4/5 ★ – ViolentWanderer's review of Black Myth: Wukong.

Black myth: Wukong 8/10 (played on PS5) This was a game I was incredibly hyped for since the very first trailer dropped some years back and have been eagerly anticipating the release, making it my most hyped game of the year. After having completed the game, I can now say that it's pretty damn good but with a few flaws that keep it straying from the path of perfection. I'll start off by talking about the outright negatives. Firstly the frame drops are too noticeable and too frequent, to preface this I was playing on ps5, but every time there were a few effects going on, on screen the whole game went crazy. A perfect example of this is during the fight against the four heavnly kings which should be an awesome hype fight between giants, but the constant frame drops take away from the experience. The second major issue I had with the game was a major feeling of imput delay, with it being most notable when trying to heal. The amount of times I pressed L1 to heal during a fight and then it doesn't pick up so I pressed it again only to heal twice was infuriating. The final thing I believe the game desperately needed was a map, this is more on an opionated take and I understand the reason that a map wasn't included (to help solidify the feeling that this a journey) but I think not having one was a serious oversight. You really feel it in the larger chapters like 3 and 6 where you're constantly treading track that have already been walked and it can be tiresome, detracting away from what can be great exploration at times. To continue on from the discussion about chapters I want to go more in-depth on the game on a chapter by chapter basis. Chapter one is the most tight-knit and carefully curated level, serving as the perfect introduction to the game and mechanics. Chapter two has the best exploration with a really good flurry and range of bosses, but has (imo) the worst final boss of the entire game. Chapter three is my favourite visually (I'm a sucker for snow levels) but my least favourite when it comes to actually traversing it, with the prison section being particularly frustrating. Chapter four has a decent balance of all of the above but fails to be memorable. Chapter five is objectively the best level with good bosses, memorable locations and great exploration. Chapter six is great in concept but fails to deliver mainly because you spend half of the time between great boss fights flying around not knowing where you're going, hence the need for a map. The secret levels in each chapter are the best part of each level and feel like just reward for interesting quests, each takes the vibe of the levels and makes them more exciting or expansive. The chapters would be nothing without the unarguably amazing design of the game. The game takes the world and characters in the classic Chinsese novel 'journey to the west' and adds their own little essence to modernise things. I absolutely love the designs of everything in this game, all of the enemies, npcs, bosses, locations, armour/weapons just look amazing. Whoever worked on the models in this game killed it. Now difficultly was a large talking point in the build up to this game as it was originally pegged to be a soulslike. however the developers repeatedly confirmed that this game isn't one, so I think it's unfair to complain about this game not feeling like/or having the difficulty of souls game, because it isn't one. I think the game does a fantastic job of finding it's own identity it's gameplay and in it difficultly. The game is by no means easy though, the pace of the combat is incredibly fast and some fights can be a struggle. However the game never becomes overwhelmingly hard, no boss took me more than 10 attempts and I didn't find any of the regular enemies to be a challenge. I think the difficulty of this game finds the perfect balance, not being exceedly easy, but not being difficult to the point of being unenjoyable. The difficulty of the game would be nothing without the bosses, which I would say is the main selling point of the game, and overall I would say the bosses are good, a few low points but major high points. I would say that there no bosses in game that I absolutely hated but I didn't like the deer, wise-voice or yellow wind sage, for varying reasons. I would say the majority of the bosses fall into the average category, not egriously bad but also not incredibly memorable. But then there are the gems, the bosses that I remembered and wanted to reply from the moment I finished them. I absolutely loved Yin tiger, Scorpion king, yaksha king, arlang, black wind king/black bear, elder jinchi, yellow loong and the final boss (which I won't spoil). All of these bosses challenge the player in fair, fun and interesting ways whilst also being cool as shit (and coolness is everything😎). In order for the bosses to be memorable the combat needs to shine and luckily its the brightest part of the game. The flow and combat of the game gives me a combination of sekiro dance like fighting with the speed and flow of a devil may cry (with the exploration of recent god of war). The amount of variety in builds when it comes to stances, weapons, spells and transformations makes replayability great and had me constantly wanted to try new things; I love how certain items and builds work better against different enemies and bosses and wish it happened even more to further test new combinations and builds. Phenomenal combat and I can't wait to see how they build on it for further titles. The story for this game was okay, I'm not sure if it would be exemplified by having read the source material but I found it difficult to care to much about the characters in the game, despite their being a decent emphasis on trying to build them. The game just felt like a bit of disconnected journey slogging from one point to the next, however I'm not sure if this is the essence of the original tale. I think where the narrative is strongest is at the end of each chapter with the amazing cutscenes, in different beautiful art styles that detail the stories of characters within the universe in surprisingly emotional depictions. Overall I think black myth: wukong managed to sustain the mountain of the ridiculous hype built above it and didn't crumble under the weight of expectation. However the monkey king did take a few knicks from rubble, with the few issues that game presents. (Review #3 - thanks for reading😌)