5/5 ★ – DanteHR's review of Black Myth: Wukong.

And here it is, one of the most anticipated games of recent years and my most anticipated game of all time has arrived.. many of us were skeptical since the first reveal in 2020, it seemed like a game that is too good to be true, I remained skeptical even until the initial release of the game, however, a few games that I received recently managed to bring me hope for the new developers in the gaming industry, "Lies of P" and "Stellar Blade" were exceptional debut games, for some developers who had never worked on any AAA game. Returning to the star of the show, I can only mention that I was not disappointed at all and that the developers delivered us a masterpiece in the true sense of the word. I couldn't believe that I managed to get my hands on this game and that it was released after so long, 4 years in a row, the only game I was looking forward to was "Black Myth: Wukong", I can't expresses the excitement I had when I first entered the game. Everything seemed so clean and unreal, even today I can't believe that I was lucky enough to live in the same time with this game. The intro was absolutely gorgeous, even though it was leaked before the initial release, I was still surprised by the quality of the product and the huge level of development, I could say that it has one of the best intros in a game ever, maybe even the best. It was forgiving, in the way that you couldn't go wrong with anything, more of a cinematic fight where the main plot was revealed how badass Sun Wukong can be. After that, I started the tutorial itself with the first chapter of the game, "Black Wind Mountain". When it comes to the gameplay, I can only say that the game did not disappoint at all, the diversity of abilities and the fluidity of the combat really makes it very special. The majority of people tend to think that the game is a soulslike, I am here to confirm that the game does not feel like a soulslike at all, but more like a "God of War" combined with the "Nioh" series. I could say that it is actually its own genre, it is so distinct from other games... in fact, there are also similarities with the games from the souls series, for example... the gourd, which acts exactly like the flasks from soulsborne and the shrines, which do the same thing as the checkpoints (Sculptor's idol) from "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice". Otherwise, the angle of the camera is much better done and the action is much faster paced. The game does not benefit from a parry like in Sekiro, but there is a spell called "Rock Solid" that turns you into stone for a few seconds and the enemies attacks cannot affect you, you can even deflect them, followed by a slightly stronger blow. Besides that spell, I was amazed by how vast they are, you have 4 categories of spells, attack, transformations, buffs and defense. You can unlock most of them by doing side content, completing all kinds of quests and defeating hidden bosses to gain all the respective spells, I was most amazed by the transformations. At the beginning of the game, you start with only one transformation, of them you can unlock them in the last chapters of the game. Each transformation allows you to transform into a beast that you have defeated, having a completely different moveset, in total there are about 10 transformations, many transformations have a different life bar, this means that if you die while you are transformed, only your transformation dies and you can use it again in a certain time or if you give rest at a shrine. Besides all that, I want to praise the diversity of the combat that we have like "The Destined One" (the main character of the game).. although we have only one type of weapon, that being the staff, feels very distinct, having 3 stances and over 30 movements, each individual movement can be improved in the skill tree. When it came to the skill tree, the developers didn't put a lot of effort into it, they didn't give us something complicated, but something simpler to please everyone, you have a leveling system that's quite simple, you kill enemies for XP, and at each level you get a "spark", that spark can be used for upgrades. We also have a crafting system for armor and staffs, most of the staffs do not do anything new, but some have an active effect that activates with a stronger blow, for new equipment, most of the time, special materials you get from certain bosses, some staffs are very hard to make, the way you start working on them from the first chapter, and you can use them you need some only in the last chapter. Leaving that aside, it's time to talk about the variety of enemies and bosses, which I can say is the icing on the cake in this whole game. The variety is huge, with a total of 160+ enemies, each of them are special and do not repeat each other gameplay wise. I can say the same thing about bosses, having 81 bosses, one huge number. not even "Elden Ring" had such a large variety of unique bosses. They were all absolutely amazing, I can say that "Black Myth: Wukong" has the best and most memorable bosses that I have ever seen in the gaming industry. One of the most amazing aspects that "Black Myth: Wukong" has, are definitely the graphics.. the game looks absolutely stunning, both in terms of fidelity, but also in terms of artstyle. That's why I was amazed the most since the first reveal, when the game was still running in UE4, later it was moved to the latest version of UE5, which comes with some problems related to ray-tracing, but the developers promised to solve this as soon as possible in the next patches. When it comes to the performance, I played the game on a 4070 ti, 32GB Ram and an i7 13700KF, I haven't encountered big problems, the preset was on cinematic, in 2K and ray-tracing on with DLSS on quality, I managed to catch over 80FPS most of the time. Still, I had screen tearing, usually when I was in a cinematic, it was quite noticeable, later I solved the problem, I just had to activate Vertical Sync and the screen tearing disappeared completely. In the end it's a minor problem, considering it's the studio's debut AAA game, it's really impressive how well they managed to optimize the game. Leaving optimization aside, the design of the enemies is absolutely top notch, I have not seen such a spectacular design in any game so far, they managed to make a very good adaptation to the design of the original beasts from "Journey to The West", although the short story is more of a satire and the characters are funny looking, in "Black Myth: Wukong" they went on the side of making them more gruelsome and serious. As for the environment, it is absolutely everything you need, the physics, the light, the details of the architecture, absolutely everything related to the graphics screams perfection! I have come to the part where I share my opinion about the sounds and music in this gorgeous game, which seems unreal in every category. Not being very experienced in commenting a lot about this category, I can only say that I was fully satisfied by everything related to that category. The sound itself was just right, footsteps, the sound of the wind, the leaves, even the sounds of the enemies were very pleasant.. I noticed that many people complain about the sounds that our main character makes, being a monkey, I would say that they are quite well done. Besides that, I also noticed that in some parts, the game has problems with the synchronization of the studio, but it recovers in a short time, it's not something that can affect much. Leaving the sound aside, I want to praise the splendid music that the composers proudly delivered to us, I was satisfied and amazed by how much I liked the soundtrack of ranges. In each chapter, I was greeted by a different style of music, suitable for the aesthetics of the chapter, which made you feel that vibe. When it comes to the story of the game, it may seem a little more complex and difficult to understand at first, but for the most part, it has a fairly simple plot with a fascinating lore. The game is based on the legendary 16th century Chinese novel during the Ming Dynasty, "Journey to The West". Of course, we were not playing with "Sun Wukong", but with "The Destined One". The story begins with Sun Wukong who rejected life and angered the celestial court, Erlang Shen and his army had to face Wukong for rejecting him in the "Court". Wukong was defeated and sealed in a stone by "Erlang Shen". Right before he died, Wukong managed to transfer his essence and power into 5 relics, which we have to find in the 6 chapters we have. (in the 6th chapter we have another task to do). I would prefer not to give too many spoilers and for you to find out the ending and all the lore itself, but I can only praise the story, being something unique and unprecedented in the industry so far, a great adaptation of the legendary JTTW novel. In the end, I reached the last category, with my hand on my heart and my eyes full of tears, I can say that "Black Myth: Wukong" has become my favorite game of all time, it shouts perfection in any category, it managed to bring me such a good mood that I haven't felt in a very long time in a video game, sometimes I even wonder if this game really exists or if i am dreaming. I don't have enough words of praise for such a masterpiece, from such good combat, to amazing graphics, incredible music, an engaging story... I can only congratulate the studio and support them with everything I can, you have brought back my desire for gaming that I had a long time ago. Thank you, Game Science! 10/10 Made by DanteHR