CRISP. Gaming: Ori and the Will of the Wisps Review, PC and Xbox One

Artwork Comes To Life

Story

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a tight (somewhat open-world) platform ‘Metroidvania‘ game developed by Austrian company Moon Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. It is a direct sequel to 2015’s multi-award-winning hit Ori and the Blind Forest.

You play Ori, a small and luminous white forest spirit as it travels into the dangerous Nibel forest in search of its friend Ku.

Moon Studios have put together a wonderfully spun story of love, loss, tragedy and hope.

Ori must not only find its friend but along the way save an entire forest and learn about its own true purpose in the world. As this fairy tale unfolds, you are tasked with bringing light and balance back to a world consumed by darkness, meeting a selection of residents and learning about the tragedy that has befallen them.

The emotional attachments you form with these characters makes the optional and mandatory side quests and projects they offer even more intimate to you, regardless of the rewards available for completion.

This game borrows heavily from popular 2017 game Hollow Knight – which isn’t a bad thing – highlighting current gaming trends and the production team evolving their original ideas for today’s market.

Gameplay

At its core, Ori is a 2D platform game that falls into a sub-category whose distinct feature is having large interconnecting maps that require retracing your steps to access areas you couldn’t before, once discovering new abilities.

Taking place right after the original, this sequel ramps up the combat adding in lots of new weapons and skills to expand your arsenal, allowing you to battle a multitude of new enemies competently and confidently.

Along your playthrough, you collect spirit money that you can use to upgrade abilities like reducing incoming damage and increasing damage output.

Whether you want to shoot enemies from afar or slam them with powerful smash attacks up close, you can choose a loadout of skills that best suits how you wish to play.

Ori’s world is full of colourful creatures that offer a variety of attacks and challenges, making the need for constant progression more rewarding as you find new ways of dispatching them.

You start off the game with nothing, eventually gaining a sword, a bow and various other tools for combat. Ori must learn and buy new abilities in order to continue through the story as you can quite easily stumble into a fight you aren’t strong enough to win – playing into the RPG elements.

The platforming in this game is buttery smooth from the beginning, however, it really comes into its own once more movement mechanics are learnt. In no time at all you will be jumping, double jumping, wall running and air-dashing without a second thought and with a major sense of satisfaction.

There are sections of the game that require quick thinking (and even quicker reflexes), but at no point does it ever feel too hard to pull off the combinations of abilities and movements needed to traverse the environment.

Breaking up the action is an array of clever environmental puzzles that offer plenty of real head-scratching moments but are very satisfying to complete. There were moments when we felt like the smartest people in the world because we solved a difficult puzzle without checking on YouTube for solutions.

There are a handful of epic and intense boss battles spread throughout the 10-15 hour running time. These battles consist of one-on-one fights and heart-pumping chase sequences that get harder and longer the deeper into the game you go. Some are fun, some are rewarding, and some are maddeningly difficult.

The generous and frequent auto-save system is appreciated, so when you die (and you will die) you are thrown right back into the action, keeping that sense of immersion present as long as possible. These escape sequences (prevalent in the Blind Forest) rely on the unbroken chain of forward motion that plays right into Ori’s most fun mechanics – its nimble movements.

Graphics

The graphics and hand-drawn artwork are truly inspired pieces of work. We played Ori and the Will of the Wisps on Windows 10, with a beefy graphics card turned up to the max and 4K UHD capabilities, and we were impressed…for the most part.

It’s a 2D game environment in terms of movement but evokes a sense of depth seamlessly, constantly making the forest around Ori feel alive and dynamic.

Whether you’re exploring the windswept mountain tops, scorched deserts, deep dank caves, or misty murky swamplands, Will of the Wisps is a beautiful game to look at.

For us, the game evoked memories of Fantasia from 1984’s Never-Ending Story – not just in looks, but also the dire need to drive back the invisible ‘evil’ destroying everything.

One negative aspect we came across during this playthrough was the frequency of performance issues. Unfortunately, the game was prone to frame rate dips, stuttering moments and outright CPU crashes.

This issue was addressed with a day one patch that clearly hasn’t dealt with the problem. It didn’t ruin our enjoyment or immersion, but it was noticeable, especially when things got a little hectic on screen.

Sometimes a couple of dropped frames at the wrong time made the difference between successfully making a huge jump / double jump combination and running straight into the ‘Game Over’ screen.

Audio

The soundtrack offers delightful tinkling of the piano as you explore and big crashing drums that come through as high drama and danger take over. Set to a fully orchestrated original score the music and sound effects are as important to telling this story as the written text conversations that scroll across the screen. It’s a visual and acoustic package of the highest order.

Verdict

Will of the Wisps is at best a fluid and challenging piece of art brought to life that will leave you emotionally drained and physically exhilarated, and at worst a strong platformer filled with echoes of the most popular genres in recent years.

You’ll have a great time controlling the super quick and responsive Ori through the well-crafted and designed levels, taking on all kinds of enemies all while enjoying this kind-hearted and emotive tale that has been painted with beautiful visuals and music.

Available with a Microsoft Game Pass, it was a no brainer to pick up and play.

If you don’t have a subscription it will cost about £25, a fair price for a thoroughly enjoyable masterpiece. Despite a couple of performance problems, this is a title that can be appreciated on multiple levels.

Available March 11th on Xbox One and Windows 10 via Microsoft Game Pass.