hakobyanhakob81

Starting from the opening, the setting seemed to me not the best choice, and now that I'm 1/3 through into the game, I still think the rig is somewhat repellent even for a horror. Nobody said that serving a horror experience, things need to be as unpleasant as they get. So far I have encountered plenty of the alien substance spread all over the place which was fairly ok, not great, but ok. The same goes for the first alien creature impression - it was serviceable but not great.

I don't mind at all the terrain being very straightforward, but like I said the before, the setting is nothing spectacular which is not helping really, unless you have a specific passion to explore rigs.

Having played the half of it, this is certainly an ok take on "The Thing", but is no way a masterpiece. It mostly features the monster design that makes you nostalgic, but other than that, it doesn't have a story or good characters. Basically all the time it's about just making your way through the rig, shimmying, with a monster occasionally trying to catch you, which very soon becomes repetitive and stops being a thrill.

I still considered getting the platinum trophy, luckily in the first playthrough since I would never settle for the second one. Just so you get the idea, it doesn't even comprise the 1/100 of Alien: isolation, and if you want comparison with other indie horrors, then the Call of Cthulhu (2018), Visage, Madison did a much better job in every aspect.

Even if you ignore the lack of the narrative, relying on visuals alone doesn't save the day either, since the level design like I said is very straightforward and monotonous. A proper "The Thing" title instead would've worked much better.

Only closer to the very end the atmosphere got more suspenseful, and a little backstory on the protagonist was revealed which nevertheless didn't make this a groundbreaking experience, just an ok horror, but no way a masterpiece.

Long before the players feel motivated, the game makes the mistake of discouraging you to quit at the very first pretty hard boss, however, overcoming this obstacle leads to an improvement in the experience.

Same goes for the visuals. While eventually I came to realise this game looks stunning, the textures of the initial mission left much to be desired, however, as you progress, the level design gets more refined and glamorous, presenting some fun monster and boss concepts never seen before, with the same ideology as Nioh.

One great thing this game has is, you can upgrade your deflect skill, making the combat so much more fun. Also, the dodge function prevents you from rolling off a ledge unless you press the jump button which is super useful in critical situations.

I really enjoyed the storytelling and the characters as well.

Basically you need to keep in mind Wo Long is a slow burner, so my advice would be to give it time to impress you and play as you would play another Nioh game to get the most out of it.

The grand finale is epic and breathtaking, in a way similar to Surge 2.

Among the technical benefits, the game allows you to save not only various gear into presets but also stats, meaning you can have different attributes levelled up for different presets which is incredibly helpful, also after a certain mission, you unlock the ability to infinitely respec without the need of any consumables, encouraging you to experiment to have various effective play styles.

The only thing I did not like is that you can not level up above 150 for the base game.

To wrap things up, Wo Long is undoubtedly worth checking out for Nioh fans.

While the game is keen to dive into action right away, it initially lacks the essential aesthetics to encourage the players to explore the surroundings. Once it cuts to the chase, the monster appearance seems just way out of blue and gratuitous. Even early on, I can confidently say that the Call of Cthulhu (2018) which is too an indie game dealing with a similar subject but has significantly lesser graphics, looks much more credible even by today's standards, seems more integral, meaningful and truly gave us something we hadn't seen before, yet for Alone in the dark they apparently didn't work hard enough on the story and the atmosphere. I'm starting to see why it is already available for free for PS Plus Extra subscribers shortly after being released.

The cut scenes don't exactly succeed in engaging the audience with the narrative due to being slightly out of focus, I'd say. Some even felt like I could easily skip even on my first playthrough.

There are a total of five chapters in the game, and what you have read thus far provides a summary of the first. As of now, things are tolerable, yet fairly generic and uninspired.

Now that I'm through with chapter 2, the lacklustre level design and the unimaginatively tedious gaming run are not getting any better; story-wise, there hasn't been a single noteworthy event while the thrill of cut scenes is steadily declining. All the time it's just navigating through the badly designed house and its vicinities with negligently placed typical monster minions just spawning for you to spend ammo in the most unimaginative way. I wonder if they even tried.

Ultimately, the game is plagued by several persistent problems, including a dull narrative, uninspired creature designs, and monotonous gameplay-essentially, it fails in just every aspect. Even the horrid Dark Pictures anthology titles compared to this look quite decent.

Unless you can settle for below subpar games, don't bother checking this one out, even if for free. You are likely to be disappointed.