refreshes on every death and checkpoint. There’s little guidance for building your character, but you can pick a starting loadout that is geared towards your preferred playstyle. You’ll probably be able to complete the game with that starting gear too, since it upgrades, and the combat is designed more around preference than any given sword being obviously better than another.

Diablo is the exact opposite. It throws heaps of randomised loot at you with loads of stat bonuses and, until the endgame, it’s all pretty disposable as there’s always something better around the next corner, hiding in the next chest. Potions are finite, but you can have dozens of them and chain-chug them while cleaving your way through hordes of enemies. You’ll probably start off with next to no gear, but there will be skill trees to progress through that give you at least a vague idea of what you’re doing.