If ever there was a surprising announcement in gaming, it has to be the announcement of Wolcen 2. After the debacle that was the release of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, of which this is neither the time nor place to unpack, I was a bit surprised to see the developer, WOLCEN Studio, recently announce both the upcoming release of Wolcen 2 and the hard stop of development of its predecessor. Opinions on the current state of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem set aside, I had the opportunity to spend some time with the pre-alpha test provided to players at gamescom 2026 and have a few thoughts.
It is worth noting that what I’ve had time to play through is a very small snapshot of what will be available at the early access release currently stated for 2027. The demo played feels much more like a playtest or proof of concept, though some of the core mechanics are in place, such as some of the progression mechanics, basic abilities and combat, and a few biomes and enemy types. With all that being
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