ACG review for Wo Long

[Dweller Beyond the Threshold]

https://youtu.be/jfBGyS5-SU4

Trigger warnings to the fanboys, ACG made many mentions to Nioh 2, so stay away if the idea of comparing one game to another made by the same dev is horrendous to you.

His rating is "only get it on Gamepass". Considering how cheap XGP is, I would say this is an equivalent of his "deep deep sale" (buy > wait for sale > wait for deep deep sale > never touch again)

Summary of his review
pros:
- morale system (cool but also very messy)
- companion system
- ease of experimentation
- combat can be fun and stylish when it works but also messy
- had some great time finding new weapons, loots, and martial arts etc
- unique gameplay that combines some pre-existing elements but can become messy

cons:
- combat system basically forces you to only use deflect and this wears off quickly
- some bugs from demo carries over to full game
- morale system (cool but also very messy)
- confusing UI and inventory management
- stuttering and other tech issues
- terrible locations and level design, completely uninspired. Not a single memorable place and some stages are literally just steps and few rooms.
- problematic camera
- voice acting is not very good at all
- music is hit or miss, no track resonated with reviewer
- story not engaging at all
- some downgrades from Nioh 2 despite being a successor

[Ka-mai19]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

NO, you DONT. (caps, to make it easier for you to read, this time)

In Sekiro it is a core mechanic.
Around which the entire gameplay is balanced. And it is tightly balanced.

It is not a ''mechanic to make the combat more managable'' in Sekiro the deflecting IS the combat.

In Wo Long you can play without using the mechanic. Using it too much makes it too easy. Using it less makes it harder, but not challenge mode level either. These are signs that gameplay wasnt tightly tuned around having the mechanic. Wo Long's gimmick is more comparable to Youkai Counter in Nioh 2. In both cases the feature is something you occassionally use and each succesful use is extremely strong.

In Sekiro an individual deflection does nothing. You have to use it many, many times over the course of a fight.

You cannot compare these two and say ''well they are basically the same'', because they just arent.

I'm saying they're both core mechanics for their combat gameplay, lol. I never disagreed Sekiro's was more balanced; I only made the point that just as Sekiro depends on the player to consistently use deflecting to defeat enemies so does Wo Long expect its players to use the parrying mechanic.

I'm not sure why this is getting you so riled up, lol. It's a simple concept. You can argue that Sekiro implements its core mechanic more thoughtfully and efficiently, but that still doesn't make it any less clear that parrying is a core mechanic in Wo Long.

Edit: I would also add that parrying is like a mix between the Nioh 2 Yokai Counter and the Sekiro deflect, considering the parry is spammable (unlike the yokai counter, which had lag, and similar to the Sekiro deflect), but an OP mechanic (like the yokai counter and unlike the Sekiro deflect).

The parry also functions similar to Sekiro where the intended use involves regular enemy attacks, while the yokai counter was focused explicitly on disrupting specific boss moves. To me it's like a hybrid between the two. Again, though, it's not well balanced, clearly.

[Jack Sparrow]

Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:

Originally posted by Raine:

So basically do like I always do. Ignore ACG just like every other worthless youtuber looking for hits and profit and form my own opinion based on playing the game.

yup more power to you if you want to form your own opinion without ever relying on external information (no sarcasm intended).

Honestly, i started avoiding watching game reviews a few years ago, untill id finished them myself, they usually negatively impact your perception of things and detract from your own enjoyment, if you dont like the game, you are going to know, The game is great so far, not interested in hearing ACG's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ opinion on it, its on gamepass anyway.

[Dweller Beyond the Threshold]

Originally posted by Bridget:

Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:

yup more power to you if you want to form your own opinion without ever relying on external information (no sarcasm intended).

Honestly, i started avoiding watching game reviews a few years ago, untill id finished them myself, they usually negatively impact your perception of things and detract from your own enjoyment, if you dont like the game, you are going to know, The game is great so far, not interested in hearing ACG's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ opinion on it, its on gamepass anyway.

I would say reviews are helpful in cases where you're on the fence. But if you know you're going to love a game or hate it, then yeah, reviews probably won't do much. In this case, I was mostly interested in the stuffs not found in the demo and the review did inform me. I'm still going to play the game but at least now I know not to have any expectations regarding the level design which may have otherwise hampered my experience because I keep wonder if the next level could get better etc.

[Jack Sparrow]

Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:

Originally posted by Bridget:

Honestly, i started avoiding watching game reviews a few years ago, untill id finished them myself, they usually negatively impact your perception of things and detract from your own enjoyment, if you dont like the game, you are going to know, The game is great so far, not interested in hearing ACG's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ opinion on it, its on gamepass anyway.

I would say reviews are helpful in cases where you're on the fence. But if you know you're going to love a game or hate it, then yeah, reviews probably won't do much. In this case, I was mostly interested in the stuffs not found in the demo and the review did inform me. I'm still going to play the game but at least now I know not to have any expectations regarding the level design which may have otherwise hampered my experience because I keep wonder if the next level could get better etc.

See what you just described is exactly what i'm talking about, now you are going to go in to the game with the preconceived notion that the level design sucks, i've finished the first 4 levels and they were fine, I thoroughly enjoyed them, By watching someones review they project their post-50 hour play burn out on to you. I do agree that reviews can be helpful in certain situations but i just find for me they are a net-negative on my personal playthrough experience. I watch them all after i finish and see what everyone else thought.

[Dweller Beyond the Threshold]

Originally posted by Bridget:

Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:

I would say reviews are helpful in cases where you're on the fence. But if you know you're going to love a game or hate it, then yeah, reviews probably won't do much. In this case, I was mostly interested in the stuffs not found in the demo and the review did inform me. I'm still going to play the game but at least now I know not to have any expectations regarding the level design which may have otherwise hampered my experience because I keep wonder if the next level could get better etc.

See what you just described is exactly what i'm talking about, now you are going to go in to the game with the preconceived notion that the level design sucks, i've finished the first 4 levels and they were fine, I thoroughly enjoyed them, By watching someones review they project their post-50 hour play burn out on to you. I do agree that reviews can be helpful in certain situations but i just find for me they are a net-negative on my personal playthrough experience. I watch them all after i finish and see what everyone else thought.

well that's the thing, I would prefer to have lower expectations and be pleasantly surprised. If the level design doesn't actually suck (which pretty much allreviewers said it does), then I would actually enjoy the game more than I would had I not watch any reviews. They basically help me temper my expectations.

Probably not how everyone works but that usually is the case for me.

[Kashra Fall]

Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:

Originally posted by Bridget:

See what you just described is exactly what i'm talking about, now you are going to go in to the game with the preconceived notion that the level design sucks, i've finished the first 4 levels and they were fine, I thoroughly enjoyed them, By watching someones review they project their post-50 hour play burn out on to you. I do agree that reviews can be helpful in certain situations but i just find for me they are a net-negative on my personal playthrough experience. I watch them all after i finish and see what everyone else thought.

well that's the thing, I would prefer to have lower expectations and be pleasantly surprised. If the level design doesn't actually suck (which pretty much allreviewers said it does), then I would actually enjoy the game more than I would had I not watch any reviews. They basically help me temper my expectations.

Probably not how everyone works but that usually is the case for me.

So far I've been to a castle at night, a ravine and a bamboo forest. Seems varied and nice to me and some of the areas are quite lovely to look at no less.

[NijimaXL]

I'm assuming you can customize the skills on the weapons at later chapters like the N game?

[Bazzy]

Did he review it on console or pc? And boy that list is basically a whole heap of preference and no helpful info at all. What exactly does "can be messy" even mean? lol

[Dweller Beyond the Threshold]

Originally posted by Kashra Fall:

Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:

well that's the thing, I would prefer to have lower expectations and be pleasantly surprised. If the level design doesn't actually suck (which pretty much allreviewers said it does), then I would actually enjoy the game more than I would had I not watch any reviews. They basically help me temper my expectations.

Probably not how everyone works but that usually is the case for me.

So far I've been to a castle at night, a ravine and a bamboo forest. Seems varied and nice to me and some of the areas are quite lovely to look at no less.

the environment can be varied, but that's not what people mean by level design.

[Dweller Beyond the Threshold]

Originally posted by Fu Qi:

I'm assuming you can customize the skills on the weapons at later chapters like the N game?

you can! At the blacksmith you can easily remove and swap the affixes on your weapon from a selection of affixes you've gotten by dismantling previous weapons. Most of them have infinite use (so never have to farm weapons with that affix again once you dismantly it one time, but few better ones are single-use and you must dismantle more in the future to apply them to new weapons again).]

[Dweller Beyond the Threshold]

Originally posted by Bazzy:

Did he review it on console or pc? And boy that list is basically a whole heap of preference and no helpful info at all. What exactly does "can be messy" even mean? lol

He played it on both PC and xbox.
Well reviews are by design completely subjective in most aspects. On PC, even takes on performance and optimization might be subjective because it could vary from person to person.

I tried to summarize each point into one sentence but messy is indeed a word he used throughout. You could watch the full review if interested but I don't think a person who has enjoyed the game will agree with many things he said.

[sumdumgoy]

Originally posted by Bloody Finger Okina:

"ACG dislikes it"

So the game's actually good then?

I wouldn't put too much stock on what ACG thinks since the guy's bloody dreadful when it comes to pure action games.

lol he says this is one of the easiest soul like games ever made so if he sucks at them then this game must be super easy and any elitist bragging about being good at it is just bragging about sucking.

[Millerlight89]

While I agree this game is really only worth playing on GP....ACG is a damn idiot. My god he contradicts himself allt he time. I use to listen to his podcast....which was absolutely awful. Consisted of his fat ass acting like he knew everything, a guy that played nothing but GTA Online, Mafia games, and RDR, a chubby Austrian that purchased like20 plus games a year and was notorious for playing like an hour of each game and quitting, and finally a swede that has to be one of the oddest people I've listened to. ACG is just a clown overall.

[Uugly]

Final boss stage is the same as Sekiro but downgrade heavily.