APRIL 2020 PCWorld 85Knight’s Deepnest) where every jump is
near-blind until you unlock the ability to light
your surroundings.
But because the developers can’t
guarantee you’ll have these abilities in the
other zones, they don’t build on each other.
You might occasionally miss a collectible for
want of a skill, necessitating a second trip, but
only very occasionally. Otherwise, the middle
act feels like a series of tutorials, less like
climbing a mountain and more like climbing a
series of small hills. Having one skill or
another unlocked already might let you
approach problems differently, but by and
large zones require only Ori’s most basic skills
and the one you unlock therein.
It’s only in the final hour or two that the
skills finally come together. The last act is
gated behind finishing the rest, in whatever
order, which means Will of the Wisps can
count on the player having Ori’s full toolkit.
And it really shines there at the end, with
some incredibly creative platforming puzzles
and memorable chase sequences. It’s just a
shame this section is over so quickly. I felt like I
was just getting a handle on combining Ori’s
skills, and then I was done.
Merely finishing Will of the Wisps isn’t the
only challenge of course, and Will of the
Wisps is built with speedrunning in mind. The
open-ended nature actually seems more
interesting for these players, as grabbing an
ability early might help shave off seconds in
another zone later. There are also a series of
“Spirit Trials,” or races through set obstacle
courses, and an extensive “Spirit Shard”