Black Myth: Wukong has left me feeling both incredibly impressed and incredibly frustrated at the same time. I have never been this way over a game. Without a question, this is one of the most amazing and ambitious action games I have ever played. To name a few of its many virtues, it is breathtakingly beautiful, has excellent fighting, is extremely difficult yet always rewarding to conquer, and has a scenario that is both refreshingly new and deeply rooted in rich Chinese culture. Even with all of that, it frequently seems to be barely hanging on.
Even with my top-of-the-line setup with a GeForce RTX 4090, I crashed a lot on my PC (the PlayStation 5 version was not made available for this review). Other issues included characters switching randomly between Chinese and English, dialogue audio cutting out completely during a crucial cutscene, and multiple instances where I died close to defeating a particularly difficult boss. It is undoubtedly a rickety roller coaster, and there were moments when I was not enjoying myself, but when you consider the full experience, the bumps are worth it.
Black Myth: Wukong’s tale is essentially a sequel to Wu Cheng’en’s beloved Journey to the West, which I was only familiar with because of a few clumsy adaptations like Dragon Ball and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. This superficial familiarity did not help, though, because the interpretation created by the GameScience developers is dense with allusions to people and situations from the book and does a poor job of introducing you to Sun Wukong and the adventures he took on in the game’s titular journey. Otherwise, I would have occasionally been bewildered as to who Zhu Bhajie was, what his relationship with Wukong was, and the significance of specific interactions.
In the game, you take on the role of The Destined One, a real monkey that resolves to search for the six Wukong relics over about 40 hours after waking up one morning. A mute protagonist and supporting characters who do not get enough screen time make for fairly unremarkable moment-to-moment storytelling, but each of the six self-contained chapters ends with an exquisitely animated vignette that tells a brief tale about the main antagonist of that chapter.
Each is created in its way; some are stop-motion animated, some are illustrated in the manner of a storybook, and still others have an anime aesthetic. I wished that the main story had similarly moved me since every one of them is so exquisite and moving.
Given the checkpoint system, the stamina meter that controls your actions in combat, and the fighting style that emphasizes dodging, my first impression of Wukong was that it was soulslike. However, Wukong turns out to be more like classic action games like those produced by PlatinumGames, the company that developed Bayonetta, than it is like anything developed by FromSoftware.
Most customs associated with souls-like entities are absent: Death has no consequences other than causing you to respawn at the closest checkpoint (no corpse run is necessary to recover your loot); you do not use a common currency to purchase items or upgrades or level up your stats; and although there are stats and gear to take into account, you mostly just go replace your old gear with new instead of choosing which kind of armor or weapon to upgrade.
Even though it is more understanding, it is still challenging.
Removing those mechanics seems like the proper choice for the kind of game that Wukong is attempting to create, even though I am a huge fan of Soulslikes. Wukong is a better, more memorable game as a result of its significantly more forgiving nature, which is centered on keeping you involved in the action rather than having you pore over menus or follow your path to recover lost currency after dying.
To be clear, though, I do not suggest that it is any easier than a From-style game when I remark that it is more forgiving. To be more precise, I found it harder to overcome Wukong’s most difficult obstacles with this than with Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (no, there are not any hard choices). However, those difficulties never felt unfair, and defeating some of the more difficult boss battles always required me to learn their attack strategies, figure out when to use my punishment windows most effectively, and adjust my loadout to best utilize my selected abilities.
Black Myth: Wukong’s combat is straightforward and graceful, in part because of a few engaging tools. The key to success is striking a precise balance between resource management and fast reflex gaming, which is centered upon a Focus Meter that fills up when you land hits and perfectly avoid opponent attacks. Every time that meter fills up, you gain a Focus point. You can use that Focus point to charge a heavier attack further, or you can use it to charge a light attack alone. If two, three, or even four Focus points are used at once, the heavy attack will charge even further.
One of the most beautiful games I have ever played is Wukong.
In addition, there are several hidden boss battles to find, important objects with enigmatic uses that I have yet to decipher, and a plethora of other reasons to veer off the main path and continually check your surroundings. The first is that Wukong is one of the most beautiful games I have ever played; every setting is teeming with detail, from the forest’s trees’ broken bark to the snow’s real-time distortion when The Destined One traverses it with his staff.
In addition, the animation is amazing, full of amazing details and flourishes like your character hopping around an enemy instead of just going straight ahead with their head turned, or strafing around them, while they are locked onto them. The sound design and music are equally amazing, with sweet flutes and chimes and powerful, drum-thumping battle tunes that heighten the sense of mystery and adventure as you explore the unknown.
Having said that, a map would have been helpful for this game. Without a question, the areas you explore in Wukong are breathtaking, but they are also far too large and packed with secrets to be without some kind of navigational aid, particularly in the second and third chapters. This can make exploring quite difficult, especially since it can be frustrating to determine which barriers are truly climbable and which are invisible walls. Fortunately, the benefits outweigh the costs.
Verdict
Black Myth: Wukong, GameScience’s first action game, is largely a huge success despite a few significant technical flaws and some translation problems that will probably annoy some players when it launches. Despite being a more conventional action game than FromSoftware’s style, combat is amazing because it strikes a nice balance between cautious resource management and lightning-fast, twitch-reaction gameplay that tested my skills as much as Elden Ring ever did. In addition, the world they live in is a visual and aural feast, with plenty of thrilling boss battles and a diverse array of foes.
Its narrative has its moments, but it depends a little too much on the player’s prior knowledge of Journey to the West’s events. It also might have utilized a map to balance the intensity of its combat with its enjoyable exploration. However, its strong points outweigh its weaknesses, making Black Myth: Wukong an excellent action game that may be much better if GameScience’s flaws are fixed.
