Black Myth: Wukong Review (PC)

Black Myth: Wukong takes players to a fantasy land where they will encounter all kinds of characters and creatures, and battle most of them to the death. Some call it souls-like. Though, calling it a souls-like isn’t really a fair judgment of the game. It brings different aspects to the table that differ from soulslike games, but it definitely takes inspiration from the “souls” genre. This plays to its advantage in a lot of ways.

The combat challenge of this game is definitely on the same level as a game like Elden Ring (read our Shadow of the Erdtree review). Boss battles prove to be the game’s testing grounds, and many serve as barriers that keep players from moving onto the next chapter. Each chapter has a final boss and many of them are aggressive by nature and throw a whole lot at the player. Players will find themselves having to dodge not once, but three or four times to get out of the way only to get one or two hits in before dodging again. If you don’t like games with dodging mechanics, then this game is not for you.

Black Myth: Wukong doesn’t try to be anything else, it is just itself. And it is proud to be itself. It is not a flawless game, but it does a lot of things well. It’s an action RPG with an emphasis on the action and has a lot going for it.

Monkey with a staff

Starting out, the game begins with a “sort of” boss fight. One that the player can’t lose, and one that is getting the story started. For the duration of the game, you play as a monkey. Black Myth: Wukong carries on with a story that started with the 16th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West. Honestly, I felt a little lost on the story piece of the game. All I could tell you was that my character was a monkey with a staff, which was still pretty cool and weird at the same time.

We are the Destined One, and we set out on a journey. Generally, I gain a basic understanding of the game I am playing. But as I played through Black Myth, the story did not grow on me. I wasn’t able to slowly start to put the pieces together. It just simply did not happen like that. Maybe it’s just me, but I never was able to get a good grasp on what was going on. Which is fine, because that is not what kept me playing the game.

Exploration and beauty

There is no map in the game. Your character starts off on a path, and you basically continue that path throughout the entirety of the game. With no map to point me in the right direction, I admittedly found myself getting lost a few times. There are branching paths that sometimes lead to the same place as the other, but sometimes lead into a small cave or lead players right into an encounter with a side boss.

The exploration feels more relaxed than the boss fights. There are occasional enemies that hide behind corners and enemies that try to trick you into making the wrong move, but those aren’t as common in this game as it would be in a traditional soulslike.

The game is absolutely beautiful. They did wonders with the Unreal Engine 5 technology in this game, and the exploration lends itself to the impressive environments. With this game running on my Nvidia RTX 4070, I just wanted to run around constantly exploring every crack and crevice of the game.

Which does bring me to a slight problem — Black Myth: Wukong has invisible walls everywhere. As I went through the game, it got on my nerves running into invisible walls when it looked like there was a clear path there. When running down a path only to find out you cannot go that way because my character all of a sudden runs into nothing, it does take players out of the experience and detracts from the game.

Rushing Bosses

Black Myth: Wukong is what I would call a boss rush game. The exploration is fantastic, but in most sections, it is a short trip to the next boss. There are 91 bosses in the game. Not all of these are main story bosses, but still 91 total bosses to battle is quite a lot. So essentially the gameplay loop consists of boss battle, short time exploring, followed up by another boss battle. Continue that over and over again and you have the entire experience. Which, to be clear, is not a bad thing at all. I actually found it to be a very engaging gameplay loop. Every game has a loop, and battling the bosses is an addictive loop for many players.

The designs of these bosses are really good. Many have unique movesets that differentiate them from one another. Many of the main story bosses have a unique style or look to them as well. The move sets often do a good job of showing themselves after a few times seeing them. Players will have to learn what the game wants them to do in order to beat the boss, and many bosses will have multiple strategies that will work against them.

RPG Elements

Black Myth: Wukong allows players to dive into a surprisingly deep and intuitive skill and ability tree. As players level up they will acquire skill points that will allow them to make their character more powerful. The skill tree is quite deep and can branch out to allow for different play styles called stances. There are three different stances that Black Myth players can choose. And these stances will change your character movements and abilities.

The game does allow players to change their skills as much as they want, all they need to do is seek out a shrine and change their skill points. Players can change stances and how many points are in each stance at the shrines in order to change strategies going into different boss battles.

Conclusion

Black Myth: Wukong is a technical feat that deserves attention. Not only does it deliver on outstanding graphical settings, it also sends players to different locations and environments that all look just as stunning as the last. Combat is the main focus of the game, and it proves to be as responsive as any game I’ve played. Combat feels like a worthy challenge, but sometimes the challenge seems a little too much to handle. This feeling is where the game really shines, because it forces players to find a strategy that will work. That is the beauty of the game. The challenge makes players think, strategize, and sometimes level up some additional skills to help in the upcoming battle. 

I am so happy I played this game. It takes inspiration from some of the best in the genre, but does its own thing in a new way. I am impressed with the graphical fidelity of the game, but the engaging gameplay is what carries the experience. 

Black Myth: Wukong is available now on PC and PS5.