PREVIEW: Wolcen Studios Shows Us What Their "ExtrAction RPG" Hopes To Offer Players Come Launch Time

Over the last few years, extraction games, particularly shooters, have been coming out right and left. We went from the era of MMOs, to one of MOBAs, to battle royales, to extraction shooters. I enjoy a good shooter game, even if I may not be the best at them. I'm not super competitive, but give me a good story and gunplay, and I may even dabble in your PvP modes a bit.

What we've started to see a bit more recently are a few studios playing with the typical "extraction" gameplay loop in other genres. Dark and Darker does dungeon diving, the upcoming Seekers of Skyveil mixes in some MOBA elements, and recently, Wolcen Studio threw their hat into the ring by announcing "Project Pantheon," what they call an "ExtrAction RPG."

It probably isn't hard to imagine what that phrase entails. Imagine a game like Diablo or Path of Exile with an extraction-style gameplay loop.

Being a fan of the game Wolcen, while also being a bit critical of some of the issues the game has, I was very interested to see what Project Pantheon (not the final name) would be offering. With closed alphas taking place in a few different places over the next week, I figured I'd get a peek at it soon. In fact, you can sign up for test phases coming up this weekend and next on the official site.

I wouldn't have to wait until the NA test to see Project Pantheon (PP), though. This past week I got the chance to meet with Wolcen Studio President Bogdan Oprescu and Game Director Andrei Chirculete, see a bit about the inception of PP, check out some future plans, and see the game in action.

As you're looking at some of the screenshots in this article, keep in mind that they are works in progress. I wasn't able to record the game or take screenshots of my own as many of the things I saw were placeholder art. That's not to say it looked terrible (it didn't), but artists really only like showing off the final work and Wolcen's art team wasn't ready to call some of the screens, menus, and central hub desings "final" yet.

PP takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Before you run away screaming "not another one," wait. It is NOT a world based on our world. This is the world of the gods. Every myth about gods you ever heard is true in the world of PP. Valhalla, Egypt, and Greek and Roman gods are real. Well, I guess I should say they "were" real. See, they're all dead. No one quite knows why, but now the houses of the gods are crumbling and Death would like you to come help put things right again.

That's it. You're caught up. In fact, this separation by "pantheons" is kind of where Wolcen gets to make a neat distinction with content additions. When a new pantheon is introduced it means players can expect new quests, new gear, new maps, and more. Each pantheon has its own storyline, but they all tie together into a larger narrative, too. There's only one pantheon available now, but the team is already developing others with a final count of 3 or 4 planned for early access. They'll be released in future testing phases before that early access, though.

Gameplay is similar to what you might expect looking at the images in this piece. While your central hub will have quite a few options like your stash and crafting options, the primary gameplay will take place in "open world" maps. While Andrei did acknowledge he wasn't using the word "open world" in the way an MMO might, he thinks the word is appropriate given how large the maps for each extraction instance can be. My demo was shown on the "Medium" map, which is expected to support about 12 players per instance based on what the team has tested so far. A "small" and "large" map are planned, with each supporting fewer and more players respectively.

The "ARPG" gameplay will feel familiar to anyone who has ever played a game like Diablo. Move around the map via an isometric camera, kill enemies, and get loot. You'll earn abilities as you level up on the map. This works in a manner similar to a MOBA, and both Bogdan and Andrei acknowledged this when I asked if they're watching their competition like Seekers of Skyveil. They believe their product offers something darker and different, but they do acknowledge that there are some MOBA elements in PP that are used when they make sense or add to the fun.

It was interesting watching decisions on what weapon to use being made on the fly. Your weapon determines most of your abilities, with a few side abilities (like a dash, for instance) being unlocked by a certain pair of boots.

So how do you make this "extraction"? I got to see that as both of my presenters clashed on the field, with Andrei emerging victorious both times. Once you get to an extraction point you can start the extraction process. Once clicked, a bubble pops up over the extraction point and you are now locked inside that bubble trying to kill waves of enemies to open the extraction node. You can't leave the bubble, but other players could come in if they want. If they do, they're stuck there with you.

In one match, Bogdan attempted to extract and Andrei came upon the now live extraction point. Andrei decided to enter the bubble and fought against Bogdan and the monsters a bit. However, he didn't try to kill Bogdan. Instead, once the last monster died and the portal opened, Andrei took the opportunity to steal Bogdan's portal and extract. This left Bogdan to wait for another opportunity to extract by himself...but hey, at least he wasn't dead this time!

In between looting mobs and taking on bosses, you'll be going through your stash, earning gold, completing quests, and gathering materials for quests or other items you may want. There's also multiple planned progression systems. The team says it all ties together to try and ensure that even if you "lose" a particular round, you don't TOTALLY lose. If you want to kill players, go for it. Get loot, no problem. Make quest progress, you can do that too. In all those scenarios, even if you die and don't extract, you likely got what you were aiming for that round.

That's my biggest question still, though. A lot of those systems aren't there yet or aren't complete enough to experiment with. The extraction loop seems fun, but I told Bogdan and Andrei that I really need to see what is going to make we want to do it the next 100 times. This is where holding alphas very early comes in.

PP will be alpha testing FAR earlier than Wolcen ever did. When I asked about lessons learned from the mistakes made with Wolcen, Bogdan acknowledged that the team has learned quite a bit from some of Wolcen's shortcomings. They want to make sure they get the game into the hands of players early enough that actual meaningful changes to systems don't require basically building a sequel. To Bogdan, if player feedback is gathered early enough, you can still ACTUALLY change things, even if you're letting players see behind the curtain early and have to use placeholders.

All in all, I am curious about Project Pantheon. I love the aesthetic and I'm a fan of ARPGs to begin with, so it's right up my alley. The dark gothic art (at least used in the pantheon we were messing with for the demo) is awesome. However, testing for me is going to be important. I'm sure Wolcen Studio can get the APRG elements down based on everything they've learned from Wolcen itself. I really need to see why I would want to do each run over and over again.

Sign up for testing if you're curious, too. Early access likely won't happen until early in 2026, but this year will hold a ton of tests literally starting this weekend in Europe.