Black Myth: Wukong Review

Black Myth: Wukong may dig its roots into Journey to the West , but the significant time gap between the two stories doesn't require the game to remain true to every single element of its source material. This ultimately grants some leeway for Game Science to include characters not found in Journey to the West , while still honoring its nature as an Eastern mythology-inspired story. Black Myth: Wukong therefore introduces new characters — primarily enemies — not originally found in Journey to the West that are largely inspired by Eastern mythology, in addition to new and revised locations from the novel to reflect the passage of t


The mentions of "feminist propaganda" and "politics" are damning enough on their own, but the restrictions on mentioning the pandemic or China’s game industry are completely bizarre. I fail to imagine why anybody would want to bring up COVID-19 in their coverage of a video game, nor why Game Science would see this as a real risk to the image of its game and preemptively try to mitigate t


As far as locations go, most of those that players can travel to in Black Myth: Wukong are mentioned in Journey to the West . Others, like Crouching Tiger Temple, Turtle Island, Mirrormere, and the Pagoda Realm, are not — although the novel does include various pagoda structures. This is just another way that Black Myth: Wukong sets itself apart from Journey to the West to give players an experience they wouldn't even be able to get from the 16th-century novel the game is based


From the looks of things, the Destined One will be meeting a variety of different characters as he journeys deeper into Black Myth: Wukong 's world, many of them taking on a bizarre and often otherworldly appearance. Some of these NPCs could be friendly and others enemies, but it's too soon to tell. One NPC, in particular, is a human-like tiger who may be one of Black Myth: Wukong 's boss fights . What's interesting about this particular NPC, however, is that the final trailer shows him on the ground, seemingly asking the Destined One for mercy. It's entirely possible players could find themselves in a fight against this character, only for him to eventually become a helpful ally to the Destined


Combat starts to get tedious around the same time that the level design becomes more engaging. The first couple chapters of Black Myth: Wukong are bland and lifeless. They are a collection of mini-boss fights separated by sparsely populated areas with invisible walls that keep players from venturing off or jumping on platforms that they should otherwise clearly be able to reach. The level design in these early stages does not leave a good first impression. Later chapters have significantly increased scope and are more interesting, with more to see and do between the boss fights, though they perhaps suffer from going on a little too l


As reviews have come in, including our own , it’s become clear that critics have generally enjoyed it. It garnered an 82 percent rating on OpenCritic , receiving praise for its polish, visuals, and combat, and, more importantly for me as an Asian gamer, successfully translates the Chinese mythology of monkey god Sun Wukong into a compelling action


It’s clear that Game Science is very aware of the discourse around its game; it’s just actively choosing not to say anything. That isn’t really a problem in itself – while it’s a clear effort to wait the allegations out and hope they’re simply forgotten, I can understand a smaller studio choosing to just shut up and let the game speak for itself instead of creating a politicised firestorm around a decidedly unpolitical game with a statement. It’s not great optics-wise, but there’s logic behind


If the story was anything to care about, this would be an even more annoying problem, but Black Myth 's story is largely inconsequential . It takes players from one level to the next, introducing them to various characters pulled from Journey to the West , and while there is an overarching story, each chapter also has its own individual tale to tell as well. The dialogue is clunky and the voice acting is unimpressive. But few people play these types of games for the story anyway. Again, Soulslike diehards coming into this likely won't be bothered by Black Myth 's lackluster story, but those expecting something like more traditional character action games are going to be disappoin


Black Myth: Wukong is a game that shies away from the Soulslike label, yet it is clearly gunning for the Soulslike audience. It is far from the best in the genre, but it's also not the worst game that has followed in Dark Souls ' footsteps. If you go into it expecting a mostly standard Soulslike experience with some blood-boiling boss encounters mixed in with basic level design, you will have a better time than if you were going into it expecting it to be like a traditional character action game. Black Myth Wukong Collectibles Myth: Wukong offers about 30 hours of gameplay for its first playthrough with a ton of side content to check out as well, but many will tire of the limited combat options long before they reach its dazzling yet equally aggravating final boss fi