Wildmender

Wildmender is one of those cozy farm games that you can lose yourself in for hours; just don't forget to keep yourself hydrated.

86%Game Brain Score

story, gameplay

grinding, optimization

90% User Score Based on 1,473 reviews

Critic Score 78%Based on 4 reviews

Platforms

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About

Wildmender is a single player and multiplayer open world simulation game. It was developed by Muse Games and was released on September 28, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

"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."

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90%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,473 reviews

story111 positive mentions

grinding141 negative mentions

Beautiful graphics and soothing soundtrack create a calming atmosphere.
Engaging gameplay that combines gardening, exploration, and light combat.
Customizable difficulty settings allow players to tailor their experience.

Performance issues, especially with frame rate drops and rendering problems.
Inventory management can be cumbersome and unintuitive.
Some quests and mechanics lack clear explanations, leading to confusion.

story
531 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
76%
3%
The story in "Wildmender" is generally described as simple yet enjoyable, providing a cozy backdrop for the gameplay focused on restoring a desolate world. While some players appreciate the narrative's charm and the environmental storytelling, others feel it lacks depth and can sometimes fade into the background amidst the gardening mechanics. Overall, the story serves as a functional guide for progression, but many players express a desire for more complexity and clearer quest tracking.
- “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 story is wonderful, I am hooked between wanting to create this beautiful oasis, wanting to find out what is going on, and fix the problems I am just hooked.”
- “If you want a farming game with combat and story, this isn’t really the title.”
- “The game offers a ton of features, but they aren’t expanded upon or even required to complete the main quest or side quests.”
- “What story is given feels very flimsy and underwritten.”
gameplay
330 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
67%
4%
The gameplay is characterized by a blend of survival mechanics, gardening, and exploration, offering players a unique experience that balances challenge and relaxation. While many players appreciate the depth of the gardening and terraforming systems, some find certain mechanics unpolished or frustrating, particularly in resource management and building. Overall, the game provides a solid core loop with adjustable difficulty, though it could benefit from clearer tutorials and improved mechanics for a more streamlined experience.
- “The art, the music, the gameplay, they're all sublime.”
- “The gameplay is solid, survival mechanics are solid, atmosphere is top notch, and the lore has me hooked.”
- “The gameplay is well made; it behaves like a survival game at first, gathering the bare necessities like food and water, but you'll find that you need to sustain an ecosystem to ensure your long-term survival.”
- “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; plants constantly need attention, but you need to move the story forward. You can't because you're too busy babysitting every plant and water source from drowning your plants for no reason whatsoever.”
graphics
227 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
48%
2%
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. However, some players have reported issues with graphical glitches, such as disappearing plants and pop-in effects, which detract from the overall visual enjoyment. Despite these technical hiccups, the game's charming visuals and soothing atmosphere contribute significantly to its appeal, making it a relaxing and engaging experience for many players.
- “Beautiful graphics reviving the world from a desolated desert.”
- “The graphics are beautiful, and a style I particularly like, and they change so subtly as you progress that I didn't even realize it until I started a new game and was surprised at how bleak and bare the desert looked when I was used to all the plants I had grown.”
- “The game boasts stunning visuals that are a feast for the eyes, offering a vast world brimming with opportunities for exploration.”
- “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. Sometimes some plants will stay invisible for no discernible reason and will not reappear until you restart your game.”
- “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.”
- “My PC has a 3070 Ti, which should be more than capable of running a game that doesn't have complex graphics, but nope, I am getting a steady 45 FPS, which goes down depending on what's happening in the game.”
music
182 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
38%
2%
The music in the game is widely praised for its beauty and ability to create a relaxing, meditative atmosphere that enhances the gameplay experience. Many players find the soundtrack enchanting and well-composed, often comparing it favorably to music from other beloved titles. However, some critiques mention issues with abrupt transitions and a limited selection of tracks, which can detract from the overall enjoyment.
- “The music is relaxing and beautiful.”
- “The soothing soundtrack and ambient sounds of the game create a serene atmosphere that complements the gameplay perfectly.”
- “The music is enchanting.”
- “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.”
- “What is going on with the soundtrack?”
grinding
145 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
1%
2%
97%
Reviews of the game's grinding aspect are mixed, with many players finding certain elements tedious, particularly in managing resources and plant care. While some appreciate the challenge and depth of gameplay, others feel that the repetitive tasks can become monotonous and detract from the overall experience. However, several players also highlight the game's relaxing nature and unique mechanics, suggesting that it offers a refreshing take on the farming genre without excessive grinding.
- “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 you can pursue, which could keep you busy for probably around a hundred hours.”
- “But if I had to describe this game with one word it would be tedious.”
- “It's tedious and time consuming for no benefit.”
- “You can not clutter your oasis, but the amount of water you have early simply promotes it and moving plants around is super tedious one at a time.”
optimization
105 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
10%
57%
33%
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players experiencing significant performance issues, particularly in later stages when gardens become larger. While some updates have improved performance, players still report frequent frame rate drops and bugs that disrupt gameplay, suggesting that the game was not fully ready for release. Overall, while the game is praised for its design and concept, it is hindered by poor optimization that affects the overall experience.
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “I love the game and concept but I seem to be having some sort of memory leak (or that's what I assume from other similar experiences) with this game that the longer I play the worse the performance gets. Sadly, it started off without any issues and even at the oasis with barely any plants it seems to struggle and drop from 60-40-20 fps. I'm not on anything too bad either, a 2080 and a Ryzen 7 3rd gen with 64GB of RAM, so I'm not quite sure why its performance is so horrible.”
stability
37 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
5%
95%
Overall, the game's stability is marked by occasional glitches and bugs, particularly with camera clipping and inventory management, but most players report that these issues are not game-breaking. While some users experience performance limitations, especially regarding frame rates, the game remains playable and enjoyable despite its imperfections. However, many reviewers suggest that the game was not fully ready for release, indicating a need for further optimization and fixes.
- “Only an hour in, I just want to say it runs great on the Steam Deck.”
- “Tl;dr: buggy, unoptimized, untransparent, barely playable as host.”
- “But atm 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
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
59%
31%
10%
The game's atmosphere is frequently praised for its stunning visuals and immersive sound design, evoking feelings of serenity and beauty akin to an impressionistic painting. Players appreciate the rich environments, captivating locations, and the emotional depth added by ambient sounds and music, although some note that the atmosphere can be overshadowed by frustrating gameplay elements. Overall, the atmosphere is described as unique, calming, and a significant highlight of the gaming experience.
- “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.”
- “The environment, gameplay loop, music, and overall atmosphere have been an absolute delight to play through and explore.”
- “While seeing an oracle tree squeezing a turned over cart is reminiscent of the overgrown ruins of Angkor Wat and captures 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
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
61%
17%
The game's replayability is a mixed bag; while some players appreciate the wealth of options for world settings and procedural generation that enhance replay value, others find the repetitive exploration and similar environments limit the overall experience. Achievements are plentiful but infrequent, and while there are features like random seed maps that could boost replayability, many feel the game lacks significant incentive to replay. Overall, it offers a solid exploratory experience but may not hold long-term replay appeal 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
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the game to be emotionally impactful, with many expressing feelings of inspiration and connection to its beautiful art and immersive narrative. The combination of stunning audio-visual elements and engaging gameplay evokes strong emotional responses, although some critiques mention a perceived similarity to the soundtrack of another game that may detract from its unique emotional experience. Overall, the game successfully resonates with players on an emotional level, enhancing their journey through crafting, survival, and exploration.
- “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
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is primarily derived from the fluid simulation, which is generally well-executed but can lead to unexpectedly funny moments when it glitches. Players find these occasional breakdowns amusing, contributing to the game's overall comedic appeal.
- “The fluid simulation is pretty good most of the time, but hilarious on the odd occasion it breaks.”
- “Funny game”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development is appreciated for its engaging designs, though players desire more personalization options beyond clothing. The focus on nurturing and expanding the oasis garden adds depth to the character experience, enhancing player investment in their journey.
- “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
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users express concerns about the monetization strategy, specifically highlighting that the advertising is perceived as misleading.
- “I found the advertising to be misleading.”