It's been a while from the Wayward Realms

Wayward coverage

You might remember quite a bit ago headlines being made about a brand new announcement for a game developed by the lead minds behind the original Elder Scrolls game, before the franchise found it's rhythm with Morrowind. Those might remember how the original Arena was a sprawling and ambitious world of generated dungeons dotted across a bizarrely to-scale landmass which took real-world days to cross. Not that you would want to cross it, there was hardly anything to see, but the very idea of what that game was going for sparked something in the way of a curiosity in those that played it for the potential it might wield. A potential properly capitalised on in the obscenely unique Daggerfall which remains one of the most fascinating forgotten treasures of the Western RPG world, totally without comparison or proper sequel. Or at least, it was- until we hard about Wayward Realms.

To borrow it's own designation, the Wayward Realms sees itself as a CRPG- but that very terminology calls into question the very broad naming conventions we employ for subgenres. (They used to call themselves a 'Grand RPG', but considering that term means literally nothing I'm glad they went back to something sensible.) 'CRPG' evokes thoughts of Infinity Engine Party Based RPGs, or those designed to evoke those same sensibilities, like Baldur's Gate and the Pathfinder games. But banish that Isometric view angle from your mind because The Wayward Realms is appears to be much more in common with the broad and intentionally unfocused wastes of 'Sandbox RPGs' like Kenshi and, though I shudder to make the comparison, 'Life is Feudal'. And that very identification which this team seem to have been bizarrely dodging for so long is largely what I'm so excited for!

A first person Sandbox RPG, Wayward Realms shirks what it can in the way of high fidelity visuals and popping action combat in favour of bringing to life a world, in the living sense. We've been inundated with so many profiles about the various trading lords and pirates who occupy these isles, spreading their influence and subtle money-wars, it's hard not to picture a kind of reactive paradise. Of course I can't speak for the game that was being made, but the whole 'intertwining factions' thing was a hallmark of Daggerfall, so if that truly is as much of a launching point as it seems to be- then maybe our place within that world will be the element of change ready to tip the delicate scales in whichever way our bumbling lands.

There's a pleasing retro-istic style to what we've seen of the Wayward Realms that seems to harken back to the sprite-based monsters and ghouls of the 'paper-doll' era of RPGs, and seeing the light physics system that applies to skeleton bones when they're scattered (at least in the testing footage recently released, no idea if that's a planned effect to make it through development) I can't help but remember that bizarrely tactile moused-paired swinging, wherein users had to actual brush their mouse in the motion of a swing in order to slay their enemies. It was a quaint but evocative time in game design, but full of ideas and risks. Risks that some of those same games have grown too big to take in the modern age. But we're here to talk of potential.

What I hope of out of the Wayward Realms is for the game to lean fully into the 'Sandbox' aspect of it's premise. As much as I'm sure everyone has their big fantastical story they want to tell one day- (trust me on that, I have about four I'm writing at this moment) I see much more potential in everything I've hearing about the Wayward Realms for serving as a playground rather than set dressing for a fantasy play. Just like Kenshi drops players into a world without any overarching journey to become the mythical 'hero of yore', the Wayward Realms could stand out as almost a simulation of being some sellsword in this giant powder-keg of an isle, doing what you can to make ends meet and watching the consequences build up and boil over all around you.

And of course there needs to be a decent ability to mod for a game like this to really have the legs that it's capable of. Any Open World sandbox RPG should put modding integration hooks into it's list of core development milestones, because that is how you turn the effort you put into creating these vast worlds into the ground works for something truly increadibly special. Just giving the tools for people to sit down and easily cobble together quests and adventures and maybe even mess with the scripts in order to reconstruct what the game even is; that's what a community can do for a game like this. And I mean proper support, with tools and the whole nine yards- from there the rudimentary presentation becomes a boon that any player or artist can work with. There's a solid reason why Bethesda games remain so popular, and it's how accessible the modding scene always is.

Of course, then comes the question of how such a game would be supported? Commonly the idea of 'platform' games seems like a given, because who can really complain about the idea of a game which slowly becomes better over time with feedback from the audience. Missed opportunities can be addressed, lacklustre systems can be fleshed out, a Police system can be added in after two years of gaslighting. (Whoops, think we're talking about a different game there...) I have my somewhat philistine suspicions of such development models but it's hard to deny that when it works it works. Can't really call myself a sordid Baldur's Gate 3 fan without accepting the potential benefits of community adjacent development practices, now can I?

However these are all just my idle musings on a game which has been oddly silent for a very long time now. Well, silent in the way of significant marketing leaps. (which I suppose makes sense given how expensive it is to stand out in this messy and cluttered world of ours.) We still get often-enough posts on Twitter/X about various characters and monsters bubbling away in the lore- and I quite enjoyed reading the in-universe book excerpts uploaded onto their website- and small development footage updates prove the game exists in some form. Still it's getting hard to tell people I meet about how excited I am for a game which hides from the public spotlight so readily! At least I can hope for something truly significant in the new year to make all this waiting worth it in the end. (Fingers crossed.)