most of my problems in this game can be tied back to the shit combat. as a fan of survival horror, i have and will continue to be willing to overlook poor combat gameplay for stellar presentation, atmosphere, and mood building or when the fighting is easily avoided/not constant. unfortunately this did neither of those.

the melee combat here is so mindless when facing single enemies and then completely shits itself when any more become involved that it feels like it wasn't even tested. it plays like a mixture of Punch-Out! and Silent Hill: Homecoming from hell.

there were two or so chapters in the middle of the game where you were able to mostly stealth through areas, avoiding more melee fighting as a result. during this period i briefly wondered if i was too harsh on the early bits but then the combat came back with a vengeance in the end with a metric shit ton of it (topped off with the worst boss i've played since the last one in Quantum Break) to make me look like a clown.

it looks really good but that's almost it in terms of complimentary things i have to say. replay value is non-existent (not that i'd want to go back), there's not even an illusion of non-linearity, or anything of the sort i could try to find a silver lining with.

honestly would've rather played even Dead Space 3 again instead.

Wo Long is the Musoufication of the souls-like genre and as far as I'm concerned the game is all the better for it since it is right up there with Nioh as one of the best non-FromSoft souls-likes I've ever played.

The narrative takes place in a fictionalized dark fantasy version of China in the Later Han Dynasty (around 200AD). We follow the silent Nameless Warrior protagonist (who we the player ourselves create) as they get wrapped up in various political conflicts and wars while searching for an evil Taoist who is influencing events from the shadows with a forbidden medicine called "Elixir" that has the ability to unleash Demonic Qi in anyone who consumes it. The Nameless Warrior goes on a journey that spans nearly 20 years as they try to form strong bonds with legendary Chinese historical war generals across the nation with the hopes of taking down the evil Taoist before their goals can be fulfilled. The game really captures the Three Kingdoms mythology well and feels like a classic over-the-top martial arts fantasy movie in the best way possible. (The campy English dub enhances this feeling even more)

Wo Long is a very aggressive and fast-paced souls-like action game that feels like a more simplified, accessible and streamlined version of Nioh's RPG mechanics mixed with the combat of Sekiro and the fast-paced movement and morale centric gameplay of Dynasty Warriors.

The combat is very parry/deflection heavy much like Sekiro, but Wo Long also manages to incorporate its own unique spin on gameplay mechanics like removing the traditional stamina management bar that dictates how much you can attack before becoming exhausted (Meaning you can spam the basic attack all you want, but you will also get punished for doing this) for what is called the 'Spirit Gauge' which dictates how much you can block or dodge as well as using special Martial Arts abilities and Wizardry magic attacks. The Spirit Gauge has a positive and negative axis and starts out at the middle of it at 0. When you take damage, block, dodge or use special abilities you lose Spirit and the gauge fills up on the negative side, if your gauge maxes out the negative side a single hit from an enemy will stagger you leaving you vulnerable for a few seconds, however landing basic attack strikes or deflecting your enemy's attacks build up your Spirit Gauge on the positive side allowing you to use more special attacks and dodge more without penalty, so the game rewards you for playing aggressively along the lines of something like Bloodborne. All enemies have their own Spirit Gauge as well so when you attack them your Spirit increases while there's decreases and pushes them closer to being staggered so you can land a fatal execution attack for massive damage, but the same works for when an enemy lands strikes on you, you'll lose Spirit and they gain it making you closer to being staggered. So essentially combat becomes a tug-o-war match between you and the opponent to see who can stagger who first as you always keep a watchful eye on both you and your opponent's Spirit Gauge. I think this is a super interesting and creative way to advance the Souls style formula and the gameplay also syncs up perfectly with Wo Long's general theme and style of Chinese martial arts which are based around redirecting your opponent's force.

There's also a Morale Rank system which reminds me of something you'd see in a Dynasty Warriors musou game which plays into the tug-o-war metaphor I used earlier where both you and all enemies have a number that determines their morale, you can raise this by killing more enemies and when you do you basically get a power boost, the same can be said for enemies though where if they kill you their morale increases and yours lowers, the higher morale an enemy has the harder it'll be too take them down. The bonfire checkpoint Battle Flag system plays into this as well because every Battle Flag you raise increases your base morale so when you die it'll only go down to that number instead of losing all of your morale. The Battle Flag system also gives more incentive to explore all the levels as much as possible to find all the flags and raise your morale to max before fighting the boss. However the morale system can be a double-edge sword at times due to the fact if you get your morale too much higher than your enemy it can make the fights far too easy and if your enemy's morale is too much higher they'll have a clear advantage over you, so you really just need to get a sweet spot where you both have even morale to make the game the most enjoyable.

Wo Long also incorporates another cool feature with a multi-directional parrying system where you can tilt the joystick in the proper direction of the enemy's attack alongside pressing the parry button, it's another really unique mechanic that sets itself apart from most other games of this style (Though it is optional and you can just press the basic parry button if you want), the combat is super fun and stylish with all the martial art styled weapon arts and special abilities you can do which are tied to different weapons like the weapon arts from Dark Souls III and I haven't felt such satisfying swordplay in a game since the first time I played Sekiro.

Naturally the Nioh like RPG stat attributes play into the Chinese theme as well being based on the 5 elements of Chinese mythology, wood, fire, earth, metal and water all of these stats directly influence your health, attack and Spirit Gauge by things like using Martial Arts takes less Spirit or successfully deflecting attacks increases Spirit more etc. All equipment also changes your elemental affinity as well.

I also must commend Team Ninja for listening to the feedback about the Diablo styled loot system in Nioh being overbearing and severely toning that down here. This is easily Team Ninja's best and most varied level design as well making exploring every level much more fun and engaging than it ever was in Nioh. Wo Long basically has everything I loved about Nioh and none of the down-sides.

Wo Long was one of those rare games that from the moment I started playing it, I knew I'd love it and after finishing the game in 30 hours and even going out of my way to get the platinum trophy as well, I can confirm that I loved every minute of the game. After all when you combine the satisfying combat of Sekiro with the RPG mechanics of Nioh and the stylish flair of a Dynasty Warriors game and throw in some unique mechanics and systems to give it a sense of its own unique identity, how could that not be a recipe for success?

A rogue-like mode that's a good excuse to spend some more time in the Mortal Shell universe. The new shell and new weapon are a deadly addition! It can get repetitive after a short while since the map and the enemies - and, as far as I can tell, the goals - are the same, especially if you're like me and just finished two and a half playthroughs of the main game. I can see myself occasionally playing this DLC to uncover more lore, but it's not something that will hold my attention for long periods.

What I did like:

- The story is good. It's a fairly fresh take and the world design is beautiful and interesting.
- Hitting the weak parts of machines with your arrows is SO satisfying.

What I didn't like:
- The characters. The story is good on a narrative level but I invested in and cared for absolutely nobody. The dialogue is horrific and the speech options don't have any effect on the story. Characters appear and then disappear and you not one character is particularly likeable, including the protagonist.
- Being able to mount 3 or 4 machines. Don't you dare sit here and tell me that riding a stalker or stormbird wouldn't be fire. I've even heard they kept this for Forbidden West DESPITE acknowledging fans crying out for this! What's the point in having taming giant animal mechs if you can't ride them?!
- The combat. I know I said hitting the weak points is satisfying, but that's about it. Stealth doesn't work whatsoever, certain mechs can kill you in one hit by jumping halfway across the map despite you dodging (I'm looking at you thunderjaw and rockwrecker). The other weapons don't do much to enhance the gameplay, even the ones obtained from Frozen Wilds.
- The map, despite being massive, is actually quite empty and vapid. The side quests are fairly scant but either way, most of the quests are boring. You don't invest in any characters you meet on them, as they only exist to serve the side mission's purpose and nothing else.

I reached level 52 and finished Frozen Wilds so I didn't completely throw my toys out the pram, but maybe it was my mistake playing this game straight after God of War.

Calling this game out for being derivative is besides the point really, it makes no secret of its main inspiration. Indeed, it is in all likelihood to be the game's biggest draw, as it certainly was for me.
Unfortunately I did not enjoy anything about the game besides some visual design elements.
There's clearly a team of passionate and talented people behind this, I just hope they find some fresh inspiration for their next title. I'm completely aware of the contradiction I'm making in criticising a game for being the thing that drew me to it, but it I really did not enjoy the gameplay or structure. On paper, the 'harden' mechanic is just interesting enough to give the game some pull, but the execution is lumpen and offers scarcely any advantage.
After finding all the shells and slaying a few bosses I put it off for the last time. While my experience was unsatisfactory, I still look forward to seeing what the studio come up with next.