Black Myth Wukong Review

Black Myth Wukong review In our article, we take a closer look at the game, which is a retelling of the classic Chinese tale Journey to the West, developed by China-based GameScience. The story of the Monkey King, which tries to take its place among Souls-like games, is a structure that will satisfy you if you are a fan of the genre. However, considering the difficulty of games in the Souls genre, we can safely say that it is the easiest to date.

Black Myth Wukong Review/PC

As always, I prefer to start the review with the story of the game. Because you can easily understand why a game with such a deep story has such a low score. Our story begins with a magical rock infused with the essence of heaven and earth, the balance of yin and yang. After a thousand years, the rock cracks and gives birth to a fully-grown Monkey. This monkey proves his courage by joining another group of his kind and becomes the king of his clan. As he grows older, the Monkey King, like other creatures, begins to fear death and embarks on a journey to seek the secrets of immortality.

Black Myth Wukong Review

His travels lead him to become a disciple of the immortal sage Puti Zushi, where he is given the name Sun Wukong, meaning “monkey awakened from the void.” With training, he develops magical abilities such as the ability to transform into a potentially infinite number of creatures, create clones of himself, or Cloud Flip.

As Wukong grows stronger, he falls victim to his hubris and abandons his master’s teachings. You might think he would fall as a result, but instead he seizes the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, his broken magic staff that can change size, multiply, and fight at will.

Black Myth Wukong Review

Having learned powerful magic and obtained a divine weapon, Wukong finds himself still incredibly dissatisfied, feeling like a divine outcast for not having a place in heaven, despite being arguably one of the most powerful beings in existence. The heavenly ones, in all their wisdom, attempt to appease Wukong and give him a lowly position as a literal stable boy, making him feel even more humiliated.

However, Wukong, who finally achieved the immortality he desired, now has immense power and attacks Heaven. Then the unexpected happens and the only being of peace and understanding, Buddha, says “enough.” Wukong’s rebellion is decisively ended by Buddha, who literally drops a mountain on his head and imprisons him for 500 years. This gives Sun Wukong ample time to reflect on his actions. This makes him realize that true power lies not in brute force but in enlightenment.

As a condition of his release, he offers to become the bodyguard of the monk Tang Sanzang, along with other sinners, accompany him on his Journey to the West, and embark on the path of enlightenment.

Black Myth Wukong Review

Now it’s time to take control and play as the Destined One, an ape armed with our deadly staff and the powers of the Monkey King.

We start Black Myth Wukong by fighting the Heavenly Ones. Here you can see all the powers they have and how they affect us. But of course, we should not forget that once we pass this introduction and are trapped in stone, all of this will be taken away from us.

Gameplay

When you start the game in real terms, you will first encounter easy-to-beat opponents. We have two different attack techniques that we can use while fighting, light and heavy, and a roll chance for escape. As long as you have stamina, you can use them easily. However, when it runs out, things will get a little harder for you. Because you become weak, it becomes difficult to move, and you definitely need to rest a little bit to increase your stamina or resort to your potions.

Black Myth Wukong Review

Black Myth: Wukong’s early fights can sometimes feel limited due to an incomplete tutorial, as not all of the game’s mechanics are adequately explained. In addition, the skill tree doesn’t offer many interesting options at first. However, after a few hours, the game begins to reveal its unique mechanics in more depth. For example, spells such as freezing enemies or summoning clones can completely change the flow of combat. However, a solid transformation system makes Black Myth: Wukong one of the features that sets it apart from other RPGs. In addition, the minibosses you encounter can be treated as elements offered to diversify your fighting strategy.

Another thing to consider during battle is your focus points. You can accumulate focus points with light attacks and use them for your combos and special powers. Of course, this is only valid for the early game. As you progress, you will gain strength with special moves and even transformations that make battles easier. These are of course fed by mana. But what happens when you run out of mana? You need to fill it up by praying or making offerings at the temples around you as you progress.

Black Myth Wukong Review

Wukong, which has a structure that has similar features to the souls genre games so far, also has the RPG elements of leveling up by collecting sparks. When enough are collected, you move on to the next level, which unlocks new abilities and skills. But remember that when you die, you lose some of your progress points.

Don’t be afraid to die, because you have the chance to level up by killing the creatures you just killed again. When I came across a really tough boss in the first section, I saw that he took me down with his first hit. It wouldn’t be a lie if I said that it became a bit of a habit when I saw my level increase by going back to the beginning again and killing the enemies I had killed on the way.

Black Myth Wukong Review

So I would have to die many times to defeat the main boss at the end of the level. However, I had died and progressed so many times before reaching him that I was very surprised to take him down on the first try. Apparently, the main mechanic of the game is based on dying and evolving. In this way, I could progress more easily. This turns the game into a very repetitive structure.

Besides all this, there are invisible obstacles that appear as you progress and tell you that your path is in a different direction. It’s not very fun.

Graphics

Every place you wander around offers a different view. Just looking around is very enjoyable. However, after a while you will realize that it repeats itself. Also, there is definitely an optimization problem. Even with the RTX 4070 graphics card, I felt lags a lot. Moreover, even though I lowered the settings. Sometimes the textures loaded slowly. Also, although the environments generally offer beautiful views, they are empty. There is only one flower to collect in the middle of a huge stage. After advancing a little, an altar comes. After advancing a little, an enemy. It generally progresses like this.

Black Myth Wukong Review

Sometimes it was between 50-60 FPS, while in some fights this value dropped to 20 FPS. Especially when there were fiery explosions in bosses, I suddenly found myself lying on the ground. It was definitely annoying. However, I suspected that this situation could be related to the computer I was using and looked at other reviews. In general, there were people who encountered similar problems. For that reason, I continue to think that the optimization is not good. There is no patch for this issue yet.

Even though what I mentioned above may seem bad, it is still a production with a high level of playability. I think especially those who love the God of War series should take a look at this game. Although they are completely different worlds, they have many similarities.

Black Myth Wukong Review

Black Myth: Wukong aims to present the classic story of Journey to the West in a more understandable and interactive way. The cutscenes in each section of the game are great, but the traditional and mythological elements are sometimes presented in long texts. The visual quality and boss variety are among the strongest aspects of the game. Therefore, players looking for impressive boss fights will definitely be satisfied. It may take some patience to find the rhythm of Black Myth: Wukong.

Black Myth Wukong Review