Black Myth: Wukong, Game of the Year? It may well just be.
Black Myth: Wukong has become one of the most anticipated games this summer. After a few years of development and attention, it’s a blessing to be alive for it to finally make its way into the scene. Therefore, we must give a huge thank you to Game Science, the Chinese developer and publisher of the game. But how good is this game, exactly? Well, that’s why you’re here, and that’s what we’ll discuss.
Before we start, you need to know that Black Myth: Wukong is not a souls-like title but an action RPG like Rise of the Rōnin. Albeit, it does have some souls elements, which you may have seen from gameplay videos. For example, there are no difficulty settings, so there must’ve been some confusion about the game’s genre. Instead, it’s an action role-playing game that stars a monkey that gets involved in a lot of fun and non-stop action.
Literally, the action starts from the very beginning of the game. Not to spoil things for you, but it must be said – the intro boss battle is absolute cinema. They combined and transitioned the cutscenes and gameplay during the first boss battle, which is insanity. I mean that in a good way, of course. The intense thrill you get from But we’ll get on to the cutscenes and gameplay. This is an example that other AAA titles should follow. Keep in mind that this is Games Science’s first title on a console.
Black Myth: Wukong is rooted in ancient Chinese Mythology and is strongly based on the journey of the West, which is one of the Four Great Classical Movements of Chinese Literature. You’re chosen as the destined one and explore the many challenges and obstacles ahead. Plus, you must unravel the obscure secrets of a legend from the past.
Spanning over six massive chapters, including multiple endings, and seeing as you’re the destined one, you’re to retrieve lost relics. You can also discover the background of several characters you interact with, including the enemies, where you’ll hopefully understand their origins. Black Myth: Wukong also takes pride in bringing authentic and culturally historic landmarks into the game’s setting.
Suppose you’ve been to or even heard of stunning landmarks like the Iron Buddha Temple, the Stork Tower, the South Chan Templar, and many more. In that case, you’ll be glad to know that they’re all available in the game to explore, as well as engage in some breathtaking battles against foes – all of which have their own unique strengths, as well as weaknesses, which of course you’ll have to find out for yourself during the battles.
And speaking of battles, in Black Myth: Wukong, you’ll end up in one almost anywhere you travel that features incredible combat. Because you get to play Black Myth: Wukong with a range of staff techniques, enjoy a mixture of enough abilities, weapons, magic spells, and equipment, and arrange them all to fit with your play style to take down your enemies more effectively.
Like virtually all games of this genre, you’re able to execute light attacks, which can build up focus, which is a feature that can be spent on highly powerful heavy attacks or even varied attacks. Speaking of those, if you were to use the heavy attack, it would be charged to be able to use overpowered attacks.
However, this kind of attack needs to be addressed, as it seems to be buggy. I cannot use this attack sometimes, which has little effect on my battles. As for the varied attacks, they’ll become activated whenever you perform light attacks followed by heavy attacks.
However, one of the things that gives the battles in Black Myth: Wukong their spark is the ability to use spells, and there are many of them in this game. However, there are a few of them that are my personal favorites. One is the immobilize spell. This mysticism spell allows you to temporarily freeze enemies in place, leaving them totally vulnerable at that moment.
But keep in mind that the stronger enemies, including the bosses, will break out of the spell sooner. So it’s best to either attack the moment you’ve activated the spell or, even better, use it when the stronger enemies are staggered, fatigued, or downed. Also, you’re only able to use it against one enemy at a time, particularly the one you’re either focused on or the nearest to. So, one enemy is frozen, while the spell doesn’t affect the others.
The other spell is the Hoarfrost. This transformation spell turns you into a monk from the sea, weaves strike with a blizzard’s grace, and launches attacks that will inflict Frost Bane.
And then there’s the pluck of many spells. This strand spell enables swarming duplicates of yourself, which attacks enemies at will, whether you’re attacking them or not. This spell usually causes more damage much quicker against the enemy, and you can also take a breather and wait for other spells to finish their cooldown period and so on.
And speaking of cool down, as usual, you’d have to use these spells accordingly, as they each have their own cooldown times and recharge after each use. The last thing you want is to use a spell as you’re nearing the end of a boss fight, but you can’t use them because they’re not ready yet. The silver lining is that these spells are upgradable.
This goes without saying, but Black Myth: Wukong’s visuals are remarkable, and the designs are impeccable. This gets even better when you’re playing on the 4K as I’m playing on the PlayStation 5. However, the frames seem to struggle occasionally in 60fps, which is a little worrying; plus, there is blurriness in some instances.
Despite enjoying the experience, these games are expected to have boss battles, and they can be exciting, and a lot of them were beautifully designed; but when you realize that in Black Myth: Wukong, you somehow manage to get yourself into a boss fight after boss fight after boss fight, it can be very exhausting.
You’re not really able to catch a breather, which can put off many players from continuing – especially when most of them are quite difficult. To make things worse, you’re forced to fight optional boss fights if you’re unlucky enough to stumble across one – although some are pretty fun. However, like they say, less is more.
Moreover, although the combat is gratifying, as you progress through the game, you have the sense that there isn’t a lot of depth to it. Don’t get me wrong, it has a great selection of abilities, weapons, and spells, but it wouldn’t hurt to add more of those, as mentioned earlier, and bring out much more of the already awesome combat.
Black Myth: Wukong is, without a doubt, worth buying. It has an incredible story, along with fantastic combat and beautiful locations and designs, despite the issues of the frames. But they should’ve simmered down on the number of boss fights. Game of the Year 2024? Sure – there’s enough to this to make it into the conversation.
