So far, fans of the Soulsborne games and Souls-likes have been eating good in 2025, with more yet to come throughout the remainder of the year. The latest addition to this subgenre isWuchang: Fallen Feathers. Though unlike many of thehighly praised Souls-like gamesand new DLCs fans have been treated to so far this year,Wuchang: Fallen Feathershas gotten off to a rather rough start and has turned out to be quite divisive.
Leading up to its release,Wuchang: Fallen Feathersreceived high reviews among critics, and when it was officially released, it even reached a surprisingly high player count on Steam, landing among the top-15 most played games on the platform within the 24 hours after its launch. However, despite a high player count and favorable review scores,Wuchang: Fallen Feathershas found itself at the bitter end of a review-bomb controversy, courtesy of performance issues - a frustration that gamers have encountered more than a handful of times this year alone from games built in the ambitious Unreal Engine 5.
Why Is Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Being Review Bombed?
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ Performance Issues Have Stolen the Spotlight from Its Greatest Strengths as a Souls-like
Based on the early previews and review scores, it seemed likeWuchang: Fallen Featherswas going to have a clear shot as one of the best Souls-likes of 2025 so far, competing with the likes ofLies of P’s Overture DLC orThe First Berserker: Khazan.However, while its gameplay and setting have seemingly earned unanimous praise,Wuchanghas unfortunately faced some major performance issues following its launch that have led to a review-bomb.
SeeGame Rant’s review ofWuchang: Fallen Feathershere.
At the time of writing,Wuchangcurrently has a ‘Mostly Negative’ rating on Steam, with 71% of its total reviews being negative. Among the negative reviews of the game on this platform, the most commonly referenced issues are thatWuchang’s PC specsare unnecessarily demanding, causing many players to face a variety of performance issues.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ Developers Have Acknowledged Its Performance Issues, and Community Mods Swoop In to Save the Day
In the short time since its launch,Wuchang’s developers have addressed its performance issues, reassuring gamers that these troubles will soon be addressed. In the meantime, though, gamers are already turning to community mods forWuchangto resolve the game’s performance issues. Considering thatWuchangwas merely days old by the time these mods were created, this speaks volumes to just how widespread the game’s performance issues are.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ Unreal Engine 5 Performance Issues Are One of Many Recent Victims of Review-Bombing
Part of the underlying reasoning whyWuchangis facing a review bomb is likely because this isn’t the first game built in Unreal Engine 5 that was recently released in a state of distress. So far, arguably the most prominent example of this has beenthe controversialGTA-cloneMindsEye, though there have been a handful of other games that have scorned players for similarly troublesome launches. Hence,Wuchangmight not have received such negative reviews if not for this becoming a common trend that gamers are growing increasingly frustrated with, and consequently more vocal about protesting.
Given that the core gameplay elements, like the progression and combat ofWuchang, are being praised in user reviews, this review-bomb controversy will hopefully be a small bump in the game’s eventual road to success. After all, comeback stories are quite common within the gaming industry lately, andWuchangis arguably already on a bright path, given how quick the developers were to claim responsibility and how numerous gamers were eager to create and download mods to help the game reach its full potential. Until then, though, the game is facing a tough review bombing like many games have this year for unfavorable performance issues and optimization.
