Though Black Myth: Wukong is undoubtedly a good ARPG overall, its disappointing levels, lackluster enemy variety, and a superfluous loot system all hold it back from being truly great. However, it holds itself back with bland level design and disappointing enemy variety, along with a superfluous gear system and a few noteworthy performance issues.
The Immobilize spell, for instance, freezes enemies for a short time, allowing you to get in some quick hits and potentially stagger them to allow for even more free damage; Cloud Step turns you invisible and creates a decoy for your enemies to focus on while you break away, heal up, and then hit your foe with a surprise attack that can crit; Rock Solid briefly turns you into a statue that will cause an enemy’s attack to bounce right off of you, giving you an opportunity for a counter-attack; Ring of Fire creates a barrier around you that will initially repel enemies, and grant you some health restoration and enhances any stat altering drinks you may use while standing inside of it. Finally, there’s my favorite, a Pluck of Many, which lets you make multiple clones of yourself to all gang up on an enemy.
With a Fantasy RPG, you can guarantee satisfying lore, combat, soundtrack, and more. Black Myth: Wukong is finally here, and it’s a good ARPG to play if you’re into flashy combat, challenging fast-paced boss battles, and beautiful worlds inspired by mythology. When he’s not writing or gaming, there’s a good chance he’s either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or going outside for once. The game is worth a pickup if you’re a fan of challenging ARPGs, stunning visuals, and good storytelling – especially if you see it on sale (remember that the PC version is available for free on our site). But is it worth it? These were somewhat rare and also minor enough that they didn’t interfere with my gameplay much, but they have the potential to be very annoying if they happen at the wrong time. I feel like the game tried but failed to give enough exposition for new players who don’t want to read paragraphs upon paragraphs of lore, who will just end up floating along with the story to enjoy their cool boss rush gameplay.
Once you get enough hits in (or charge up energy) you gain a Focus point. A shared light attack combo connects three staff styles that have unique heavy hits. For example, you can invest in improved damage reduction after a heavy attack. By shapeshifting into this ferocious canine, you’re able to wield his flaming glaive to inflict burn damage on your opponents as you twirl around and pull off a variety of combos. Weaving combos in between enemy and boss attacks feels great, and there’s a solid sense of weight to combat as well, making each blow feel rewarding.
These are effectively transformations that only last for one attack and are also tied to a fairly lengthy cooldown, but it’s great to be able to, for example, use the Wandering Wight’s powerful headbutt attack to get an extra stagger after immobilizing an enemy. Happily, Black Myth: Wukong is also absolutely loaded with different enemy and boss types for you to test out your skills. A Chinese Mythology game made by developers who haven’t had their big break yet, Black Myth: Wukong looks very promising to those who have played similar games previously. While many new AAA games have Early Access periods that allow Deluxe Edition buyers to jump in several days early, this is not the case with Black Myth: Wukong.
Many players were furious after the company behind Black Myth: Wukong sent them a list of topics to avoid while live streaming the game, including “feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse”. Without any hand-holding, I was free to explore to my heart’s content – which naturally made discoveries even more rewarding. You get a few options for your spell slots, with quite a few spells tied to optional content.
Black Myth: Wukong has received an overwhelmingly positive reception from audiences and has sold over 10 million units in just a few days. Considering that the Destined One is a monkey, Black Myth: Wukong missed a wealth of opportunities in exploration that would have transformed the game into a much richer and fun experience when it comes to mobility and movement. Robertson’s favorite aspects of the game are its artistic designs and well-made boss fights. However, this comes at the cost of traditional frame generation artifacts around the borders of the screen, on particle effects, and within UI elements, which are much more obvious than normal as the game is operating at such a low base resolution.
Black Myth incorporates some classic elements you’d expect from a Souls game – stamina management and enemies that respawn when you rest at a checkpoint. The set-up is classic Soulslike, with generous rest stops between all the duels where you can upgrade both skills and equipment. There are noticeable stutters in cutscenes, and textures on the map frequently load in and out, which can be jarring. Frame rates are not high in general, but the weird sharpening in performance mode, the bizarre FPS cap in balance mode, and the broken frame-rate cap in quality mode are all clumsy goals that could and should be fixed in time.
The second and perhaps more important thing is that every time you give it another go at taking down any of the toughest of enemies you also get better. There is the scent of an adventure here, and experience points and skill trees give it a bit of depth like a role-playing game. There is a fairly extensive skill tree with both things that give you more life, stronger attack and defence but also a lot of different attacks and other things. One of the game’s first noticeable attacks freezes enemies in place so you can deal damage or take the opportunity to regain life.
One hit can cause a lot of problems, and it’s multiple attacks that drain your life properly. Many of the dream locations that we travel through with Sun Wukong in Game Science’s game are real places in the Asian country that remain just as true to life. The path is marked out between the different resting places and even if it takes a bit of searching at times, the game is good at leading you on. At the game’s resting places, I can also easily fast-travel back to a previously visited area, which is also convenient if you want to explore more or if there are plenty of enemies to grind for XP. There are always new things to discover and deviating from the path often brings great rewards and exciting discoveries. This brings us to the game’s combat system. Our story is rather laid back and that is presented rather vaguely and I feel this is the game’s weaker part.
I was hooked, and there was no going back. There are a lot of limitations in the environment that stop you. The boss fights in Black Myth Wukong are my preferred type of boss fights because they act as challenging and intricate puzzles. Black Myth: Wukong has quite a few graphics options. You play as a mute monkey, known as the Destined One, who shares more than a few similarities with the titular Sun Wukong–a legendary simian commonly known as the Monkey King. In the end, it feels like the only thing that matters is whether a game is fun to play.
But when I play this, I understand the choice of the challenge to be there. Every time the game breaks off with something like this, it becomes a good contrast to the game’s layout and appreciated elements of one’s journey. Based on one of Chinese mythology’s biggest stories, Journey to the West, the game will be released on PC and PS5 on August 19 (the Xbox release was delayed to a TBD date for further development). Known as Yaoguai, these mythological beasts range from a giant black bear to a traditional Chinese dragon, a blood-spattered tiger, and many, many more in between.
What’s cool about these is that they don’t cost any mana (they’re tied to a very lengthy cooldown instead) and they turn you into a different character, complete with all-new moves, special moves that use your focus meter, and more. The first is the focus points that you build up over time, which then allow you to deliver a more powerful attack. Focus can be accumulated by landing light attacks, executing well-timed dodges, and other means. But this also means that you can take on the bosses when you feel that your skill is sufficient.
Later in the game, you’ll start in vast landscapes, but veering too far off its main paths means you’ll run into an invisible wall. Plenty of real-life locations exist within the game, so if you want to see what they look like, just get good. Multiple content creators refused to review the game, claiming its developers were trying to censor discussion and stifle freedom of speech. We’ve provided a second-by-second timer (displayed in CDT) showing you how long is left until the Black Myth: Wukong review lifts so you can see its scores.
