by Airship Syndicate • October 21, 2024
Wayfinder left the live-service MMO dream behind and shipped as a buy-to-play 3-player co-op action RPG from Airship Syndicate. Stylish Wayfinders, loot-heavy hunts, and Gloom Dagger mutators that let you shape runs. Worth a look on sale if you want Borderlands-style drop-in co-op with MMO dungeon bones; skip if you needed the original MMO pitch or a stutter-free endgame treadmill.
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Steam recommendations: 16,159 positive, 10,694 negative (26,853 total)
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A stylish 3-player co-op ARPG with real combat snap and leftover MMO grind DNA. 7.3: buy on sale, know Steam is Mixed for a reason.
Wayfinder (Airship Syndicate, Steam app 1171690) launched into a hard story. Early pitches promised a bigger live-service MMO shape. What you can buy today, after the October 21, 2024 1.0 line, is clearer: a buy-to-play third-person co-op action RPG for one to three players, offline-friendly peer progression, and no shop treadmill in the pitch.
That honesty helps. Steam still reads Mixed overall (about 60% of roughly 26.6k reviews). English sits Mixed too, closer to 69%. Some of that is leftover anger at the genre swap. Some of it is the game you actually get: handsome combat and loot loops that still repeat, plus performance complaints that never fully left the chat.
Evenor is shattered. You play as preset Wayfinders, push back the Gloom, and fill a house with junk you actually want to show off. The fantasy is Darksiders-adjacent swagger meeting a looter ARPG, not another Destiny clone.
Combat is the reason to stay. Melee and ranged kits, distinct Wayfinder kits, abilities that feel authored instead of spreadsheet-only. Boss hunts land harder than the filler quests. The Gloom Dagger layer lets you roll mutators so expeditions are not always the same hallway.
Loot and housing feed the loop. Armor sets, weapons, apartment clutter. Drop-in online co-op for three keeps the Borderlands energy without a mandatory always-online MMO tax.
What frays: quest repetition that still smells like MMO daily structure, an endgame that is busy more than deep, and stutter or optimization notes that show up across Steam and press. Solo works. Friends make the same content feel twice as alive. If you still want a populated MMO world, this is not that product anymore.
Score 7.3/10. Wayfinder is a credible second life for a game that almost died as live service. Buy it when it is cheap if you like stylish co-op ARPGs and can forgive Mixed Steam history. Wait or skip if you need pristine performance, four-player lobbies, or the MMO that was advertised years ago.
I respect the pivot more than I love the grind. On a deep sale with two friends, yes. At full price as a forever game, I would hesitate.
Score 7.3/10. Wayfinder is a credible second life for a game that almost died as live service. Buy it when it is cheap if you like stylish co-op ARPGs and can forgive Mixed Steam history. Wait or skip if you need pristine performance, four-player lobbies, or the MMO that was advertised years ago. Our score: 7.3/10.
Wayfinder earns a score of 7.3 out of 10 from BestOfGames.
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