4.5/5 ★ – Kalle_Deimos's review of Black Myth: Wukong.

TLDR: The real Wukong was the friends we made along the way. Gameplay: Stay on the path and achieve enlightenment. First starting us Wukong is a very overwhelming experience for maybe the first 10 hours or so. You start unlocking so much shit so frequently, just when you're trying to adjust to the game you have more and more mechanics, it's staggering. You have staff stances and then you get spells and then you get transformation and then you get spirits that are different from transformations and you get a million crafting items for medicines and random items that don't have ant relevance to you and then you turn into a beetle for some reason and everytime you kill an enemy you have a short stort written in your journal and it's constantly new enemies new bosses new characters and youre like JESUS CHRIST CAN I HAVE A SECOND. And then you have a second, and it all makes sense. Wukong's gameplay doesn't really evolve much throughout it's runtime as you'll be using the same staff and using the same moves (albeit it, upgraded) but Wukong is less about how you change and how the enemies change as the game has so many things to see and fight. These fights aren't even necessarily too challenging most of the time, but they are a spectacle to behold. And the entire game holds this formula of tight and satisfying combat / exploration throughout it's entire running time, without really evolving or taking uneccesary risks. Some may find this gets stale faster than others but I think it should hold your attention for at least the main running time. Story: I'm not even going to pretend like I know whats going on. I would likely get more out of this if I knew all about Journey to the West but it's a lot to digest. Basically you need to revive Sun Wukong by finding his six senses. Bosses and characters will talk to you and I am always missing the context. It's pretty clear very early into the journey that you are replicating Wukong's original journey and will become the next Wukong. Although I don't even really know why they want another Wukong back so bad. I don't really understand anything. But man, that doesn't mean that it didn't touch me from time to time. I like Zhu Baije. He's such an asshole. Graphics: I remember when Wukong first got footage years ago, and I thought that this was the pinnacle of graphics. And that no game would look better. In practice, yah the game looks great but not as good as I remember it looking all that time ago. They particularly have some really great fog/smoke animations that look neat. But otherwise, the actual graphics are what you can expect for a game coming out in 2024. However, design wise the game is absolutely gorgeous. The art created for this game is extensive and feels authentic and I suggest everyone to just take a breath when you're in some of these large buildings or looking at the end of chapter illustrations. Sound: Swag sound. I still think about the trailer from so long ago. Extra: One of my biggest pet peeves is optional content being locked by progressing something too far, and Wukong has a bunch of examples of that. It's typically just an extra fight but still, why does the Wandering Wight have to despawn once I encounter the Elder Jinchi? They had to deliberately make that decision and for what? Otherwise, you got a lot to look for in this game if you want all the side content. And you will almost CERTAINLY require a second playthrough as well. Fighting all enemies alone is a extensive and costly adventure that will have you scratching your head saying "This is in the game??" Favorite Thing: The secret final boss battle can be brutally difficult, and your reward for beating him is the best action sequence in the game where you just rock everyones shit as a giant monkey and it's all a secret. Not My Favorite Thing: Those frogs got the weirdest animations I swear.