PC | PS5 | XBOX SERIES |
HOW I PLAYED: I played on PS5 with a physical copy
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The game opens with a weak intro that feels poorly thought out and badly executed. It didn't entice me at all.
Once I gained control of Wuchang my first impressions were very different. The camera was smooth and the responsiveness of the controls were ultra tight and precise. This was a big win.
WHAT WORKED
The game does a great job of interconnecting the various areas in the game with shortcuts, ladders and doors that only open from one side. Exploring the world and uncovering how they all fit together was a real joy and reminded me a lot of Dark Souls 1s masterful display of this type of level design.
I was a big fan of the Menu design and the hand drawn art style they used for the games weapons, items and spells. This again was a nod to classic Dark Souls and I thought it worked really well in Wuchang as well.
The first handful of bosses were awesome and had cool designs and the right amount of challenge. I was on a roll! Man, I was legitimately pumped. My first 6 hours or so were looking promising. Could this game actually pull this off all the way to the credits?
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
Instead of Souls, enemy kills will grant you Red Mercury which can be used to purchase items from vendors and of course level. But instead of a simply dumping this resource into vitality, strength or stamina for example, you'll have to refine the red mercury which then gets turned into skill points and then navigate complex web of upgrades much like the sphere grid in Final Fantasy X to use the points. I hated it. It felt like unnecessary steps. It was messy, clunky and overly complex.
Wuchang also suffered from a mild case of God of War where it had too many moves an abilities. Too much stuff! Stop with all the options already.
The choice to go with British actors in a game loosely based in China where nearly every NPC has a Chinese name was odd and felt out of place.
While were on the topic of audio, the sound design was a real weak point for the game as well. Not only did the soundtrack feel dated and - I don't know - stale, but a lot of instances where I felt like there should have been a sound effect like certain animations and things like that had nothing at all. Something was missing.
I like a good challenge, its part of the reason Im such a big FromSoftware fan. I've platinum'd all their games going back to the original Demon's Souls and even done no death an soul level 1 runs of Dark Souls. I understand that a certain level of perseverance is required to learn enemy movement patterns and master timing an stamina management. But Wuchang took it to another level. One that I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with. They just turned it up to 11 - no more like 13 - for what? Just to be difficult on purpose?
This is the biggest pitfall I think these Soulslike games are making. Don't make it difficult for the sake of being difficult, that's not the selling point of these games - its much more nuanced than that. Wuchang has a boss in its first 10 hours that I died to more than 100 times. My previous record was either Amygdala in the Chalice dungeons of Bloodborne or Isshin the sword Saint in Sekiro (which is the final boss of that game by the way), neither of which I surpassed the triple digit death mark. What the hell were they thinking? I eventually swallowed my pride and looked up some YouTube strats but it wasn't a massive leap in progress. Putting a boss like this this early in the game isn't a skill check, its a failure.
It didn't get much better after this either. The next area in the game was an absolute horror show filled with landmines, enemies shooting at me from places I couldn't reach and cannons firing at me from hidden blind spots. It was a disaster. All I could do was just laugh in disbelief at what I was witnessing. There was no way in hell this was the actual game. Something was broken right? They couldn't have possibly approved this in development and thought we would enjoy it? Yes they did.
I spent the next ten hours of gameplay on two bosses before I decided that I had seen enough. I'm a pretty calm dude but I've never in my life wanted to smash my controller into my TV so many times. What were these feelings I was experiencing? This wasn't me. This wasn't fun anymore. Why did I feel like I needed to prove something? I didn't want this game to get the best of me I guess. But I let it go because the pain and frustration was just not worth it.
My biggest issue with the bosses comes down to two things, 1: they have an unreal amount of health and my weapons were doing what felt like chip damage so the fights were drawn out forever "I have been levelling up right" It felt like I was at level 1 facing a mid game boss, and 2: they had relentless attack patterns that never seemed to end so even after dodging, dodging, dodging, "OK now its my turn right?" I'd get smoked by another attack that took off close to half my health bar. The reward was rarely worth the effort.
WORTH CONTINUING?
After twenty something hours of gameplay I looked up a walkthrough only to discover that I was only about a quarter of the way through the game. I have no problem at all with big games, love em, but I wasn't about to torture myself through 60 more hours of this bullshit.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Its a real shame because I thought Wuchang started off pretty strong and had potential. I wanted to see more of the world and uncover its secrets but the utter failure of imposing this false difficulty was too much of a deterrent.
TLDR: Wuchang starts with promise, offering smooth controls, tight combat, interconnected level design, and striking menu art that initially capture the spirit of Dark Souls. Early bosses feel well-designed and fun, raising hopes for a worthy Soulslike experience. However, the game quickly collapses under poor design choices: an overcomplicated leveling system, bloated move sets, weak sound design, and immersion-breaking voice acting. Most damaging is its punishing, artificial difficulty—bosses with absurd health pools, relentless attack patterns, and unfair enemy placements create frustration rather than challenge. What begins as engaging exploration devolves into a slog of repeated deaths and drawn-out battles, with little reward for perseverance. Despite flashes of potential, Wuchang ultimately buries its strengths beneath forced difficulty and questionable design, making the experience more exhausting than rewarding.
CHECK OUT OUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS VIDEO!
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