Wuthering Waves Review (PS5)

Genshin Impact has changed the console gaming landscape. Once solely the fancy of smartphone gamers, free-to-play gachas have become big business on PS5 and PS4, with many of the format’s most played titles subscribing to the business model.

Wuthering Waves is the latest contender to launch on Sony’s system, an anime-inspired open world adventure which first deployed on PC and mobile last year. It’s, in many aspects, a direct clone of HoYoverse’s biggest hit, with many of its systems replicated wholesale.

But with Teyvat feeling a little long in the tooth these days, Kuro’s made meaningful improvements in all the right areas – especially in its v2.0 quest line, which this version of the game has launched alongside.

You play as Rover, an amnesiac who can be male or female, depending on your preference. The top-level storyline subscribes to the worst of these Chinese gacha games, as it’s infested with nonsensical naming conventions and lore so dense you’ll need a PhD in its various proper nouns to extract any meaning at all from it.

The writing is by far the worst aspect of the game, although its opening chapters are particularly slow and tedious. After completing the first few missions you can skip directly ahead to the new Rinascita environment, which is inspired by the architecture of Italy and the colourful carnivals of countries in South America.

While the script slumps to the same old problems, the mission design is vastly superior. Throughout the 15-hour story, you’ll perform a heist, learn to dance as part of a performing troupe, and witness dozens of impeccably animated cutscenes. It’s such a shame the whole escapade is undone by the writers’ reluctance to hire an editor to dial down their bullsh*t.

If you can get past the obnoxious script, the gameplay is superb. Genshin Impact has gradually been trying to evolve its archaic traversal with new environment Natlan, but Wuthering Waves is already lightyears ahead. Movement is fast and fluid; climbing is speedy and responsive, and; new movement methods, like flight and gondolas, make navigating the open world genuinely entertaining.

This makes the core exploration much more engaging, and so you’ll want to seek out all of the secrets in the world and check off the copious list of tasks presented to you. Pretty much everything you do in the game rewards you with in-game currency, which can then be spent on rolling for new characters. More on that later.

The combat is the real highlight here, as the game feels much more like a classic character action game than a weird MMO hybrid. Newcomer Carlotta subscribes to good ol’ fashioned gun-fu, somersaulting into the air with her frost-powered pistol; Roccia, meanwhile, has a kind of ghostly jack-in-the-box, and can summon hurricanes before pounding the ground to do big damage.

As is the case with all these games, synergies are the key to success. You’ll need to spend time not only building your characters, but also considering which teammates complement each other. There are metas to research, but as a largely single player experience with some optional co-op elements, it’s ultimately up to you to build the parties you enjoy using.

Of course, in order to unlock characters, you’re going to need to engage with the gacha component. Wuthering Waves is a little more generous than some of its immediate peers, as weapons are guaranteed and you only need to invest 80 pulls to get a five-star.

But there’s still an element of gambling here: there’s a 50% chance you’ll unlock a banner’s promoted character, and duplicates provide desirable buffs, encouraging the investment of real money. You do earn a lot of currency through pure gameplay, and you don’t ever need to spend anything – but the system is designed to reward opening your wallet, so just keep that in mind.

When you consider the sheer quality of what’s on offer for effectively free, though, it is staggering. The soundtrack is absolutely stellar throughout, and some of the environment design – specifically in the new Rinascita area – is truly extraordinary.

One thing we’d be remiss not to mention is the Pokémon-style character building aspect, which sees you collecting Echoes from the foes you find out on the field and equipping them to buff your stats. These have random attributes, and collecting full sets gives you further statistical advantages.

It’s no different to the Relics in Honkai: Star Rail or Discs in Zenless Zone Zero, but your primary Echo actually adds a unique attack to your arsenal, making colleting really powerful ones much more rewarding than in the aforementioned games. Furthermore, it’s more fun farming them in the open world than running the same combat gauntlets over and over and over.

The new update actually adds dozens upon dozens of new Echoes to the game, opening up countless new character-building opportunities. This is the core appeal of the game, and it’s what will keep you coming back once you’ve beaten the quests and explored every square kilometre of its open world.

And as a live service, there’s a never-ending stream of content to put those builds to the test. Regular events, minigames, and story updates mean there’s always something to do, with major updates coming every six weeks. It’s a game designed to be enjoyed over years rather than days, and you’ll already have a good idea whether that appeals to you or not.