Black Myth: Wukong, from chinese game developer Game Science first teased the game back in February of 2020 with ambitious looking graphics depicting detailed creatures from chinese lore, mainly depicting the epic Journey to the West. Game Science had previously made mobile titles so this is their first foray into the triple A gaming space. Black Myth: Wukong released on August 20th of this year.
It’s So Detailed It Should Be Studied
All of the creatures depicted and showcased looked so beautiful right down to the last strand of hair. The varied environments look authentic and lived in, Jungles looking lush with canopies, vines and muddy terrains, all of which surround buildings and houses from the 16th century era. The lighting and shadows cast make the world feel so natural and no doubt adds to the immersiveness of the experience.
Sun Wukong and his various outfits along with the various mob enemies and bosses have this feature of the more you look at it the more you start to notice the intricacy and love that went into making them.
The Combat, It’s Not A Soulslike
There were lots of sayings about how this is going to be a soulslike but it is not, while it does borrow some mechanics it’s more focused on a narrative driven experience. That’s not to say the combat system isn’t fun, it mainly revolves around dodging at the right moments and counter attacking. The player will have access to Heavy and Light attacks along with the dodge, dodging and landing hits will increase the player’s ‘focus points’ which when they reach a certain threshold allow Sun Wukong to execute special attacks that can stun enemies for uninterrupted attacks and/or give passive bonuses.
Sun wukong also has access to different stances which change his moveset minimally but mostly matter with the special attack that the focus points grant. The different stances give sun wukong the ability to execute different special attacks giving the player choice on what to do amidst combat. What is an issue is that there isn’t any proper explanation or tutorial on what stance special attack to use when. Most of the time, the stances are acquired but then it’s completely up to the player to understand when to use them.
Sun Wukong will also have an array of magic spells to use, most of them will be more geared towards being passive skills rather than offensive ones, they can deplete focus a lot thus requiring the player to think twice before using any spell.
Those Looking For A Challenge Won’t Be Disappointed
What this game doesn’t lack at all is in the number of bosses and all of them being completely different from one another in terms of difficulty, move sets and their special abilities. Each chapter will have a final boss at the end but leading up to them along with standard mobs there will also be mini bosses, each chapter can have multiple mini bosses that the player has to fight through before being able to reach the final boss of that chapter.
Their varied movesets and weapons never fail to give a challenge and with the combat system being simple but fun allows for the player to check his or her mastery of sun wukong’s combat abilities.
It Is What People Said It Would Be But Its That And So Much More
People were saying from the trailers released that all of it is a graphical showcase, something to hype up the crowd but it won’t actually look like that. They have been proven wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt, the game looks as marketed, Game Science have really outdone themselves in making this game, but it is not without its flaws. The game does suffer from the day one issues that almost all triple A titles do these days, stutters, framerate drops and crashes all of which can be addressed with a few software patches. Another issue is that the story elements don’t do enough to capture the player’s attention, some of the scenes feel distant and as if some prior context is needed to understand.
This overall is an extremely good looking, engaging and fun game. The technical issues can be solved with some patches and while the story may not have been portrayed perfectly, it still passionately adheres to its inspiration in other areas from Journey to the West.
