Black Myth: Wukong PC Review

Summary

In the review of 'Black Myth: Wukong,' Mitchell Saltzman expresses a mix of awe and frustration. The game impresses with its ambitious action, stunning visuals, and challenging yet satisfying combat, rooted in rich Chinese culture. However, technical issues like crashes, audio mishaps, and localization problems mar the experience. Despite these, the game's strengths, including its unique setting and engaging boss fights, make it a remarkable debut from Game Science, with the potential to be even greater once bugs are addressed.

Takeaways

• 🎮 Black Myth: Wukong is an ambitious action game with stunning visuals and challenging combat.
• 🐒 The game features a unique setting rooted in Chinese culture, following the journey of Sun Wukong.
• 🛠️ Despite high-quality graphics, the game suffers from technical issues like crashes and audio problems.
• 🔧 The reviewer experienced several crashes, including one after defeating a tough boss, requiring a redo.
• 🎭 The game's story is rich but assumes prior knowledge of 'Journey to the West', which may leave some players confused.
• 🤺 Combat is a blend of fast reflexes and resource management, with a focus meter and various spells adding depth.
• 🧙‍♂️ Transformations into powerful creatures and the use of Spirit skills add variety to combat and character progression.
• 🏞️ The game world is detailed and beautiful, but the lack of a map can make exploration cumbersome.
• 🔍 Exploration is rewarded with rare items, secret boss fights, and environmental secrets, encouraging thorough play.
• 🌐 Localization issues include dialogue switching between English and Chinese, and untranslated journal entries.

Q & A

What is the main issue the reviewer faced with the game 'Black Myth Wukong'?

The reviewer faced numerous technical issues such as game crashes, falling through the ground, and dialogue audio dropping out, which affected the overall experience.

What is the reviewer's opinion on the game's graphics and animations?

The reviewer is highly impressed with the game's graphics and animations, describing them as stunningly gorgeous and impeccable.

How does the reviewer describe the combat system in 'Black Myth Wukong'?

The reviewer finds the combat system to be fantastic, with a great balance of careful resource management and lightning-fast twitch reaction gameplay.

What are the unique features of the boss fights in the game?

The boss fights are unique due to the stunningly gorgeous animated vignettes that tell short stories about each chapter's main antagonist, each done in a different art style.

What is the game's setting and how does it relate to Chinese culture?

The game's setting is refreshingly unique and steeped in rich Chinese culture, with the story being somewhat of a follow-up to the classic novel 'Journey to the West' by Wu Cheng'en.

What are the reviewer's thoughts on the game's difficulty level?

The reviewer finds the game to be challenging but satisfying to overcome, with difficulty levels comparable to 'Elden Ring' and 'Shadow of the Colossus'.

What are the 'Spirit skills' mentioned in the review and how do they work?

Spirit skills are abilities earned by defeating certain powerful enemies and absorbing their essence. They are effectively one-time use transformations with their own cooldowns and can be leveled up for increased effectiveness.

How does the reviewer feel about the game's localization and language switching?

The reviewer experienced issues with localization, such as characters switching languages unexpectedly and journal entries not being fully translated into English.

What are the exploration elements in 'Black Myth Wukong'?

The game offers a wide linear level design with opportunities to explore for optional goodies, including rare crafting materials, special enemies, curio items, and treasure chests that can permanently increase player stats.

What is the reviewer's suggestion for improving the exploration experience?

The reviewer suggests that the game would benefit from a map to help with navigation, as the lands are large and filled with secrets.

Outlines

00:00

🐒 Introduction to Black Myth: Wukong Review

Mitchell Saltzman introduces his review of 'Black Myth: Wukong,' noting the embargo restrictions that prevent him from showing gameplay beyond chapter 2. Despite this, he highlights the game's technical issues that occur after chapter 2, which he will address in a more comprehensive review on launch day. He expresses a mix of awe and frustration with the game, praising its ambitious and impressive action gameplay, stunning visuals, challenging yet satisfying combat, and unique setting rooted in Chinese culture. However, he also points out numerous technical issues such as crashes, falling through the game world, and audio problems during cutscenes.

05:05

🔥 In-Depth Analysis of Combat and Abilities

The second paragraph delves into the combat mechanics of 'Black Myth: Wukong,' describing it as a blend of twitch reflex gameplay and resource management centered around a focus meter. Players gain focus points to enhance attacks or use heavy strikes. Additionally, there are spells governed by a Mana meter, each with versatile uses in combat. Transformations allow the player to take on the abilities of defeated bosses, and Spirit skills provide powerful one-off attacks. The paragraph emphasizes the satisfaction of mastering these mechanics and the strategic depth they offer, as well as the game's beautiful and detailed environments and the challenges of managing resources like Mana.

10:05

🌏 Exploration, Technical Issues, and Localization Concerns

The final paragraph discusses the game's exploration aspects, noting the lack of a map and the difficulty in navigating large, secret-filled environments. It also addresses technical issues such as game crashes, audio and subtitle dropouts during cutscenes, and localization problems where characters switch languages unexpectedly. The reviewer expresses hope that these issues will be resolved post-launch, as they detract from an otherwise fantastic game. The paragraph concludes with an overall positive view of the game, emphasizing its great combat, boss battles, enemy variety, and visually stunning world, despite the noted frustrations.

Keywords

💡Black Myth Wukong

Black Myth Wukong is an action-adventure game developed by Game Science. The title refers to the game's central character, Sun Wukong, a figure from Chinese mythology. The game is noted for its ambitious scope, combining stunning visuals with challenging gameplay. In the script, the reviewer discusses the game's technical issues and its potential, highlighting it as a significant entry in the action game genre.

💡Embargo agreement

An embargo agreement is a restriction set by the publisher or developer that prevents reviewers from sharing certain content, such as footage or details, before a specified date. In the script, the reviewer mentions being bound by an embargo agreement, which limits the footage they can show of Black Myth Wukong, specifically noting that they can only show up to chapter 2.

💡Technical issues

Technical issues refer to problems encountered in the game's performance, such as crashes, bugs, or glitches. The script mentions several technical issues the reviewer faced, including game crashes and falling through the game world, which detracted from the overall experience but are hoped to be resolved post-launch.

💡Resource management

Resource management in gaming refers to the strategic use of in-game resources such as health, stamina, or special abilities. The script describes how Black Myth Wukong requires players to balance the use of a focus meter and mana, which are resources tied to combat actions and spells, respectively. This adds a layer of strategy to the game's combat system.

💡Combat mechanics

Combat mechanics are the rules and systems that govern how characters fight in a game. The script praises the combat in Black Myth Wukong for being simple yet elegant, with a focus on both reflexes and resource management. It contrasts the game's mechanics with those of 'Souls-like' games, highlighting its more traditional action game approach.

💡Transformations

Transformations in Black Myth Wukong allow the player to morph into powerful creatures they've defeated in battle, each with unique abilities. The script describes these as a cool feature that adds variety to the gameplay, as players can take on different forms with distinct move sets and special moves.

💡Spirit skills

Spirit skills are special abilities in Black Myth Wukong that are earned by defeating certain enemies and absorbing their essence. The script mentions that these skills can be used for powerful one-time attacks and can be leveled up, adding depth to the game's combat strategy.

💡Localization

Localization refers to the process of adapting a game for different languages and cultures. The script points out issues with localization in Black Myth Wukong, such as characters switching languages unexpectedly and journal entries not being fully translated into English, which can disrupt the player's immersion and understanding of the game's story.

💡Boss fights

Boss fights are challenging encounters with powerful enemies at the end of a level or section in a game. The script praises the boss fights in Black Myth Wukong for their variety and the satisfaction of overcoming them, noting that they are a highlight of the game's combat experience.

💡Exploration

Exploration in gaming refers to the act of discovering new areas, items, or secrets within a game world. The script discusses the exploration aspect of Black Myth Wukong, noting the rewards for venturing off the main path, such as rare materials and secret boss fights. However, it also mentions the lack of a map as a drawback to navigation.

Highlights

Black Myth Wukong is an ambitious and impressive action game with stunning visuals and challenging combat.

The game suffers from technical issues such as crashes and audio problems, which can be frustrating.

Despite technical issues, the game's unique setting and rich Chinese culture are refreshing.

The story is a follow-up to the classic novel 'Journey to the West' and is laden with references.

The protagonist is a mute monkey on a 40-hour journey to locate relics of Wukong.

Each chapter ends with a beautifully animated vignette told in a unique art style.

The game is compared to Souls-like games but has more in common with traditional action games.

Combat is simple and elegant, focusing on a balance of reflexes and resource management.

The focus meter system allows for varied combos and powerful strikes.

Spells and Mana management are integral to combat strategy.

Transformations allow the player to morph into powerful creatures with unique move sets.

Spirit skills are one-time use abilities that can be leveled up for increased effectiveness.

Boss battles are a highlight, offering satisfying challenges and strategic depth.

The game world is rich with detail and offers rewards for exploration, such as crafting materials and special items.

The game's level design is linear with opportunities for exploration and discovery.

The game's visual and audio design are impeccable, with detailed environments and epic music.

The game lacks a map, which can make navigation and exploration cumbersome.

Localization issues, such as unsynced lip flaps and untranslated journal entries, detract from the experience.

The game's potential is hindered by technical problems that are hoped to be addressed post-launch.

Despite its flaws, Black Myth Wukong is a great action game with the potential to be even greater with fixes.

Transcripts

hey y' Mitchell Saltzman here I'm the

reviewer of black myth Wukong and just a

quick note about this review as part of

the Embargo agreement set for this game

I am unable to show you footage Beyond

chapter 2 which presents a bit of a

problem because a lot of the technical

issues that I have with this game that I

specifically call out in this review

occurred after chapter 2 so I'm unable

to actually show them so we're going to

do two different video reviews this time

this first one will abide by their

restrictions and only show footage from

the first two chapters but we will also

be posting a more complete review with

the relevant footage added in on launch

day and with that on with the review for

black myth

Wukong I've never been so utterly blown

away yet simultaneously so unbelievably

frustrated by a game as I have been with

black myth Wukong this is undoubtedly

one of the most ambitious and impressive

action games I've played it's stunningly

gorgeous its combat is fantastic

it's incredibly challenging but always

satisfying to overcome and the setting

is refreshingly unique and steeped en

Rich Chinese

culture despite all of that it often

feels like it's barely holding it all

together I suffered numerous crashes

despite having a top-of-the-line set up

with a gForce RTX 490 not to mention the

multiple times I fell through the ground

and died in the Final Phase of a boss

fight or the way characters would

randomly switch from English to Chinese

or the way the dialogue audio would just

drop out all together and leave me

completely in the dark during an

important cut scene it's a rickety

roller coaster for sure and there were

definitely spots during the ride where I

was not having a great time but taken as

a whole this is one Adventure where the

bumps are worth it

black myth Wukong story is somewhat of a

followup to the classic novel Journey to

the West by Wu changen a book that I

only personally know thanks to very

loose adaptations like Dragon Ball and

enslaved Odyssey to the West that

surface level familiarity didn't help

much though as the interpretation that

the developers at game science have

crafted here is Laden with references to

characters and events from the novel

without doing a great job of bringing

you up to speed on who Sun Wukong is or

what he encountered on his titular

journey I had to look online to

understand who zuu baj was what his

history with Wukong is and what the

significance of certain encounters were

because otherwise I'd have been

completely lost at times you play as the

destined one a literal monkey who wakes

up one morning and decides to set out on

a roughly 40-hour journey to locate the

six relics of Wukong while the momentto

moment storytelling is fairly

unremarkable largely due to a mute

protagonist and Side characters that

aren't given enough screen time to

develop each of the six self-contained

chapters culminates with the stunningly

gorgeous animated vignette that tells a

short story about that chapter's main

antagonist each one is done in a

completely different art style with one

drawn to look like a story book another

using stop motion animation and another

done in the style of an anime every

single one of them is beautiful and

poignant and I couldn't help but wish

that the main story managed to move me

in similar

ways my initial read on Wukong was that

it was a soulslike given the checkpoint

system the stamina bar that governs your

actions in combat and the Dodge heavy

fighting style but as it turns out

Wukong has more in common with

traditional action games like what you

might expect from bayonet developer

Platinum Games than it does with

anything that from software has made

most of the usual Souls like conventions

are missing there's no penalty for death

outside of respawning at the nearest

checkpoint you don't use a shared

currency to level up your stats and

purchase items or upgrades and while

there is gear and stats to consider you

largely just go and swap out the old

equipment with the new as opposed to

making choices as to what kind of weapon

or piece of armor you want to hold on to

an upgrade and even though I am a big

fan of souls likes ditching those

mechanics feels like the right move for

the game that Wukong is trying to be

it's far more forgiving focused on

keeping you in the action rather than

pouring over menus or retracing your

steps to regain your lost currency after

dying and Wukong is a better more

distinctive game for it to be clear

though when I say it's more forgiving I

don't mean that it's any less difficult

than a from Style game in fact I'd go so

so far as to say that between this and

Elden ring shadow of the air tree I had

more difficulty getting through wukong's

toughest

challenges unit as I deemed but at the

same time those challenges never felt

unfair and overcoming some of the

tougher boss fights was always a

satisfying combination of learning their

attack patterns figuring out where I

could maximize My Punishment windows and

tweaking my load out in ways that made

the best use of My Chosen powers

combat in black myth Wukong is simple

and elegant thanks in part to some tools

that are really fun to play around with

success hinges on a delicate balance of

twitch reflex style gameplay mixed with

careful Resource Management that largely

revolves around a focus meter which

builds up when you land hits and

perfectly Dodge enemy

attacks you gain a focus Point whenever

that meter fills up which you could then

spend in the middle of a light attack

combo for a varied combo or you can just

use a heavy attack on its own for a

powerful strike that can be charged even

further if two three or even four Focus

points are consumed all at

once you also have access to a small

handful of spells governed by a Mana

meter that are versatile enough to be

useful in a wide array of situations the

immobilized spell for instance freezes

enemies for a short time allowing you to

get in some quick hits and potentially

stagger them to allow for even more free

damage Cloud step turns you into

invisible and creates a Decoy for your

enemies to focus on while you break away

heal up and then hit your foe with a

surprise attack that can crit Rock Solid

briefly turns you into a statue that

will cause an enemy's attack to bounce

right off of you giving you an

opportunity for a Counterattack Ring of

Fire creates a barrier around you that

will initially repel enemies and Grant

you some Health Restoration along with

enhancing any stat altering drinks that

you may use while standing inside of it

and finally there's my personal favorite

a pluck of many which lets you make

multiple clones of yourself to all gang

up an enemy at once

separate from that you've also got

Transformations which allow you to morph

into powerful creatures that you've

already bested in battle what's really

cool about these is that they don't cost

any Mana they're tied to a very lengthy

cooldown instead and they turn you into

a totally different character complete

with an all new move set special moves

that use their own Focus meter and more

for example one of the first bosses that

you fight is a wolf with a fiery dual

blade that has a lightning f Dash attack

when you defeat him you'll gain his

transformation and be able to do that

very same Dash attack to your enemies

and once you build up its focus meter

you'll even be able to do a hugely

powerful leaping strike that can ignite

foes and deal damage over time to them

and then finally there are Spirit skills

which are earned by defeating certain

more powerful versions of enemies and

absorbing their Essence into your gourd

these are effectively Transformations

that only last for one attack and are

also tied to a fairly lengthy cooldown

but it's great to be able to for example

use the wandering White's powerful

headbutt

attack to get an extra stagger after

immobilizing an enemy these Spirit

skills can also be leveled up which

makes it so that even the early game

Spirits never lose their strength as the

campaign rolls on it's an excellent

blend of options especially when mixed

with some truly incredible boss fights

and Wukong introduces all these elements

at thoughtfully measured pace so I never

felt overwhelmed make no mistake the

destined one is extremely powerful

[Music]

and being in control of him is

definitely a heck of a Power Trip even

beyond the many powers and abilities he

has at his disposal nothing beats the

feeling of just slamming a 50-ft bow

staff down onto an enemy's

head but I still had to be smart with

how I used my spells due to the fact

that Mana restoration is actually very

difficult this is where the resource

management aspect of combat comes into

play I had to carefully consider what

spells were actually worth the Mana cost

whether I should save them for a more

difficult second phase of a fight and

whether or not I could capitalize on the

opportunity if I were to spend the Mana

in the first place for instance even

though it's my most powerful spell I

often had to hold off on casting my

pluck of many spell that duplicates my

character since it has an extremely high

Mana cost if I cast it at a bad time the

boss could simply wipe out all of my

clones with an AOE attack before they

even got a chance to get some damage in

sometimes the adjustment I had to make

when I was stuck on a boss was a simple

change in how I use my abilities and the

the act of coming up with a new strategy

and having it pay off was always

extremely

satisfying while boss battles are where

Wukong is at its best there's also a

highly respectable amount of enemy

Variety in its regular fights level

design is of the wide linear variety

usually with a clear main path that

leads from checkpoint to checkpoint but

plenty of opportunities to venture off

that path to discover optional goodies

the rewards for exploration are great

too I found rare crafting materials to

make new weapons and armor special

enemies that drop the new spirit skill

curio items that could Equip to enhance

my build and treasure chests that might

permanently increase my Max Health Mana

or stamina all of which made the time

that I took to find them well spent on

top of that there are also several

secret boss fights to discover key items

with mysterious uses that I still

haven't figured out and plenty of more

reasons to stray from the beaten path

and keep an eye constantly scanning the

environment the main one being that

Wukong is one of the most gorgeous games

I've ever played every environment is

brimming with detail from the chip

pieces of bark on the trees in the

forest to the real-time deformation of

the snow as the destined one moves

through it while dragging his staff

along not only that but the animation is

impeccable too with wonderful touches

and flourishes like the way your

character will do a little hop step when

locked onto an enemy then change to

strafing around them as opposed to just

running straight on while keeping their

head turned the music and sound design

is fantastic as well with epic drum

thumping battle

themes and melodic flutes and Chimes

adding to the air of Wonder and mystery

as you explore the

[Music]

unknown all that said this game really

would have benefited from a map plain

and simple the lands you explore in

Wukong are beautiful no doubt but

they're far too big and too crammed with

secrets to not give you some sort of

navigational help especially the second

and third chapters this along with the

fact that it's aggravatingly hard to

tell what obstacles can actually be

climbed over and what's an invisible

wall can make exploration quite

cumbersome it's a good thing that the

rewards are worth

[Music]

it however it's hard not to feel like

all vuk Kong's Splender and detail came

at a great cost I experienced numerous

crashes with one particular Heartbreaker

happening right after defeating an

extremely tough boss that I then had to

defeat again several others were more

minor and would typically happen as I

was loading up a new chapter or fast

traveling to another level but they

eventually add up to a lot of

frustration in addition to that several

times during important cutcenes all

dialogue audio and subtitles would drop

out completely leaving me without any

clue as to what was being talked about

and no way to rewatch The cutscene

characters would occasionally switch to

speaking Chinese all of a sudden despite

me having the audio set to English the

lip flaps of the English dub often don't

even remotely match what's being spoken

oh thank

M finally then the three Bells

sang disciples

come and most of the journal entries you

find along the way haven't even been

localized yet into English the worst

though was one particular fight in which

the boss would plunge me down through

the ground during the transition to its

Final Phase only to have me fall through

the world once I regained control of my

character this kept on happening to the

point where I thought my game was

unavoidably bugged and I wouldn't be

able to reach the end but my Insanity of

trying the same thing over and over

again eventually yielded a different

result for no discernable reason these

are the kinds of technical problems that

game science will hopefully look to

address in post-launch batches and it's

not outside the realm of possibility as

even cyberpunk 2077 was eventually

whipped into shape after its own buggy

launch I hope that those fixes come

swiftly because while I still

wholeheartedly think that the things

that black myth Wukong does so right are

worth dealing with those problems I

would love to be able to recommend it

without those

[Music]

caveats as game Sciences debut action

game black myth Wukong is mostly a great

success despite some major technical

black marks and localization issues that

are likely to cause some frustrations at

launch combat is fantastic thanks to a

great balance of careful resource

management and lightning fast twitch

reaction gameplay that tested my skills

as much as Elder ring ever has despite

it being a more traditional action game

than from software style not only that

but there are a ton of exciting boss

battles a great variety of enemies and

the world they inhabit is an absolute

treat for the eyes and ears its story

has its moments but relies a bit too

much on having prior knowledge of the

events of Journey to the West and it

really could have used a map to make its

rewarding exploration measure up to the

strength of the combat all said its

strengths more than carry it through

making black myth Wukong a great action

game that could be even greater if game

science can squash the

bugs for more black myth Wukong make

sure to check out the first minutes of

the game along with our guides for

things that doesn't tell you and skills

to get first and for everything else

keep it here on IGN