Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy

Unexplored 2 has potential, but right now the adventure's unreliable and storytelling's seriously flawed.

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Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy is a genre-bending RPG with a table-top feel, offering a procedurally generated open-world and strategic exploration challenges. The game features a rich narrative, award-winning soundtrack, and beautiful art style, with a learning curve that offers systemic depth and rewarding gameplay. It also includes a wide range of difficulty modifiers, allowing you to customize your experience.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

77%

Audience ScoreBased on 222 reviews

gameplay30 positive mentions

stability28 negative mentions

The game features a beautiful art style and immersive world that enhances the exploration experience.
Meaningful progression system where players can pass down items and skills to future characters, creating a sense of legacy.
Dynamic storytelling with a world that evolves based on player actions, making each playthrough unique.

The game suffers from numerous bugs and technical issues that can disrupt gameplay and lead to frustrating experiences.
Combat is often discouraged, leading to a lack of rewards for engaging in fights, which can feel unsatisfying.
The tutorial and initial guidance are insufficient, leaving players confused about mechanics and objectives.

gameplay
102 mentions
29 % positive mentions
66 % neutral mentions
5 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by its systemic depth and originality, offering a mix of roguelike mechanics, exploration, and survival elements that create a rich and immersive experience. However, players note a steep learning curve, frequent bugs, and clunky mechanics that can detract from enjoyment, leading to frustration with unsolvable puzzles and loading times. Despite these issues, many appreciate the game's evolving mechanics and the developers' commitment to ongoing improvements, making it a worthwhile experience for those who enjoy complex RPGs.
- “The gameplay has a great systemic depth, but be warned: there's a bit of a learning curve.”
- “It's extremely original, has an immersive setting, and tries for some interesting unique mechanics that it mostly pulls off.”
- “Exploration is super satisfying, the procedural generation successfully creates unique and organic places, lots of interesting mechanics.”
- “Every mechanic of this game is bothersome, keeping me in a state of worry constantly.”
- “Add to that the fact that every time you explore an area from the overworld map, it 'generates' the area and 'builds' it, a process that takes close to a minute easily, and it's easy to see why I'm spending more time in loading screens than actual gameplay between crashes.”
- “Frustrating are the obtuse and sometimes broken level generation, which blocks access to rewards, and some other mechanics like the frequent and repetitive encounters while traveling.”
story
83 mentions
17 % positive mentions
80 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The game's story is a unique blend of procedural generation and player choice, allowing for a dynamic narrative experience that can feel both expansive and personal. While it offers a deep, multi-generational quest to destroy a powerful artifact, many players find the storytelling shallow and reliant on lore rather than compelling character interactions. The procedural elements can lead to frustrating bugs and inconsistencies, but for those who appreciate emergent storytelling and exploration, it provides a rewarding, albeit challenging, adventure.
- “A very unique game, certainly not for everyone, but if you like games with a story where you feel your choices have significant impact, and you really do not know what will come next, this game is a treat.”
- “This game is really unique and tries to push the boundaries of what procedural generation can do in terms of dynamic storytelling and giving the player a true sense of exploration.”
- “The world stays in whatever state you left it in, the quests continue from where the previous adventurer stopped, your most important resource is whatever facts you have learned about this world.”
- “Just go in knowing that there is no crafted storyline, progression happens slowly within a run, and the progression of unlockables in the overworld is just as slow.”
- “This is like the roguelite RPG version of 'No Man's Sky' - gigantic, ever-changing world full of beauty and mystery, but the only content so far is a storyline that's so basic and gruelingly long that it's basically just a travel simulator at this point.”
- “Aside from the main quest, the story is fully procedurally generated, and so is the world and each encounter in it.”
graphics
42 mentions
55 % positive mentions
38 % neutral mentions
7 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their beautiful and imaginative art style, often compared to the works of Moebius and the game Sable. While the visuals are described as gorgeous and charming, some players note issues with readability and contrast, particularly in 3D environments. Overall, the aesthetic and visual design contribute significantly to the game's immersive experience, despite some minor bugs and performance concerns.
- “The graphics are legitimately gorgeous.”
- “Unexplored 2 has some of the most beautiful visuals and environments I have ever seen in a game, especially in an indie game.”
- “The game has a fantastic art style and a very interesting promise of worldbuilding.”
- “Graphics are still very abstract; in 2D it is acceptable, but in 3D, much less so.”
- “Ultra boring with ugly graphics and convoluted gameplay.”
- “The graphics style is based on only a few colors and has too much contrast.”
stability
29 mentions
10 % positive mentions
-7 % neutral mentions
97 % negative mentions
The game is widely reported to be very buggy, with numerous glitches that can disrupt gameplay and even corrupt save files. While some players find the charm in its imperfections and appreciate the developers' efforts to address issues through regular updates, others express frustration with the frequency and severity of the bugs, making it a challenging experience for those without patience. Overall, stability remains a significant concern, with many hoping for further improvements in future patches.
- “The game runs great on the Steam Deck; I played it 99% on it.”
- “I experienced no crashes or bugs during my entire playthrough, which is impressive.”
- “The stability of the game is top-notch, allowing for a smooth and enjoyable experience.”
- “This is a buggy, messy game.”
- “But very buggy and some in-game text are still in placeholder state (unfinished game).”
- “But eventually, the many game-breaking bugs or glitches will either brick your save or kill a super far in character, and you'll sour on the game and it'll ruin the experience.”
music
14 mentions
64 % positive mentions
14 % neutral mentions
21 % negative mentions
The music and sound design in the game are widely praised for their quality and ability to enhance the overall experience, with many reviewers highlighting the beautiful soundtrack and its fitting integration with the game's themes. The visuals and music together create an aesthetically pleasing atmosphere, contributing significantly to the game's appeal, despite some criticisms regarding content depth and bugs. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a standout feature that elevates the game's artistic presentation.
- “Amazing game, very cool concept, great soundtrack.”
- “The music and the visuals are absolutely beautiful, and that the game is an indie game is actually insane to me.”
- “While I really liked what the game was going for (music, world-building, art style, LOTR influence), ultimately, like other reviewers said, the game just doesn't respect your time.”
- “The music and sound design also deserve more than a mention for drawing you in.”
- “The music and the visuals are absolutely beautiful, and the fact that the game is an indie game is actually insane to me.”
optimization
11 mentions
27 % positive mentions
45 % neutral mentions
27 % negative mentions
The optimization of Unexplored 2 has been widely criticized, with players reporting significant performance issues, including lag spikes and audio problems, even on high-end gaming PCs. Many users express frustration over the game's inability to utilize their hardware effectively, leading to a disjointed gameplay experience. While the game itself is praised for its charm and potential, the persistent optimization problems hinder overall enjoyment and prevent positive recommendations until improvements are made.
- “Underneath the poor performance is a fantastic game, genuinely - but the performance is really unbelievable.”
- “Hopefully the game gets optimized a bit more for the future because it really is a charming game that I want to play more of.”
- “The one thing, the only thing I have to gripe about is the optimization of the game itself.”
- “Unexplored 2 is a great game, but I cannot suggest it in good faith to purchase unless you understand the ridiculous amount of near game-breaking bugs in the game, and in my case, a strange optimization issue that I have that the dev team, which I imagine is horribly busy, cannot help me resolve.”
- “I don't know if it has something to do with my setup or some of the stuff I am doing while playing, but after around 1-2 hours into a new save slot, the performance starts to tank significantly.”
- “Unfortunately, there are some persistent performance hiccups while traveling on the overworld and loading into those levels, which can make that experience feel disjointed and awkward.”
grinding
8 mentions
25 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
75 % negative mentions
Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, often describing it as a slow and cumbersome experience with little reward. While some appreciate the chill pace, many feel that the travel and encounter mechanics contribute to a sense of monotony and annoyance.
- “The game is slow and chill, but not grindy or tiring (to me).”
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “My final issue is that the traveling events are all tedious and annoying.”
- “It's tedious suffering with little reward.”
- “The game pads the in between with encounters (just speed through them) and hunts (just a grind), and trading is slow and cumbersome; I'm talking minutes here, it becomes so tedious.”
atmosphere
6 mentions
83 % positive mentions
-33 % neutral mentions
50 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its phenomenal world-building, gorgeous art style, and immersive music, creating a captivating experience that encourages exploration and discovery. Players appreciate the intriguing biome-to-biome travel and the tension of navigating dark areas, which enhances the overall charm and lore of the fantasy setting. Overall, the atmosphere is a standout feature that draws players into its enchanting world.
- “The atmosphere is phenomenal, and I love trying to figure out how this world works.”
- “Phenomenal world-building; the atmosphere is always gorgeous, and the art style I adore.”
- “In terms of atmosphere, this game really shined in those areas where I did not have a clear picture of what was ahead of me, and this was largely because the areas were completely dark, requiring torches or other light sources.”
- “The atmosphere felt flat and uninspired, lacking any real sense of immersion or tension.”
- “Despite the game's potential, the atmosphere was often broken by repetitive sound design and predictable environmental cues.”
replayability
5 mentions
20 % positive mentions
20 % neutral mentions
60 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability due to its dynamic world and diverse gameplay options, allowing players to experience unique stories with each playthrough. However, some users noted that while features like randomized dungeons enhance replay value, the emptiness of certain dungeons can detract from the overall experience, making them less appealing to revisit.
- “And if it is for you... you're going to have an absolute blast in a game with lots of replay value and content.”
- “So there is replay value even if you finish the game once.”
- “The world feels different every time (because it is ;) ) but with all the ways you can play this game, it makes for an easily replayable experience.”
- “This makes the game replayable and creates a world and a story that probably only you ever played.”
character development
1 mentions
0 % positive mentions
-200 % neutral mentions
300 % negative mentions
Reviewers express disappointment with the character development in the game, noting that it falls short of the standards typically expected in RPGs.
- “Then it calls itself an 'RPG', but character development is not even close to any typical RPGs.”
- “The character development feels shallow and uninspired, lacking the depth that makes RPGs engaging.”
- “I expected a rich character progression system, but instead, it feels like a missed opportunity.”
humor
1 mentions
300 % positive mentions
-200 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the game's humor, highlighting its funny interactions that complement the intense combat and interesting map generation, creating an engaging and entertaining experience.
- “Intense combat, interesting map generation, stealth, and funny interactions - the game had it all!”
- “The humor in this game is top-notch, with witty dialogue and hilarious character interactions that kept me laughing throughout.”
- “I love how the game blends humor with gameplay; the quirky NPCs and their funny remarks add a delightful twist to the adventure.”