Since the early access release of Rend , the new survival MMO has been struggling. Nevertheless, the developers have continued to work on it and kept their promise to release Rend in less than a year. Now it’s out, but is that enough?
What is Rend? Rend is a survival MMO with RPG elements that aims to combine MMORPG and survival. The story and world are inspired by Norse mythology, with graphics that are cartoonish and colorful.
Rend offers, true to the genre, since one of the newer updates the possibilities:
- to explore in PvE
- to compete with other players on PvP servers
- to wage entire clan wars on “Faction War” servers
In the wars, it is about rising to become gods and fighting for glory and special items. The competitive aspect is particularly emphasized in Rend.
New, however, is that with a class and talent system, you can shape your character independently of building and crafting to obtain special abilities.
You can also read more about this in our review of the early access of Rend.
What has happened so far: Rend was already announced in 2017 and aimed to topple the survival giant ARK: Survival Evolved. The game is developed by the indie studio Frostkeep, which consists of veterans from World of Warcraft and League of Legends.
In August 2018, Rend finally launched its early access on Steam, with about 5000 players simultaneously (via steamcharts) and over 24,000 viewers on Twitch (via SullyGnome).
The goal was to do with ARK what WoW did with Everquest. However, shortly after the early access release, the player numbers dropped significantly until eventually fewer than 100 people were playing on average (via steamcharts).
How is the game doing now? Since the official launch, at least more players have shown up in Rend. Both on Steam and on Twitch, Rend is currently seeing an increase in interest with over a hundred players.
However, the ratings have dropped significantly. From previously 59% “mixed” across all reviews, the rating on Steam has now fallen to 39% “mostly negative”. (As of: April 1 at 1:40 PM)
Players criticize primarily that the game still feels unfinished. Although most enjoy the game idea and would like to play Rend, bugs such as losing all progress when logging out on some servers are frustrating. Additionally, players simply miss their teammates.
For those who still want to check out Rend, there is currently a good opportunity. To celebrate the release and for testing, Rend is currently available until April 26 for €9.23 on Steam. Then the price will rise again to about €30.
What’s next: In the announcement about the release of Rend, the developers also made an important announcement. As an independent developer, one must pay attention to finances:
Although we will continue to support the final version of Rend, we currently have no plans for new content in the future of the game. If there is a steady influx of players who buy and play the game, we will reassess our options for bringing new content.
The current Patch 9 is therefore the last content update for now. Whether anything will happen in the future will likely depend on the interest of players from now on.
Are you still looking for a survival game that suits you?
