Wayfinder was an MMO that launched in early access on August 17 last year and has undergone massive changes, including the primary genre. The 1.0 version has finally been released, making many old and new players question whether Wayfinder is worth playing in 2024 and beyond.
Wayfinder—previously an MMO—is now relaunched as a co-op action RPG and has been on the path of its redemption.
As I said earlier, the game has undergone massive changes, including getting rid of the microtransactions and making it a paid game, as it is no longer a free-to-play live-service game.
Other than that, we have changes to the loot system and other in-game features, which I will discuss later in this article.
But before that, what happened to the old Wayfinder?
What happened to Wayfinder MMO?
When Wayfinder launched in paid early access on PC and PlayStation platforms in 2023, it was marketed as an MMO. Digital Extremes, the creators of Warframe, was the publisher.
Even though the game was in early access on Steam, the concurrent player count reached above 24k, which is a decent number for the early access phase.
Even at launch, Wayfinder was a pretty good game that wouldn’t have died—only if players could play it.
Wayfinder’s early access launch was disastrous for players who didn’t know.
They had server issues and long waiting queues for players who paid to play the game early.
Technical issues, crashes, and other such things that you would find in almost all live service games.
I had also purchased the early access and played it for around 10 to 15 hours as I had to check whether the game had any guide potential to cover it.
But most of the time, I was waiting in long queues!
And when I did manage to get into the game, it either lagged or crashed—putting me back in the main menu.
Still, I was having fun with the game, which felt like a great co-op RPG—YES—even though other players were roaming in the open world, and the fact that we had servers, shared worlds, public events, and so on.
Wayfinder never felt like a full-fledged MMO.
Most of the players had a similar reception of the game. It had a great story, good combat, great content, and several activities to do solo or with friends.
But, yes, another, but only if players could play it.
Almost after a month with no absolute fixes, we started seeing a change in player behavior as most were shifting to other games.
We had significant releases like Starfield, Baldur’s Gate 3, Lies of P, Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis, Mortal Kombat 1, Payday 3, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, EA Sports FC 24, NBA2k24 and many others.
All these games in a single month, September 2023, which also became one of the major reasons why Wayfinder MMO died in a very short time.
Even I deleted the game and decided not to cover anything, as there was nothing worth covering other than fooling players by doing guides on “how to fix long queues” and “how to fix crashes.”
From Starfield to mostly Lies of P, I forgot about Wayfinder. So did the other players!
This was the time when things really went down for indie developer Airship Syndicate.
Fast-forward to April 2024. Digital Extremes withdrew their support, and no other publisher was willing to help Airship Syndicate.
Airship Syndicate decided to take control and work on a major rework while removing the game from stores.
And boy! They nailed it!
Even though several employees at Airship Syndicate were laid off in multiple layoffs, the developers were confident in the game.
The old Wayfinder MMO was in the graves as the new Wayfinder 1.0 was released on October 21, 2024, not as an MMO but as a paid co-op ARPG.
Is Wayfinder worth playing in 2024 and beyond?
The short answer is yes! If you like the looter and (technically) shooter genre set in a colorful world filled with scenic locations, everchanging dungeons, unique NPCs, and most importantly, a ton of loot to farm and collect for building your character, Wayfinder is the best game for you.
Wayfinder, to me, feels more like a Borderlands game with swords and guns and a variety of playable characters with more than two abilities set in a Darksider-like world.
What’s best? No more microtransactions or in-game stores. No more server issues or crashes.
The shift to ARPG also made all the gear and equipment drop from cosmetics to cosmetic and full-fledged loot, where each piece has a different stat value, Echo slots, rarity, and other things.
Instead of making the skins and housing items paid, a ton of them are given to you for free by simply playing the game.
The game still features a unique set of Wayfinders, three of which are starter choices.
Whereas, you can unlock the rest for free by simply playing and progressing the game.
Similar to before, you can still create or join parties, explore the world with your friends, do open-world activities like events, complete dungeons, do side quests, main quests, and such things.
Wayfinder is currently in its peak state, and it will continue as the devs have a clear vision of where their game should go better than before.
Wayfinder is a game that you should definitely try, as it offers more than the price!
That concludes thoughts on whether you should play Wayfinder in 2024 and beyond. If the article helped, please consider buying me a Coffee to help me create more content. You can also share the article with your friends or leave a comment.
I’m anxiously waiting for news on the Xbox Series S version of Wayfinder. But I would love it if it has Character Creator to let me create my own custom hero.
While character creator may not be possible as one of the main selling points of the game is the Wayfinders, each with unique skills, backstory and such, though we will see an Xbox release soon as it is reportedly in works.