Wuthering Waves

An action-packed, cross platform open world RPG. It excels with its fast, exhilarating action and attractive graphics, despite a weak storyline and unbalanced sound issues. The key to its future success lies in how well the character development and story are further refined.

By wanting to compete with Genshin Impact, Kuro Games took everything that made the HoYoverse title successful... sometimes even too much. Whether in its structure, its content and even its interface, everything is reminiscent of the king of gacha. However, it tries to stand out on certain points such as its more advanced action gameplay than its rivals, but also its elegant artistic direction which could turn some people over. Unfortunately, it's difficult to enjoy the experience properly because of this failed French translation. In summary, Wuthering Waves has some arguments to convince those disappointed with Genshin Impact, but it remains to be seen whether it will succeed in demonstrating a follow-up as exemplary as that of HoYoverse productions.

Wuthering Waves combo-heavy action, mobility, and monster taming enhance combat and exploration enough to respectably distinguish it from competitors. Its combat is polished and sophisticated, rewarding reactivity and pushing me to carefully consider my builds and teams. On top of that, the Echo equipment system ties your character progression into the environment in a way that encourages exploration, which can be satisfying despite the repetitive process of fighting overworld mobs. Unfortunately, the story is a bland, exposition-heavy slog, with dull writing and voice acting that rarely kept me interested. But while the quests may not be what’s pulling me along, I’m still looking forward to checking back in with the next major update to see how Wuthering Waves evolves.

Wuthering Waves is a free-to-play gatcha game. They want you to spend your time in their world and hopefully spend money on it. So, is Wuthering Waves worth playing? I think long-term, it is. Its combat is very solid, and the exploration aspect is also fun. Its biggest faults are the story, which is very weak, and the voice acting of some characters is subpar. To Kuro Games’ credit, they are working to address these issues. The game has been patched constantly since I started playing, and they are working to address the voice acting. If you’re looking for a fast-paced action game and a deep, open world, I recommend Wuthering Waves. If you’re more of a story person, maybe wait to see if the story improves.

Wuthering Waves is ultimately a would-be usurper trying too hard to be like Genshin Impact to trust in its own strengths, making it feel like an outdated copy in many aspects. Sporting truly fun combat and fresh movement mechanics, an interesting world, and plenty of content to explore, it has the core necessities for a prospering future in place. Before it can realize this future, Kuro Games must address the game’s many flaws and then define a new identity for it – one that goes beyond its inspiration.

Wuthering Waves won't unseat Genshin Impact in the open-world action RPG department, but it's still very solid out of the gate and worth keeping an eye on in the coming years.

While Wuthering Waves has improved since its lackluster launch, its weak story and lingering managerial issues persist to hamper it.