XBOX REVIEW | Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Complete Edition

“It really is a game that I would happily play over and over”

I really enjoyed playing Wo Long, just let that be said straight off the bat! Wo Long is a masterpiece of a game. The setting, graphics, sound design and even the voice acting are intense, keeping the story interesting. If you haven’t already got this game and you have been on the fence about it, then I suggest testing it out on Game Pass, but honestly, it really is a game that I would happily play over and over, trying new builds, new weapons, new techniques and … Ok you get the general idea right? The base game was actually reviewed previously on this very site by Robby so go check that out when you get the chance. The difficulty of the game gets mentioned a lot in reviews and videos but it is in no way a bad thing. Let’s get to the meat of the review. the Good, the Meh and the Oh my gods I died again.

Don’t worry he just likes jumping up on strangers to say hello.

The Good!

• Graphics | Wo Long is stunning, the game is simply beautiful, with and without Raytracing enabled. The creatures are wonderful to look at, to the point where you might get distracted as you fight them, trying to see everything you can. The backgrounds are superb and your character just fits into the world seamlessly. If you pause any moment in the game, you could honestly turn it into an awesome art print and put it on a wall and I would be impressed. Simply put this game is art!

• Sound | The background music of Wo Long is phenomenal, it fits the aesthetics of the world perfectly and never leaves you feeling like you need to turn it down, like some other games I won’t mention. I also love the Foley work in the game too, the sounds of the weapons and even footsteps as you run, jump and fight your way through the regions sounds extremely well done. Foley artists don’t get enough recognition, in my opinion.

• Weapons | Every single weapon in this game feels like it should feel. Ok, so this one is a little hard for me to explain but… Ok, so when you use a light weapon it should feel light in the character’s hands and a heavy weapon should have some oomph behind it, like you should feel in your mind the effort it takes to swing that massive sword around. Wo Long manages to do this really well, you never feel the sense of disconnect that you do in some games. The design of the weapons is amazing too, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous and even some weapons from other games making a show like Etiquette and the Puppets sabre from Lies of P. You will never be short of ways to dispatch your enemies in this game.

• Difficulty | Some people say that the difficulty of Wo Long is a little bit much, even finding the first boss battle to be nearly impossible. I heard about all these things before I even touched the game and I was a little worried. but after discovering the Tutorial Island on the map I practised the moves until I felt comfortable and went to the dreaded first boss… I beat him the second time around. Now this isn’t to say the game isn’t difficult but the difficulty is only really determined by you, yes you will die a lot, but every time you do you come away with a little bit more knowledge on how to proceed which makes it so much more satisfying when you do progress. My advice is to take your time, learn from your mistakes and then make even more before finally moving on to the next big boss battle.

Flowers? for me? You shouldn’t have.

Meh!

• Levelling up | Levelling up is an integral part of the game, involving learning new techniques and magic, as well as boosting your characters’ attributes. It can mean the difference between life and death. However, it’s not exactly a fun task in this game. There is a lot to read up on and a lot of the time you aren’t even sure if you picked the right thing at that moment in time till you get the hang of it. I personally wish there was an auto levelling system in the game that actually worked in your favour for when you just want to play the game, but then I suppose it does add to the experience in other ways. This is just a personal thing for me, I think now that I have more time to just sit and play I will enjoy that aspect of the game more. Still, I do long for the days when games like Fable based your experience on what you did during the game and distributed your points according to your playstyle.

• Assistants | Throughout the game you get other characters helping you, this I understand is to show you that not all battles can be won alone and also helps to advance the story but…The AI of some of the characters is bad, I mean like stand in front of a set of stairs, blocking your movement. I don’t know if it’s because I called them all the names under the sun for getting in the way one too many times that made it worse or if that was all in my head. One day a game will get an assist character right.

I told you before, I don’t need a shave!!!

Dislikes ?

• Nothing really | I think most of the things that annoyed me about the game I have mentioned already, but they weren’t bad enough to be called outright dislikes. I understand that they are part of the game and that’s why they aren’t in this section. As it stands, I actually really enjoyed 99% of this game, from the bizarre demons right down to the strangely awesome magic. to me it just felt like a really solid game. So, nope, I cannot really think of a dislike.