A great concept yet unpolished PvP/PvE adventure | Review - Wonderers:Eternal World
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✨Overview
Wonderers: Eternal World is an online ARPG game that features strategic 4v4 PvP team-battles, as well as a rogue-lite dungeon crawling PvE game mode. Developed for iOS, Android, and PC, with cross-platform play, the game officially launched on January 8th, catering to players in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia.
🟩Pros
+Focus on both PvE and PvE
+Interesting rogue-lite ideas
+Cross-Platform Play
🟥Cons
-Clunky combat mechanics
-No plot or story elements
-Challenging progression rates (grindy)
-Technical issues such as aspect ratio and performance
⭐️Score: 4/10
📖Story and Premise
The game is set in a world where virtual reality and gaming have triumphed, and we are put in the shoes of a character who has recently booted up and entered the world of Wonderers. There's not much plot featured in the game, and 99% of it is pure gameplay, and all about choices. Even at the beginning, the game introduces players to a choice right from the start, allowing them to opt for either PvP or PvE gameplay.
🎨Visuals and Art
The game features chibi-style characters and soft cel-shaded graphics with HD visuals, offers a lively and vibrant presentation. The game exudes full-sized anime-style charm during dialogue panels, but these moments are only few and far between, and mostly seen during the start tutorial. . It also gives off a blocky and VR-like aesthetic in its level designs, as well as giving me Minecraft vibes with how the levels are laid out.
🎮Gameplay
Wonderers: Eternal World lets you select two game modes right from the start: PvP or PvE. Being primarily a PvE gamer, I tried PvE first. The PvE mode is a Rogue-lite style called Glitch Dungeons, featuring up to 5 chapters of randomized levels. It plays like a top-down hack-and-slash ARPG with rogue-lite elements. In this mode, you can choose randomized artifacts, upgrades, and abilities while in and after clearing each level. Additionally, you have the option to choose the reward or room type for the next level, such as focusing on abilities or visiting a store to spend coins. All these choices culminate in a final boss encounter to conclude the chapter. Overall the PvE mode offers a unique blend of action and strategy.
⚔️Combat
Despite the game's release status, the combat and movement mechanics feel somewhat clunky, especially in the early stages. The slow and initially weak character can be a hindrance, but as you progress and enhance attack speed, the experience becomes more serviceable. Variety of weapon types are shared by characters, along with the ability to augment them using gold coins.
However, the overall combat experience could benefit from further refinement to fully realize its potential, as the combat and movements feel clunky despite the game being released; it still feels like a game still in development. The auto-targeting system also sometimes works against the player, rather than for the player, resulting in some slightly annoying instances where you’d attack something you didn’t intend to.
📜PvP mode
The PvP mode called Gold Clash is another distinct game mode and is the other half of the experience, far detached from the PvE experience. It involves a 4v4 team-based matchup with the same top-down ARPG combat, but now with an objective-based approach. Gold coins are scattered throughout the map, along with hazards and rewards, and it's up to your team to work together and achieve the main objective having the first player with 9999 points. When you eliminate players, their coins drop, providing you with the opportunity to steal their hard-earned coins and alter the course of the battles.
However, the inherent fun concept in this game mode, as well as in the PvE mode are all somewhat hindered by the persisting clunkiness within the combat system. While the concept and objectives are engaging, the execution falls short of delivering a seamless and fluid experience.
💵Monetization
The game is free-to-play with microtransactions such as cosmetics, passes, and gacha rolls. All in all, I feel that the progression in terms of most of its rogue-lite elements is fair; however, everything else feels stingy. Unlocking new characters, obtaining free rolls, acquiring cosmetics, or simply upgrading artifacts—everything seems to be on the stingy side, making it challenging to play and progress comfortably on free-to-play terms.
📊Technical Performance
The game runs adequately on my Snapdragon 888 machine, but it's not a smooth experience; the frame rate is erratic, and anything less than a 100% resolution setting is a blurry experience. Additionally, the aspect ratio does not support and cover the entire screen of my phone.(2448x1080) So I had to play with grey bars on the sides.
⚖️Conclusion
Wonderers offers a colorful and engaging ARPG idea with its strategic 4v4 PvP team-battles and rogue-lite dungeon crawling PvE mode. However despite its HD visuals, great focus on both PvP and PvE, and ambitious cross-platform accessibility, the game left me with a mixed bag of impressions with its clunky combat and stingy progression rates.
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