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Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

WOLCEN Studio · released Feb 13, 2020

ActionAdventureIndieRPG

Carve your path in this Hack’n’Slash free from class boundaries. Purify a world shattered by corruption, and uncover the grim secrets and forgotten horrors lurking in the shadows of this forsaken land as you rise in Power. Your Inner aspect beckons, will you answer?

57
VGC Score
Declininghigh confidence
54%
At launch
56%
Steam all-time
59%
Press
46%
Player sentiment
49%
Recent sentiment

Screenshots & trailers

What players say

Why the number is what it is: aspect mentions counted across 300 sampled Steam reviews (151 positive / 149 negative), recent and most-helpful. Plain keyword counting, fully reproducible; nothing here is written by a machine.

What positive reviews talk about

  • Story & writing35% mention it
  • Progression & loot19% mention it
  • Visuals & art19% mention it
  • Combat16% mention it
  • Bugs & crashes15% mention it

What negative reviews complain about

  • Multiplayer & servers21% mention it
  • Story & writing20% mention it
  • Bugs & crashes19% mention it
  • Progression & loot17% mention it
  • Controls & UI11% mention it

Satisfaction by hours played

Same score, different games: see how sentiment holds up the longer people play.

Under 5h

43%

54 reviews

5-15h

51%

63 reviews

15-40h

53%

99 reviews

40-100h

53%

55 reviews

100h+

52%

29 reviews

Review sentiment over time

Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.

How this score was computed

The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.

ComponentPositiveQuality (0-100)Weight (pseudo-reviews)
Press reviews (OpenCritic)5910
All-time Steam reviews56%571000
Metacritic user ratings0
Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted)49%5240
Calibration prior (typical game)7250

Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 113 reviews sampled · 105 total reviews in window · weighted 40.2 up / 41.4 down · computed 4h ago · full methodology →

Press & Creators reviews (18)

Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.

  • 80
    trust 78Feb 29, 2020

    For now Wolcen is a solid ARPG, but it can be even greater. The question is: will Wolcen Studio take that opportunity?

    read full review ↗
  • 75
    trust 75Feb 21, 2020

    Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem deserves your attention and patience. You can clearly see the passion, commitment and a fresh look on the hack’n’slash genre. Right now the game is a well-made evolution of old ideas but it has a chance to become one of the best if the developers deliver all the promised content. Despite many technical issues, Wolcen is worth your time. The game is simply too much fun!

    read full review ↗
  • 60
    trust 69Feb 26, 2020

    Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem has all the tools thanks to ARPGs that came before it. Sadly, its online mode has had a litany of issues, the controls could use some tweaks, the loot pool isn't as deep as you could imagine, character skills need some rebalancing, and a slew of shortcomings lead to a questionable launch after four years of development. Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem can surely reach the cream of the crop among ARPGs with more improvements, but it's going to take time.

    read full review ↗
  • 40
    trust 66Feb 28, 2020

    Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem attempts to stand out with deep, free-form character creation, but it has far too many problems with all of its underlying systems.

    read full review ↗
  • 40
    trust 65Apr 20, 2023

    I'm sure Wolcen could be a good isometric hack-and-slash adventure. The problem is, this console port does its utmost to hide all of Wolcen's positive qualities with a constant barrage of crashes and performance issues, rendering a game that should be escapist fun into a frustrating slog. In time this might be worth your attention, but significant patching will be required for it to be so.

    read full review ↗
  • 50
    trust 65Feb 20, 2020

    There may never have been so promising a game so completely destroyed by launch bugs as Wolcen.

    read full review ↗
  • 60
    trust 64Mar 12, 2020

    Wolcen can be as fun as it is visually stunning. It has some brilliant ideas in terms of character development and feels great once you in a fight. But it also has a lot of technical and balancing issues that may prove that it needed more time before release.

    read full review ↗
  • 60
    trust 64Mar 5, 2020

    Despite the game have a great combat feeling and create tons of fun on looting, it's such a pity that Wolcen: lords of mayhem remians buggy and broken. After a four-year development, the game still looks like being in ALPHA test, obviously, not everyone can stand it.

    read full review ↗
  • 58
    trust 64Feb 24, 2020

    A mountain of issues gets in the way of the gratuitous monster murder and engaging customisation.

    read full review ↗
  • 75
    trust 62Feb 20, 2020

    Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem's lack of polish detracts from the great hack-and-slash ARPG found at its core.

    read full review ↗
  • 65
    trust 61May 15, 2020

    Wolcen is a decent action RPG with a few issues that hold it back from greatness.

    read full review ↗
  • 50
    trust 61Mar 2, 2020

    Once its major bugs are resolved, Wolcen's clever ideas could let it compete with the heavyweights of the action RPG genre. For now, though, too much of the mayhem is caused by bugs to recommend it.

    read full review ↗

…and 6 more tracked reviews.

Patch history

  1. Patch 1.1.7.16
    Jul 20, 2023
  2. Patch 1.1.7.15
    Jul 13, 2023
  3. Patch 1.1.7.14
    Jul 6, 2023
  4. Patch 1.1.7.13
    Jun 29, 2023
  5. Patch 1.1.7.12
    Jun 22, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  6. Patch 1.1.7.11
    Jun 15, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  7. Patch 1.1.7.10
    Jun 9, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  8. Patch 1.1.7.9
    May 30, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  9. Patch 1.1.7.8
    May 22, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  10. Patch 1.1.7.7
    May 12, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  11. Patch 1.1.7.6
    May 5, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  12. Patch 1.1.7.5
    Apr 26, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  13. Patch 1.1.7.4
    Apr 13, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  14. Patch 1.1.7.3
    Apr 5, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  15. Patch 1.1.7.2
    Mar 28, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  16. Patch 1.1.7.1
    Mar 22, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  17. Patch 1.1.7.0 - Chapter IV: Endgame
    Mar 14, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  18. Monthly Development Update - January 2023
    Jan 31, 2023significant · resets scoring window
  19. Patch 1.1.6.10
    Jan 11, 2023
  20. Monthly Development Update - December 2022
    Dec 30, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  21. Monthly Development Update - November 2022
    Nov 30, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  22. Patch 1.1.6.9
    Nov 30, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  23. Patch 1.1.6.8
    Nov 10, 2022
  24. Patch 1.1.6.7
    Nov 3, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  25. Monthly Development Update - October 2022
    Oct 24, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  26. Patch 1.1.6.6
    Oct 24, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  27. Monthly Development Update - September 2022
    Sep 29, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  28. Patch 1.1.6.5
    Sep 8, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  29. Patch 1.1.6.4
    Sep 1, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  30. Monthly Development Update - August 2022
    Aug 31, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  31. Patch 1.1.6.3
    Aug 24, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  32. 1.1.6.2
    Aug 18, 2022
  33. Patch 1.1.6.1
    Aug 16, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  34. Patch 1.1.6.0 - Controller Support
    Aug 4, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  35. Monthly Development Update - April 2022
    Apr 29, 2022significant · resets scoring window
  36. Patch 1.1.5.5
    Apr 19, 2022

…and 36 earlier patch announcements.