One Evening with: No Rest for the Wicked
No Rest for the Wicked is a game that I had on my radar since its early access launch in April 2024. But it took me till now till I gave the game a first shot and I can honestly say it's the first game in 2026 that gives me the joyful feeling of experiencing something new.
A brutal, yet magical world
The first thing that really stands out when you play No Rest for the Wicked for the first time is the artstyle. The world has a truly unique look that looks almost like watercolors and reminded me a lot of the animated series Arcane. It's no surprise that this game comes from Moon Studios, the creators of the Ori games. They also really love to play with weather effects. Rainstorms, heavy wind blows or a beautiful whimsical sunrise. This game has it all and its atmosphere is great because of it.
But it's not just the graphics that make this world stand out, it's the whole level design. It's full of secrets to explore and shortcuts to find. What's really impressive is how vertical the world design is. As a result No Rest for the Wicked keeps on rewarding your exploration with amazing vistas and teases of what is yet to come. I can't help but feel excited when I climb up on a mountain only to see a mystical castle on the horizon, knowing one day I will reach it and explore it.
Punchy and responsive gameplay
Another big quality of No Rest for the Wicked is its gameplay. It plays like a soulslike, with very weighty combat. However in most Souls games it's very easy to stagger your enemy. So when you attack fast your enemy won't be able to respond. This way many Souls Games reward an aggressive playstyle. However No Rest for the Wicked breaks with this tradition.
It's not as simple to stagger your opponent which results in a slower and more tactical gameplay feeling. You really have to think when to attack and can't just go in and spam your attack. Another factor that plays well with this is that you have no heal items that recover on their own.
You heal yourself by cooking yourself meals, but for those you have to gather materials and cook them. At least early on every healing item you use hurts, which is honestly an amazing feeling. You do have a healing skill but this one uses focus, a resource you get for successful attacks or blocks. However you do also need focus for your offensive skills and the healing spell isn't really strong. So ideally you wouldn't want to use it, but it is a nice backup option.
Scratching the surface
During my first playtime I did manage to reach Sacrament, the main town of the game. It's here where the game introduces tons of systems and I'm honestly too early on to judge them all. You can (and should) buy a house, but there are many different options and so far I didn't have the money to buy any of them. There are also tons of town upgrades you can farm for.
No Rest for the Wicked has a big crafting system. You need to gather materials like wood or ores to upgrade your town and continue the story. It also offers tons of upgrades and enchantment systems to improve your character and its gear. So far it all still feels a bit overwhelming but deep enough to really show its potential.
But what I love the most is the feeling of being lost once you reach Sacrament. There is zero handholding at this point in the game. I can go out and explore the world more, I can engage in well written main or side quests, I can do daily quests and grind to become stronger and save money to get a house.No Rest for the Wicked doesn't tell you what you should do and simply lets you find your own way. I honestly missed this kind of feeling in a game and it's here where No rest for the Wicked shines the most in my eyes.
Should you play No Rest for the Wicked?
After my first 5 Hours with No Rest for the Wicked I can highly recommend it. At the time of writing this the game is on its biggest sale ever and the price will only increase in the future. In a few months the game will fully release, together with a price increase and more new features like a class system.
I still have one disclaimer to do at this point though. The CEO of Moon Studios is Thomas Mahler and he is honestly the main reason why I didn't buy this game earlier. This is not the right place to share all my opinions on this matter but his comments in the past stand out as Anti-Woke and honestly in my eyes outright disgusting in my eyes. If this is something that affects you all I can say do your own research and judge for yourself.
I personally in the end decided to separate the art from the artist. Besides, Moon Studio is more than its CEO in my eyes and there are clearly many very talented people there. So I can honestly say I really enjoyed my one evening with No Rest for the Wicked.