Up at Five

I woke up at 5:00am today. Not only that, I got out of bed. On a Saturday. With no particular reason for having to do so. Overall, not an experience I would recommend. It still blows my mind that there are people out there who do this regularly on purpose. For me it was just a bit of an odd morning. Sleep was a bit interrupted throughout, so I think by the time the clock struck 5:00, I was ready to call it a day night and try something else.

I’m only starting this post now at around 11:00am though. I thought about writing this post when I got up, but of course my getting up and moving about (I’m not, unfortunately, a very quiet mover) was quickly followed by my wife following suit (who is a light sleeper at the best of times, and also far more of a morning person than I am).

So with her up and about, we enjoyed a rare moment of coffee and quiet with the kids still asleep and watched some shows together.

It wasn’t too long of being up at such an hour before I started to regret my choices though. Not the time with my wife I hasten to add. But the whole ‘being awake’ bit more generally.

Any other Saturday at that point I might’ve retried the whole sleep thing. But since I had a few errands this morning, that would’ve been a mistake. I’m not capable of ‘napping’ and am incredibly jealous of those who can. When I ‘nap’ I end up going for a deep sleep instead.

Anywho, is there a point to this? Not really! Just sharing the pain of having woken up and 5:00. Perhaps consider this a PSA: This is not a recommended course of action. Don’t try this at home, folks. ;)

In other news though…

I’ve Finished the Wolcen Campaign

And by extension unlocked access to the endgame game mode, ‘The Champion of Stormfall’.

I’ve not done a large amount of it yet (one expedition, in fact) but it looks incredibly promising. As with most of Wolcen, there is a distinct mix of Diablo 3 and Path of Exile at play. Expeditions are essentially a combination of Diablo 3’s Rifts (including a no loot / all rewards at the end Greater Rift equivalent called The Wrath of Sarisel) and Path of Exile’s map system, replete with zone modifiers.

Of course, layered over the top of all this is Wolcen’s own spin and extension whereby you can build up the town of Stormfall with new facilities. Some of which add additional powers to you, some allowing for additional mission types with minions.

There appears to be a lot to dig into here, which is fantastic given you will end the campaign somewhere around level 40 — and the level cap is 90.

As to how the campaign itself was?

Perfectly serviceable. It grew on me as it went along, as did the game itself really. There are still any number of frustrating bugs to be worked out (the final boss can occasionally get ‘stuck’ for example, and happened to me several times). But I’m sure that they will be given even just a little time.

Early on I was a tad worried that for how flashy the play looked, that mechanically it was too clunky to be enjoyable.

Fortunately that state doesn’t persist. As you continue unlocking additional power points for your skills and a broader array of modifer runes to apply in various mix and match combos the fluidity starts to reveal itself until you’re able to play as a virtual maestro of ARPG-monster destruction, or perform in a ballet of death. The likes of which we haven’t seen in an ARPG genre to date.

I’ll hold off giving too much more in the way of impressions until I’ve progressed a little further with the Champion of Stormfall game mode. There are still a couple of friends to catch-up in the campaign before we kick off into this in earnest.

But I will say… So far? Quite promising. The worst of the server issues seem to be behind us and perhaps the biggest peeve of mine has been resolved. Originally if you were invited to a group that was in-session, the players in that session had to drop to the main menu and the host had to hit ‘Play’ again to bring everyone in. Ugh! Now, drop-in multiplayer is working correctly. So joining an in-session group will allow you just to hit ‘Play’ yourself and jump into the action.

Given the small size of the team behind Wolcen, frankly I’m impressed.

I can’t see to see what the future might hold for Wolcen in terms of additional content, too. :)