The Waylanders

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.

Inspired by legendary RPGs and developers of yore, The Waylanders fails to honour them in any respect. Its story is as generic as they come, the characters completely inconsistent. The controls are clunky and some bugs prevent you from progressing. The combat system is fine, but that really cannot save this game from deserved oblivion.