Anyone who remembers 2023’s Wolcen will also likely remember that the title was something of a bone of contention. The devs, Wolcen Studio, seemed to have named the game after their company with little explanation. Now, in 2026, Wolcen 2 has finally cleared it up: it’s the name of the world in which the games are set. There, mystery solved.
Jumping into the limited preview build of Wolcen 2 I was immediately familiar with the aesthetic. The story thus far is bare-bones and barely explained but that’s fine. Action-RPGs have always been spotty with their narrative, despite Diablo 4’s sterling example. What we’re immediately presented with is a gruff warrior armed with a pistol and a sword, and an objective to scour the isometric level for three elite enemies whose blood will open a sealed door before us. Simples.
It seems redundant to refer to such a game as a Diablo-clone nowadays, with games like Path of Exile and Last Epoch standing comfortably shoulder-to-shoulder with Blizzard’s latest offering, but that’s essentially what Wolcen and its sequel are. Loot showers from sundered enemies as the XP bar slowly fills with steady, glowing light. Your goal, alongside the stated objective, is to kill and kill and kill, chopping down whatever appears before you to grind ever upwards.
Outwardly, Wolcen 2 doesn’t do anything very different to its contemporaries. The inventory system is exactly what you expect it to be, while the hotbar skill system feels immediately comfortable. I would prefer click-to-move controls, however. Using WASD while having to also trigger skills on the hotbar feels uncomfortable, especially given the odd placement of the default key-bindings. Some skills are on the number keys, while others are on the shift keys, and the representations on-screen are almost impossible to read at this point.
Under the hood, there are some unique elements to Wolcen 2. The skill tree builds on a system of modifying skills, allowing you to increase the potency of a skill to unlock nodes that alter its properties. At present it feels a little undercooked and under-explained, but it’s early days yet, and I remember enjoying Wolcen for a good 50 or 60 hours when it launched, so I have faith in Wolcen Studio to deliver. Their current project, the appallingly-named Gods, Death and Reapers, is also shaping up very well. It’s a company that seems to know what it’s doing, for certain.
Quite how Wolcen 2 performs come launch is impossible to tell at this point. The combat feels punchy, though the colour-coded loot is a little unbalanced at this point, with gold and purple gear dropping alongside white starter items, which to my ARPG-trained mind feels off.
The dialogue and narrative, too, left me a little nonplussed, with modern terminology mixing uncomfortably with the gothic aesthetic. The previous game was similar, though, so at least Wolcen Studio are true to their form. My only real worry here is that it’s launching into early access, and I really don’t like playing ARPGs before they’re finished and having to constantly keep up with updates and changes to loot, quests and mechanics. I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt for now. I’ll always welcome a new ARPG to sink my teeth into, and Wolcen 2 looks ready to fill a space I didn’t know was there.
Wolcen 2 is launching into early access in the future but currently has no release date.
