Black Myth: Wukong Review

“Journey to the West” is one of China’s most influential literary works and its impact can be seen in much of today’s popular media. For instance: without it we might not have iconic series like Dragon Ball. Inspired by fantastic elements of this novel, developer Game Science has created expansive action RPG called Black Myth: Wukong. Priced at $59.99, this game is available for both PC and PS5 and it brings the world of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, to life in a fresh and exciting way.

Black Myth: Wukong combines familiar action RPG elements with a unique charm, spirituality and touch of strange. Game allows you to battle supernatural creatures using your trusty staff & even transform into these creatures to gain edge in combat. Although game has some minor balance issues & occasional performance hiccups it still stands out as strong action game packed with content. If you’re looking for game that draws from rich cultural history while offering engaging gameplay Black Myth: Wukong is definitely worth your attention.

World of Wukong

Black Myth: Wukong immerses you in world filled with men and monsters, deeply rooted in religious symbolism with supernatural twist. You play as Destined One a skilled warrior monkey navigating marvelous and dangerous world of Chinese legend. Game’s environments and architecture are infused with spiritual and religious elements while mythology influences design of enemies. Sentient monsters known as Yaoguai lurk in every corner constantly challenging you.

Game is divided into multiple chapters each set in a different location with unique enemies. These settings vary from lush forests and arid deserts to snowy mountaintops. Even within each zone there’s plenty of variety. First area a forested mountain, includes caverns, temples and ruins. Each area has clear start and finish but they are large enough to explore with numerous enemy encounters and treasures to discover. Game’s structure and size feel similar to the maps in Dark Souls III offering a rich & engaging experience.

You save and rest at shrines found in each zone. Once you rest at a shrine, you can teleport to it, making travel quick and easy. This is helpful because Black Myth: Wukong has many hidden secrets that encourage you to explore and backtrack through the zones, making wandering around feel rewarding.

Easy and Fun Melee Combat

In Black Myth: Wukong, you spend as much time fighting as you do exploring, but thankfully, the combat is simple yet satisfying. The basics are easy to learn: you have a light attack, a heavy attack, and a dodge. While this may seem straightforward, there are layers of complexity that make the combat engaging. Heavy attacks are strong, but they take time to charge. To speed this up, you need to build focus points, which you earn by using light attacks. Depending on your stance, the heavy attack can be an overhead smash or a long-range thrust.

Combat revolves around these two systems: building focus with light attacks and using it to power up heavy attacks. Challenge lies in knowing when to use a heavy attack and when to dodge, adding a strategic element to the game. As you progress, enemies and bosses become more aggressive, making it even more rewarding when you land a well-timed heavy blow to interrupt their attacks.

Your character, the Destined One, doesn’t have a typical block or parry ability like in other games such as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice or Stellar Blade. Instead, focus is on evasion. You can dodge quickly and smoothly, slipping under almost any attack. The evasion system is fast and responsive, similar to aggressive dodging in Final Fantasy XVI. The game is designed around this agility, so blocking isn’t necessary.

Even though you can’t block you do have other defensive moves. You can deflect projectiles with a staff-twirling technique which also doubles as a close-range multi-hit attack. Early in game you unlock a stone skin ability that lets you block and interrupt attacks at cost of some mana giving you a chance to counterattack. Despite these additional moves, core of combat remains focused on light attacks, heavy attacks and dodging.

Overall Black Myth: Wukong offers a combat system that is easy to pick up but has enough depth to keep it interesting and fun as you progress through game. Combination of timing, strategy and responsive controls makes each battle feel satisfying even as challenges ramp up.

Monkey Around With Magic

In Black Myth: Wukong, inspired by the supernatural elements of Journey to the West, you gain various magical abilities and transformations. These are represented by spells and transformations that add depth to the combat.

For instance: you can collect the spirits of defeated yaoguai (monsters) and transform into them during battles. This is similar to the Yokai Shift mechanic in Nioh 2. These transformations give you special attacks and can also offer stat boosts like better stamina regeneration or increased critical damage.

As you progress, you unlock a range of spells. You can equip up to four spells at a time and swap them at any shrine where you rest. One of the first spells you get is the time-stop ability, which freezes enemies and bosses for a few seconds. You also get full transformation spells that let you fight as a yaoguai for a short time, complete with unique moves and a separate health bar, adding variety to the melee combat.

Another ability you can use in combat is Vessels, which provide temporary buffs. For example, the fireproof mantle gives you immunity to burning and resistance to fire, making it very useful against the game’s first major boss.

You can enhance your abilities using a comprehensive upgrade system. Points earned from fighting enemies can be used to reduce cooldowns, increase power, or improve focus regeneration. You can also re-specialize at shrines if you want to focus on different abilities.

I found it enjoyable to have a large selection of spells, which give you a significant advantage in combat and make you feel like you have a lot of power. However, one downside is that many spells have both a cooldown and a mana cost. This can make the combat feel restrictive, as you can’t use your abilities as often as you’d like. For example, the stone skin spell, which lets you deflect attacks, has a 15-second cooldown and consumes mana. This dual limitation can be frustrating as it restricts how frequently you can use the spell in a single fight.

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Is Your PC Ready for Black Myth: Wukong?

Black Myth: Wukong uses Unreal Engine 5 and relies on AI upscaling technologies like DLSS, FSR, or TSR to maximize performance on your gaming PC. We tested the game on a PC with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, an Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU, and 16GB of RAM. Initially, the game ran smoothly at 1440p with over 70 frames per second (fps), with only occasional drops to around 50fps and minor hitching.

However, we noticed a potential memory leak issue. After playing for a long time, the game’s performance would significantly drop, even when we adjusted the settings to the lowest graphical options. Restarting the game temporarily fixed the issue.

In addition to performance issues, there were a few bugs. Occasionally, text appeared in Chinese instead of English, such as when crafting items or receiving warnings. There were also rare instances where spoken dialogue switched to Chinese and occasional audio cutouts. We hope these issues will be resolved before or shortly after the game’s official release.

As of now, Black Myth: Wukong is not verified for Steam Deck, but we will provide updates as more information becomes available.

🌟Pros	⚠️ Cons
😊 Fun and easy-to-learn combat	⏳ Mana and cooldowns can be limiting
🧙‍♂️ Variety of magic abilities	🐞 Some performance issues and bugs
🌍 Unique and interesting world	⚠️

Conclusion : A Fantasy Worth Exploring

Reimagining Journey to the West is a big challenge but developer Game Science has created an impressive game with Black Myth: Wukong. It captures magic and fantasy of the classic story while offering a fun and well-designed action RPG experience. Game is enjoyable to play and its world is exciting to explore. Despite some issues with cooldowns and occasional performance problems Black Myth: Wukong is definitely worth a look.

FAQ for Black Myth: Wukong

What is Black Myth: Wukong?
Black Myth: Wukong is action RPG inspired by classic Chinese novel Journey to West. Developed by Game Science it features mix of fantasy, mythology and supernatural elements. Game is available for PC and PS5, priced at $59.99.

What can I expect from the gameplay?
In Black Myth: Wukong, you play as Destined One a monkey warrior exploring a rich, mythical world. Game combines exploration, combat and magic. You battle supernatural creatures with melee attacks and can transform into monsters for strategic advantages.

How does the combat system work?
Combat is simple with light and heavy attacks and a dodge mechanic. You build focus with light attacks to perform powerful heavy attacks. Game emphasizes timing and strategy especially as you face tougher enemies and bosses.

What are the key features of magic in the game?
You can use various spells and transformations inspired by the novel. Collect spirits of defeated monsters to transform into them, and equip up to four spells at a time. Abilities include time-stop and transformation spells, with Vessels offering temporary buffs.

Are there any technical issues to be aware of?
The game uses Unreal Engine 5 and relies on AI upscaling technologies like DLSS, FSR, or TSR. While it runs well on most setups, some players may experience performance drops or memory leaks after extended play. There are also occasional bugs, such as text appearing in Chinese instead of English.

Can my PC run Black Myth: Wukong?
The game should perform well on a PC with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU, and 16GB of RAM. However, be aware of potential memory leak issues and bugs that might affect gameplay.

Is the game compatible with Steam Deck?
As of now, Black Myth: Wukong is not verified for Steam Deck. Keep an eye out for updates regarding compatibility.

Why is Black Myth: Wukong worth playing?
Despite minor issues, Black Myth: Wukong offers an engaging and well-designed action RPG experience. It brings the magic and fantasy of Journey to the West to life with a mix of combat, exploration and unique gameplay mechanics.