WILDERMYTH

Developer Worldwalker Games Publisher WhisperGames, Worldwalker Games Format PC

Stories about stories are always tricky to tell, but Wildermyth makes it look easy. The characters in this D&D-inspired RPG are living legends or folk heroes in the making, but they still do normal human things such as bickering, joking, failing and dying, living out entire lives during the game’s multi-chapter story campaigns. History bleeds into the present, and the present lives on in the future – probably as a song.

Relationships feel real and playful, and the stakes, while generic (the Big Bad must be defeated, or else) don’t let up. Dwindling days and resources pile on the tension as your party conquers the map tile by tile. It’s a game of meaningful decisions: where should the archer go? Do we have time to build this bridge? Is it worth eating that magic fruit? Whatever choice you make, it always feels like the right one, somehow slotting into the procedurally generated story via arcane design magic.

If the character art is hardly dazzling, the prose more than fills in the gaps. Wildermyth’s writing and worldbuilding are some of the very best in the business: this is proper, hearty high-fantasy fare, the literary equivalent of a hunk of crusty bread and cheese consumed by a roaring fire. Combat, too, is its own form of storytelling. On easier difficulties, fighting has an almost cinematic flow, as if you’re choreographing a slick action scene with paper cutouts. Crank up the difficulty, however, and it becomes a high-stakes game of chess, beloved characters investing you more deeply in the fate of the pieces.

Balancing smarts and soul, Wildermyth brings its world and characters to life with a wonderful lightness of touch that allows room for the player’s imagination to flourish. In all likelihood, we’ll be setting out on these fantastic adventures for years to come.