Honestly, No Rest for the Wicked has come a long way since launch. You can clearly feel the effort the devs have put into improving the game’s performance. It runs way better now and is much more stable, so props to the team for that. It’s a night and day difference compared to the first version. That being said, I’m still running into FPS issues even with a 7900 XT, so yeah, while things have improved a lot, there’s still room for optimization.
Now, the game itself? It’s really good. There’s something genuinely special here. The gameplay is solid, the world design is great, the level design feels handcrafted, and the whole vibe just works. It has a real identity, and I love that. To me, it’s already one of the best games I’ve played in terms of what it’s trying to offer. You can tell it’s made with passion and vision.
But as good as it is, the experience is held back by a bunch of frustrating issues that just pile up and end up making the game feel more annoying than it should be.
One of the biggest things that kills the fun for me is the use of real-time timers. Like, I gather the materials to build something, which isn’t even the most fun part of the game, and then I’m told to wait a full hour in real life for it to finish? Same for recovering from certain statuses if I sleep, I have to wait four hours IRL for the effects to kick in? It just completely breaks the flow of the game. It’s not rewarding, it’s not immersive, it’s just frustrating. I’m here to play, not to wait around.
Another thing that annoys me is how unreadable some important UI elements are. The stamina bar, for example, is just a tiny circle near the character, and it blends right into the environment. It’s one of the most important resources in the game, and it’s way too easy to miss in the middle of a fight. That’s the kind of small thing that ends up having a big impact on the overall experience.
And honestly, not being able to fast travel directly from the map is just a pain. Having to constantly walk back to places I’ve already visited gets old really fast. Sometimes I just want to stop playing because I can’t be bothered to waste ten minutes on a walk I’ve already done three times before. It’s 2025. We’ve solved this problem in games years ago. I don’t get why it’s still a thing here.
All in all, I think this game has amazing potential. It already does so many things right. The art direction, the gameplay, the worldbuilding it’s all really impressive. But the frustrating systems and strange design choices are holding it back from being truly great. If the devs keep improving it, this could become one of the best games of the next few years. I really hope they keep going, because they’ve got something special on their hands.