Black Myth: Wukong review

I have never read Journey to the West. While I’m a fan of Chinese mythology and imagery in general, I’ve never read any of the Four Great Novels. Like many people, I’ve seen my fair share of movies, games, and TV shows that cherry-pick ideas, concepts, and themes from Wu Cheng’en’s classical masterpiece, and so I have a vague understanding of what it’s about. Black Myth: Wukong, the new action game from indie devs GameScience, is a retelling-cum-sequel, based on characters and events from the novel but ultimately telling its own story. It assumes a little prior knowledge but takes enough liberties with the source for it not to really matter.

It’s set years after the defeat of Sun Wukong. The Monkey God has been cast down, his power distilled into six relics now sought after by a league of great evil. All that stands in their way is you, the Destined One, a descendant of Wukong who might one day become a vessel for his full and vengeful power.

Black Myth: Wukong approaches Chinese history from the same outfield as Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. There’s no place for historical accuracy or rational thought; this China is a realm of gods and monsters, magic and miracles both great and terrible. It’s an action game closer in structure to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice than any other Soulslike, but with a less punishing difficulty curve and more bosses per square inch than a mob funeral.

When I saw GameScience’s initial promise of 80 bosses I assumed many would be elevated Elite enemies, or multiple reskins a la Elden Ring. I was, very happily, wrong. And while I’m not throwing shade at From Software’s open-world paragon there, frankly Black Myth: Wukong takes more or less every other game of its type to school where enemy and boss design are concerned.

Of course, small caveat, there are some repeated encounters here and there. A few bosses pop up several times each due to story reasons, and there are a few that are very close in aesthetic design, but by and large, every boss you meet is unique (the ones that do repeat have different movesets, for a start), and there are no re-coloured grunt enemies popping up with different elemental attacks or what-have-you. The main thing this achieves is to make Black Myth: Wukong a very difficult game to get bored or frustrated with.

Enemy placement is exceptionally well thought-out, never falling into the same pitfalls that last year’s Lords of the Fallen did. Death is a constant threat, but most deaths come from your own mistakes, not because the game decided to funnel you into a room with ten enemies and two elites for a laugh. Bosses are manageable for the most part, but now and then you’ll slam into a wall that takes multiple attempts. These never seem to be consecutive, though, and Game Science will often follow a tough challenge with several more chewable ones to re-establish momentum. It’s not without its share of gauntlet runs, but they’re well-spread.

Before we go any further I think it’s worth a few words to explain exactly what Wukong is and isn’t. For a start, it’s not really a Soulslike. It looks like one, sure, and moves like one at times. Enemies respawn when you rest, fast travel, or resurrect at a Keeper’s Shrine, and there are multiple gruelling boss fights. The item system is obtuse, and you’ll constantly be picking things up for which you’ll have no use for hours. But there’s also no currency lost or dropped on death, and, crucially, no block or parry.

Combat is stamina-based, but it’s all about dodging and counter-attacking. The Destined One is lightning fast, able to utilise three different stances with his staff, each of which has its own skill tree. The onus is on knowing the enemy, dodging at the exact moment, and punishing their failure. Combat is a bullet-quick ballet, and you’re equipped with a multitude of spells and abilities that you’ll need to find and unlock.

The first spell you’ll learn is Immobilise, which will serve you like a comfortable pair of slippers for the first fifteen hours or so. It quite literally freezes enemies for five to ten seconds, allowing you to hammer them mercilessly – or crowd-control them while you deal with their allies. Rock Solid lets you deflect any damage, while Red Tides is a transformation spell that grants you devastating fire attacks.

Spells, Transformations, Abilities, and Strands occupy specific slots in the quick menu, meaning you can only ever equip one of each. This, coupled with long cooldowns, stops you spamming them, but they come in very handy in a pinch. Later, more and more bosses will become resilient to them, even calling you out with unique dialogue for trying the same spell twice in a fight. All four of these archetypes also have their own skill trees, which branch as you learn more spells and abilities. I hadn’t expected build-crafting, but it’s possible, as you unlock new armour and weapons with different stats and effects, and learn to brew potions or modify your healing Gourd. More than once a tough boss necessitated a respec (which is free at Shrines) and a change of tack.

To say too much would be spoiling the depth and intricacy of Black Myth: Wukong’s gear system. Even the Gourd can be altrered, filled with different drinks and effects like Elden Ring’s Estus Flask. You can also collect and harness the Spirits of certain enemies to call upon in combat, which deal damage or bestow buffs, and there are Monster Hunter World-type “mantles” that negate elemental damage. There’s variety everywhere in Black Myth: Wukong, and you’ll need to learn how best to utilise all of it if you’re to make it through the gauntlet of bosses.

The level design combines elements from Sekiro and Nioh 2. The narrative has a chapter-by-chapter structure, though you can fast-travel back and forth between areas once a chapter is done. Certain NPCs and events will move through chapters with you, while some will be lost forever if you don’t resolve them before moving on. There’s no warning about this, either, so it’s worth exploring each area thoroughly. There are hidden paths, secret treasures, and optional bosses everywhere. If it looks like an area might house a secret, check it out without exception.

Rendered with the Unreal 5 Engine, Black Myth: Wukong is replete with stunning environments and bombastic cutscenes. Playing with an RTX 2060 8GB graphics card and AMD Ryzen 5 3600 X (hardly cutting-edge technology), I was able to run Black Myth in 4K with settings on “high”, and I experienced very few stutters outside of cutscene transitions. I had no slowdown or lag while playing the game, even during boss fights. Considering how fast and responsive the game is, that’s impressive.

The overall narrative of Black Myth takes a little while to get going, but once it does it becomes pretty easy to follow and know who to root for. It doesn’t tell a particularly new tale, or even an old one in new ways – it’s a pretty straightforward Macguffin hunt that takes you through a variety of biomes, with a different NPC guide each chapter, who often bestow short-lived or even one-use abilities upon you – like being able to transform into another creature to scout ahead. It’s a really cool idea but is used just a few times, so never becomes stale or tiresome.

I fail to find any real complaints for Black Myth: Wukong besides some occasional frame drops and a couple of bosses that feel like total difficulty spikes. Or maybe they’re just skill-checks and I’m lacking. Above all, combat in Wukong requires patience and calm, two things I’m rarely able to muster while gaming. But however you play, Black Myth: Wukong is a fantastic video game – and a staggering achievement from an indie studio. Like Lies of P last year and Nioh 2 before it, Black Myth: Wukong is a sterling example of how to take Soulslike elements and weave them into something that feels fresh and original. It’s gorgeous to look at, has some of the best music in any game this year so far, and presents itself with such confidence and panache that it’s hard to pick fault with it.

You might argue that GameScience is just putting new gems in old jewellery, but it simply doesn’t matter. When the level of quality is this consistently high, no one need ask for more. A flurry of sublime combat, intuitive level building, and expert boss design, Black Myth: Wukong is, hands-down, one of this year’s best action games.