Controls and Movement Feel Completely Rebuilt
The controls feel radically different from the old click-to-move grind right out of the gate. Your character does not just glide across the dirt while spraying projectiles. Footing actually exists now. When you commit to a heavy melee swing, you stay planted until the weapon finishes its arc, which forces you to think about spacing instead of mindlessly churning through packs.
Dodge rolling is standard, and it changes how every fight plays out. You can tap the space bar to slip straight under a charging brute or backpedal out of an incoming cleave. The recovery window after the roll is short enough to stay aggressive, but mistiming it leaves you open to getting clipped by a tracking strike. Getting that rhythm down took a couple of zones, yet once it clicked, clearing trash stopped feeling like passive chore work.
Boss Encounters Demand Real Hitbox Respect
The game packs 100 bosses across its six acts, and the early ones already demand honest mechanics. If a swamp creature winds up an overhead club slam, that collision box matches the wood hitting the mud. You cannot just stand on the fringe and soak the hit. Stepping two paces to the flank lets the hammer crash into empty dirt, giving you a clean opening to unload your main skills.
Some encounters still suffer from messy ground clutter. When you fight multiple rare enemies alongside a boss in tight dungeon rooms, overlapping elemental pools and charging minions turn collision into a muddle. A few big strikes also clip your heel during late recovery when you look completely clear of the swing, which stings when one hit can wipe out most of your health bar.
The New Gem System Fixes Equipment Gearing Headaches
Character building spreads across twelve classes, paired up across Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence. What really changes moment-to-moment combat is how skill gems work. You get 240 active skill gems and 200 support gems, but you do not socket supports into your chest armor anymore. You drop them directly into the skill gem itself. Every skill can effectively scale up to six links without forcing you to spend hours rerolling sockets on a fresh chest piece drop.
That structure lets you build actual combos rather than spamming one button. A strike can apply a freeze or armor break, opening an enemy up so a secondary heavy skill deals double damage. Dual-specialising the passive skill tree lets you allocate points for distinct weapon setups, meaning weapon swapping mid-fight does not cripple your passive stats. The English voice acting and interface are cleanly integrated throughout the quest log and character menus, making setup switches quick to manage between runs.
Early Access Pacing and Monster Swarms
Grinding Gear Games asks $29.99 for early access, delivering a massive slice of Wraeclast with 100 environments and roughly 600 monster types. The art direction leans hard into grime, rotting timber, and dark water. The campaign moves at a deliberate crawl compared to the first game, which works well for boss duels but makes backtracking through huge open clearings drag a bit when your movement speed is low.
Co-op supports up to six players, and bringing friends into an encounter noticeably inflates enemy health pools. In large parties, spell effects quickly drown out the subtle wind-up animations on elite monsters, making precise dodges almost impossible to read in the chaos. When played solo or in a pair, though, the melee timing stays readable and tense. It is a tough, methodical action RPG that rewards good mechanical habits over raw stat checks.
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More like Path of Ex-haustion, because I kept rolling straight into the boss slam instead of away from it. Jokes aside, the dodge roll has real weight and I actually have to commit to my swings. No spoilers, but that first boss windup broke my brain before I finally read it right.
Fair dinkum, the hitbox thing reminds me of a kid who keeps his hand up after you've told him to put it down, just for the drama. I haven't copped the lingering hitbox yet, but I missed a dodge roll on a boss windup that looked slower than a middle schooler walking across a basketball court, and that got me killed. The dodge roll itself feels right though, short enough to get out of the way, long enough to punish you for spamming it. No drama from me on the $29.99, early access or not.
Y'all are fixin to spend thirty bucks on a game with hitboxes that lie to you. That money could buy a stack of diner breakfast platters. Wait for a sale.
Wait, support gems slot directly into skill gems now? That alone makes me want to try it, the old linking system gave me a headache just looking at it. Is the dodge roll really as responsive as he says? I'm so close to paying $29.99 but I keep second guessing. Boss fights sound like they're more than DPS checks now, huh?
@outofpaperagainReally solid combat loop so far, the dodge roll has actual weight and the windups are readable. Hope the devs keep at it, this is the kick in the pants ARPGs needed.
@needacoffeeI'm only a little way in but the dodge roll makes me feel like I actually learned something, not just muscle memory. The way the boss windups telegraph so clearly is great, I had to stop and tell my wife lol. Great job to the devs on this one. The clutter in co-op is real, we had a full party and I couldn't see a thing during a boss, but honestly that just made it funnier. brb the baby is crying again
@outofpaperagainYes, the roll recovery is short enough to follow up with an attack, but it doesn't cancel your swing. You have to commit. That's the whole point.
Reminds me of the old days, mate, when you had to think before you pressed a button. That said, I'm not convinced the genre needed another hop-and-roll action game. Socketing support gems into skill gems does sound like a proper fix, and I'll give them that. But $29.99 for early access and a few lingering hitboxes? I'll wait for the first sale.
@peter griffins kneeso you wanted another screen clearer? you clearly didnt play it, the dodge roll makes every fight a duel.
y'all sleepin on that dodge roll. responsive roll means I can actually play aggressive instead of holding shield up all day. thats the real win.
Seeing the hitboxes hang around longer than the model reminds me of my year 8s after the lunch bell. Fair dinkum, I'm still dodging that maths test. Might grab this over the weekend, need to see those boss windups for myself.
Fair dinkum, the hitbox thing reminds me of a kid who keeps his hand up after you've told him to put it down, just for the drama. I haven't copped the lingering hitbox yet, but I missed a dodge roll on a boss windup that looked slower than a middle schooler walking across a basketball court, and that got me killed. The dodge roll itself feels right though, short enough to get out of the way, long enough to punish you for spamming it. No drama from me on the $29.99, early access or not.
Putting support gems right into skill gems instead of rolling gear links is honestly such a relief. You actually think about tweaking skills directly instead of dreading an armor swap. Visual clutter in co-op drives me nuts though. Lingering hitboxes are annoying, sure, but dying because three players covered the entire boss wind-up in flashy effects is way worse. Still digging the combat overall.
Slogged through the first boss, refunded by noon. Too much rolling, not enough killing.
Y'all are fixin to spend thirty bucks on a game with hitboxes that lie to you. That money could buy a stack of diner breakfast platters. Wait for a sale.
Does this have a real ending or is it a second job? Before I spend on Early Access I need to know how many hours I'm looking at to roll credits. I'm too old to sink a hobby's worth of evenings into another endless grind.
@prego_tonyDont wory about the hours, mate. Pop in for a bit most nights and you'll get there. Even at my age I can handle the dodge roll, and I usually hit the wrong key on a good day. If you get stuck, we'll sort it out together. - Walt
Is the dodge roll responsive enough to get me out of that co-op visual soup, or am I gonna die to my own party members? Might pick it up just to find out.
Proper classic vibe that, reminds me of the good old days mate. I still miss a paper manual explaining all the support gems, but this socket change sounds like a sensible fix. Just hoping the hitbox jank doesn't spoil it once you meet the next few bosses.
Still early for me but the dodge roll is everything I wanted it to be. The boss windups read so clearly that even when I get clipped I know it was my fault. Hope the devs keep tightening the co-op clutter.
More like Path of Ex-haustion, because I kept rolling straight into the boss slam instead of away from it. Jokes aside, the dodge roll has real weight and I actually have to commit to my swings. No spoilers, but that first boss windup broke my brain before I finally read it right.
Clean dodge roll and readable windups are the best part. But I got clipped after the boss attack model had already reset, and that kind of jank kills a no-hit run. Support gem socketing is a real fix, no more gear link roulette. Co-op screen clutter makes me play solo, honestly. No completion estimate from me until this leaves early access.
too much rollnig?? you clearly didnt play it. the roll is how you stay in the bosses face and keep punishing, not a panic button. co-op clutter is real, but solo reads clean. late hitbox aint great but ill take jank over braindead screen nukes any day.