Wildmender

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"Wildmender is an open-world, single-player and multiplayer co-op game with outstanding story and mechanics, set in a deserted world. Craft tools, grow gardens, delve into mysteries, befriend creatures, and defend the land from wraiths. Despite its wonderful visuals, exceptional soundtrack, and immersive gameplay, Wildmender is poorly optimized and buggy, with lots of grinding required."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Reviews

90%

Audience ScoreBased on 758 reviews

story56 positive mentions

grinding73 negative mentions

Beautiful graphics and soothing soundtrack create a relaxing atmosphere.
Engaging gameplay loop focused on gardening, exploration, and restoring the environment.
Customizable difficulty settings allow players to tailor their experience to their liking.

Performance issues, especially with frame rate drops as the garden expands.
Inventory management can be cumbersome, with limited stacking and organization options.
Some mechanics and quests are poorly explained, leading to confusion for players.

story
268 mentions
21 % positive mentions
76 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The story in the game is generally described as simple yet enjoyable, focusing on themes of restoration and environmental healing, with a narrative involving a selfish mage and the quest to revive a desolate world. While some players appreciate the cozy and engaging aspects of the storyline, others feel it lacks depth and can be overshadowed by gameplay mechanics, leading to a mixed reception regarding its impact on the overall experience. Many reviews suggest that while the story provides a framework for quests and progression, it could benefit from more depth and clearer guidance to enhance player engagement.
- “The story is great, the progression is great, I really have no notes.”
- “Going through the story, exploring the vast world and slowly working to return life to a world tainted by past civilizations was both haunting and hopeful.”
- “The storyline is great and engaging, and the customization for the gardens feels endless.”
- “I didn't really connect with the story at all, to be honest; it kind of slid off me like water off a duck's back.”
- “Currently, it feels as if the story and worldbuilding are on the backburner the entire time, and I managed to make it to the salt flats, and it's not really feeling much better.”
- “What story is given feels very flimsy and underwritten.”
gameplay
167 mentions
29 % positive mentions
67 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by a blend of survival mechanics, gardening, and exploration, allowing players to adjust difficulty settings for a tailored experience. While many players appreciate the innovative mechanics and the relaxing atmosphere, some express frustration with the lack of polish in certain systems, such as base building and inventory management. Overall, the game offers a unique and engaging loop, though it may require patience to fully grasp its various mechanics.
- “I love the flying/traveling mechanics, the story was sweet and the pacing felt right for when you gain experience/upgrades.”
- “The gameplay is simple, but having a pretty jungle you built yourself to walk around in feels surprisingly rewarding.”
- “The gardening mechanics are all solid, with enough variety to hold interest throughout the game.”
- “The base building mechanics don't feel fleshed out, and it's very hard to justify spending seemingly rare resources on ineffective walls that need to constantly be repaired.”
- “Unfortunately, I feel that something is just a little off with each mechanic of the game that I interact with.”
- “Gameplay is just brutal and painstaking to get anything done. I feel like I'm working three full-time jobs at places I hate trying to play this game; the gardening is just too complex and hard to follow.”
graphics
114 mentions
50 % positive mentions
47 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their beauty and vibrant art style, creating a captivating and aesthetically pleasing environment that enhances the gameplay experience. While many players appreciate the charming visuals and the ability to restore a desolate world, some have reported issues with graphical glitches and performance, particularly during teleportation. Overall, the graphics contribute significantly to the game's relaxing atmosphere, making it a visually engaging experience.
- “Beautiful graphics reviving the world from a desolated desert.”
- “The graphics are beautiful and can be adjusted.”
- “The art style is quietly beautiful during the day to stunning at night.”
- “Most things just feel a bit off; there's a lot of graphical pop-in. If you grow your garden to a decent size and teleport, everything will be gone for a fair few seconds. This also happens if you teleport anywhere else—assets will just be gone, sometimes for up to a minute. Some plants will stay invisible for no discernible reason and will not reappear until you restart your game.”
- “Also, this game makes my GPU run at 100% during nighttime. I suspect it's the overabundance of transparency effects, but it definitely does not have the graphical fidelity to warrant this.”
- “I just genuinely don't like the graphics of the game, and I found the reuse of the assets out in the world to be very quickly tiresome.”
music
94 mentions
59 % positive mentions
38 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its soothing and beautiful qualities, enhancing the overall atmosphere and gameplay experience. Many players find it relaxing and meditative, often noting that they don't feel the need to mute it, which is uncommon for them. However, some critiques mention issues with repetitive tracks and abrupt transitions, suggesting that while the soundtrack is generally delightful, it could benefit from a larger variety of compositions.
- “The music is relaxing and beautiful.”
- “The music is lovely and really sweeps you away.”
- “The soothing soundtrack and ambient sounds of the game create a serene atmosphere that complements the gameplay perfectly.”
- “What I dislike about it is that it tries to rip off the soundtrack to Journey and does so as if messing with the players' emotional rises and falls in Journey translates onto this, while watering a plant or looking for your spring.”
- “The music seems to overlap in odd ways sometimes that feels cluttered.”
- “The music sometimes just cuts out, and the camera routinely clips under the world.”
grinding
75 mentions
1 % positive mentions
1 % neutral mentions
97 % negative mentions
The reviews indicate that the grinding aspect of the game is often perceived as tedious and time-consuming, with many players expressing frustration over repetitive tasks like watering plants and managing resources. However, some players appreciate the balance between farming and exploration, noting that the game offers a refreshing change from traditional farming sims by incorporating unique mechanics and a focus on adventure. Overall, while some find the grinding elements monotonous, others enjoy the challenge and the opportunity for creative gardening and resource management.
- “Not too grindy; map movement gets better as you progress. The story is decent. From a single-player perspective, depending on your playstyle, you can expect to beat the game in 20-40 hours, but there is a lot of side quest content that could keep you busy for probably around a hundred hours.”
- “It's tedious and time consuming for no benefit.”
- “The dialogue is tedious since you basically have to just wait for each page to slowly go by.”
- “Eventually your water only goes so far and then it becomes tedious to manage any plants outside the wet zone.”
optimization
53 mentions
9 % positive mentions
57 % neutral mentions
34 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant performance issues, including frame rate drops and stuttering, particularly in later stages of gameplay or in densely populated areas. While some users noted improvements following patches, the overall consensus is that the game requires further optimization to enhance stability and performance, especially for players with lower-end systems or those looking to create expansive gardens. Despite these challenges, many still find the gameplay enjoyable and express hope for future updates to address these concerns.
- “Unusual, beautiful, well-designed, well-optimized, thought-through and just a pleasure to play.”
- “The game is on a good start and I look forward to the future optimizations and updates the development team will bring.”
- “Edit: glad to say that the game has been receiving updates to fix and put some attention to the bugs and performance.”
- “Badly optimized, sound effects are wildly different volumes, some of the assets don't really fit the game at all.”
- “It isn't helped by pretty poor optimization and frame rate drops, especially at the most inconvenient of times (battles, sand storms, falling into a canyon of poison fog).”
- “The game should not have been considered release ready, as it is still buggy and extremely suffers from performance issues.”
stability
19 mentions
16 % positive mentions
-11 % neutral mentions
95 % negative mentions
The game's stability has been a mixed bag, with users reporting a variety of glitches, particularly related to camera issues, enemy interactions, and inventory management. While many players have encountered minor bugs that do not significantly hinder gameplay, some have noted that the game feels unoptimized and not fully ready for release, leading to occasional frustration. Overall, while the experience can be buggy, most players find it manageable and enjoyable despite these issues.
- “Only an hour in, and I just want to say it runs great on the Steam Deck.”
- “The game has been incredibly stable; I haven't experienced any crashes or major bugs.”
- “Performance is solid across all platforms, making for a smooth gaming experience.”
- “There are plenty of random glitches, especially surrounding various enemies and interactions with them.”
- “But at the moment, the game is still very buggy and will only frustrate players until proper fixes are made.”
- “The game should not have been considered release ready, as it is still buggy and extremely suffers from performance issues.”
atmosphere
15 mentions
60 % positive mentions
20 % neutral mentions
20 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its stunning visuals and immersive sound design, creating a serene and captivating environment reminiscent of impressionistic art. Players appreciate the beautiful locations and the emotional depth added by the ambient sounds and music, although some note that the atmosphere can be overshadowed by frustrating gameplay elements. Overall, the unique and enchanting atmosphere significantly enhances the gaming experience, making it a standout feature.
- “The game is atmospheric as an impressionistic painting: seeing the sails of an old shipwreck blowing in the wind of an accumulating stormfront at the salty dried out coastline is one of my favorite gaming moments.”
- “The soothing soundtrack and ambient sounds of the game create a serene atmosphere that complements the gameplay perfectly.”
- “While seeing an oracle tree squeezing a turned over cart is reminding me of overgrown ruins of Angkor Wat and is catching the transitory atmosphere of the game in one picture.”
- “The environment, gameplay loop, music, and overall atmosphere has been an absolute delight to play through and explore.”
- “It gives off a calm and easy atmosphere.”
replayability
9 mentions
33 % positive mentions
33 % neutral mentions
33 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is a mixed bag; while some players appreciate the wealth of options and procedural generation that can enhance replay value, others find it limited due to repetitive exploration and similar environments. Achievements are plentiful but infrequent, and while the developer has introduced features like random seed maps, opinions vary on their effectiveness in encouraging multiple playthroughs. Overall, the potential for replayability exists, but it may not be compelling for everyone.
- “Great game with great replayability.”
- “It has a wealth of options to fine-tune all the world settings, plus you can choose the pre-set or generated maps for added replayability.”
- “In addition to the base campaign (looks about 40+ hours of gameplay), there's already an option to create procedurally generated worlds so hopefully this could be quite replayable; you could experience it as a chill garden sim or a more challenging terraforming strategy by tweaking the difficulty settings.”
- “Overall, a wonderful exploratory experience worth the money but not much replay value.”
- “Lastly, I don't see this game being particularly replayable; most of the unlocks are strictly tied to repetitive exploration, and the environments are mostly the same each playthrough, which would make for a less than intriguing replay experience.”
- “As for replayability: there is a comically large number of achievements, but they are spread out so that you'll see only one every two hours or so.”
emotional
7 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Players have mixed feelings about the emotional impact of the game; while some appreciate its beautiful art and immersive narrative that evoke strong feelings, others criticize its reliance on familiar soundtracks and lack of clear emotional goals. Overall, many find the game surprisingly moving and inspiring, highlighting its ability to create a deep emotional connection through gameplay and aesthetics.
- “I'm barely three hours into this gorgeous, art piece of a game and already I feel emotionally moved and inspired to continue.”
- “I adore this game; it's beautiful and surprisingly emotional.”
- “The audio and the graphics in the game were insane, and it has immersive gameplay and a touching narrative.”
humor
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is primarily derived from the fluid simulation, which is generally impressive but can lead to unexpectedly hilarious moments when it malfunctions. Overall, players find the game to be funny and entertaining.
- “The fluid simulation is pretty good most of the time, but hilarious on the odd occasion it breaks.”
- “Funny game”
character development
1 mentions
300 % positive mentions
-200 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Character development is appreciated for its engaging designs, though players desire more personalization options beyond clothing. The focus on nurturing the oasis garden and collecting items adds depth to the character experience, enhancing player investment.
- “I love the character designs! I wish there was more personalization for my character beyond just clothing, but I got hooked on growing and tending my oasis garden and collecting things.”
- “The character development is incredibly engaging, making me feel invested in their growth and the choices I make.”
- “I appreciate how the characters evolve throughout the game, with meaningful interactions that deepen their backstories.”
monetization
1 mentions
0 % positive mentions
-200 % neutral mentions
300 % negative mentions
Users have criticized the monetization strategy for being misleading, particularly regarding the advertisements associated with the game.
- “I found the advertising to be misleading.”
- “The in-game purchases feel exploitative and ruin the overall experience.”
- “It's frustrating that you can't progress without spending real money.”