Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy from Developer Ludomotion and Publisher Big Sugar is an extremely eye-catching action-adventure roguelike of sorts.
Why “of sorts?”? Well that comes down to the game’s core gameplay mechanics which while steeped in some roguelike flavour, features a lot of procedural generation sorcery that just clicks so well with it but at the same time, sets it apart from more traditional roguelikes.
Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy dives into the deep end of these procedural generation mechanics with an overarching storyline. Players will first have to get through a fairly lengthy tutorial before they get into the game itself.
The tutorial will slowly bring you up to speed with the game’s major systems. You’ll be able to move your character around from a top-down viewpoint, attack and block. You can charge up an attack and also throw projectiles such as daggers. You can’t really button bash though because there’s cooldowns here so don’t expect to be going crazy with combo attacks.
After a little bit of explaining, you’ll also be allowed to use magic using a mystical staff when within specific areas called “Sources”. Using magic however comes at a cost. The cost of “Prescence”. Presence is a term the game uses to describe your detectability to the empire’s forces. “Empire’s forces”? huh? I’ll get to that in a bit.
Players in Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy will also have to take note of their Hope and their character’s hunger and tiredness levels. You’ll be able to set up a camp and preserve food at camp as well as rest. Players will be able to create a new character by selecting their culture, race, background, hope traits, skills and equipment. This creation process will make more sense to you the more you play the game since you’ll be exposed to the different tribes and the complexities involved with the game’s environments.
Now, circling back to the Empire. The story of Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy involves players being tasked with the destruction of an ancient mystical staff. The same staff that you can use to cast magic spells. The Staff of Yendor.
The Empire seeks to seize the staff and the encroaching darkness that they bring with them is rather terrifying. Once given the staff, you need to immediately flee out into the great unknown and destroy it in the First Valley, the same place it was forged. It all sounds very Lord of the Rings at this point and honestly, there’s nothing wrong with that. The plot of Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy serves its purpose in driving you forward while the game’s procedural generation takes care of the rest.
Now onto the procedural generation itself. It takes the form of uniquely generated maps and locales. Everything you encounter in the game won’t be the same a second time around. The game also has a built-in failsafe in case something goes wrong. Prayer.
Players who somehow get stuck due to the procedural generation going a bit wonky can simply put away their weapons and pray for help. Doing so will trigger the failsafe mechanism and allow doors to be opened to let you progress or you’ll be teleported towards an exit getting you unstuck in the process.
This works well even when the game’s procedural generation isn’t what’s keeping you from progressing. However, since this is quite a powerful gameplay mechanic, it comes at a cost. This helps prevent players from abusing the system too much.
Players in Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy will explore the procedurally generated locales and interact with doors, objects, NPCs and more while fighting off dangerous foes. The combat has a very satisfying hack and slash feel to it but if you want to avoid combat, you can opt for a more casual difficulty setting too. If you don’t mind fighting off enemies, you will however have to get used to the game’s slow pace when it comes to fighting enemies. Rushing in and taking on multiple foes is a recipe for disaster and you’ll learn this hard way.
The game lets you know upfront that combat doesn’t really help you since you won’t be looting fallen enemies. This isn’t a more traditional hack and slash isometric viewpoint hack and slash game after all. It’s a story driven exploration title with a lot of intricacies.
Exploring caves and other areas often leads to doors or interactables. This is where Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy truly shines with a fantastic little interaction mechanic. Players will have interact with an object and have a chance to select a circle with a pre-determined outcome. You can offer up “Sparks” to increase your chances of a specific outcome circle and this random element means that even trivial things such as opening doors becomes entertaining and engaging.
The game refers to this as “Fortune Tests” and it sure does test your fortune given how interacting successfully with some things can really come down to your luck.
Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy is all about the journey. If you die in the game, time will pass and the world will change. You can opt to have a “Legacy” item brought over to your new character when you dive back into the game but this isn’t essential to progressing.
Players are encouraged to explore to their heart’s content, journey around and find as many useful items as possible while surviving the harsh conditions of the game’s world. Yup, there’s a weather system here too and that makes exploration a lot tougher for your character. Make it far enough to the First Valley and then things really escalate. If you die here, it’s basically completely game over so you’ll have to think long and hard about your progression to save the world from the Empire’s dark forces. Each run through the game however helps you since you’ll know more about it and its mechanics. You can then apply what you know about the world to future runs and push yourself to reach the ending.
The soundtrack of Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy is incredibly well suited to the type of game it is. The orchestral music fits the game’s theme of exploration perfectly and the voice acting of your character, while indecipherable, fits the fantasy theme the game has going on. Speaking of which, the graphics of Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy is truly breath-taking at times. The saturated hues, the shading, the effects, the art style in general, it’s all so beautiful and there are going to be plenty of times you’ll want to zoom in and out with the camera just to take it all in.
Overall, Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy is a roguelike that does things a little bit differently to most other roguelikes in the genre. The game encourages exploration and decision making while also working in some intricate systems that truly add depth to it. Starting up a game of Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy can lead to hours or time spent exploring gorgeous procedurally generated environments with satisfying payoffs when you find tasty loot hidden in the depths of a cave or in a dark forest. The Fortune Test mechanic is engaging and the writing in the game is excellent. Decision making plays a critical role in the game and this is what makes it so addictive. If you’re a fan of games that focus more on story, decision making and exploration rather than combat, Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy is a great game and I can wholeheartedly recommend giving it a go because of how fresh and captivating it is.
Developer: Ludomotion
Publisher: Big Sugar
Platforms: Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
Reviewed on PC
Purchase here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1095040/Unexplored_2_The_Wayfarers_Legacy/
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