Black Myth: Wu-Kong - Monkey See, Monkey Kung-Fu | Review

WACO, Texas (KWTX) -

The equation is simple, Monkey Man TM + Big Stick (goes thud) + hyper-frenetic action = one of the best action games of the year. Black Myth Wu-Kong is extremely my kind of game. Chinese mythology, Kung-Fu and tons of fun attacks to bombard foes with? Yes please! But it is also an escalating boss-rush action-adventure game based on Journey to the West that uses some of the most exhilarating fights to make me feel both small and powerful, Black Myth has largely accomplished what I wanted from it. It does many things right and some are even knocked out of the park, yet I feel it still isn’t quite there in terms of execution. Don’t get me wrong, this game is a gorgeous example of what Unreal Engine 5 is capable of, its martial arts heavy combat is heart pounding and glorious to behold, the boss fights are intricate and feature wonderous designs inspired by a deep connection to Chinese mythology, and the choice of story is a bold reinvention. No, though Black Myth Wu-Kong has all that going for it, it’s in the details and performance that I find issue. Dialogue often got desynched and sub-titles would fail to appear, I clipped through the ground while climbing multiple bridges and even got stalled out during the defeat of a boss causing my game to crash and me to have to redo the fight. Despite my frustrations though, the monkey man’s adventure to topple gods is just too much fun to be down on.

Black Myth acts as a sort of continuation of the Journey to the West story, picking up in an epic encounter following Wu-Kongs ascension to the heavens. Most of the western world is going to be familiar with adaptations of the original story so I’m not sure you Dragon Ball lovers are going to be as well prepared as you think. Developer GameScience clearly has a deep reverence for the source materials as the game takes no time to explain anything to you, casting you into the depths of the world. While normally this would bother me, I kind of loved how matter-o-factly the world is. There is no need for lengthy exposition on what has happened allowing for a focus on what is happening. However, as a result you may find yourself searching for the backstory in the information sections and googling how certain characters are connected. And as much as I loved being plopped into a world so well established, I did regularly get lost in sauce and completely loose the plot. So, if you want a good understanding of things I’d find a solid breakdown of the original story on YouTube.

Every RPG ever hands you the reigns of a chosen one and Black Myth doesn’t shake this trope, but man is different sitting behind the monkey bars of The Destined One. As the destined one you set out on a path of self-discovery, coming up against the many foes protecting the 6 artifacts of Wukong. These artifacts contain the pieces of Sun-Wukong as a way for him to escape the icy grips of death. Starting in the deep foliage of the mountains you begin your journey which largely consists of fairly linear areas that lead into bosses to overcome. Environments here are a god damned showcase for what Unreal Engine is capable of now, with some of the most vibrant and dense locations I’ve seen in any game. The ray traced lighting, and reflections make water and sunlight particularly cool to marvel at. There is also a real feeling of carved out existence here making for a world that seems believable even when faced with a headless musician. However, the downside to that hyper realism can often be readability. When everything is similarly graded, detailed and lit it becomes easy to lose enemies in the sauce of polygons. Bosses do stick out though and Wu-Kongs own wardrobe and powers help give clarity in the most intense fights. The real issue with all the gloriously high-res landscapes is that their vastness often makes them feel empty. Sure, you come across the occasional NPC and plenty of regular enemies but the world itself seems lived in, as in past tense. Luckily you don’t linger in any one spot for too long, so this detraction doesn’t take much from the experience. As the story progresses so too do the intricacies of the big bads fights. Ranging from a blood-soaked Tiger Warrior to a white glistening dragon, the fights are nothing short of spectacular and the final few fights of the game are some of the best I’ve ever conquered.

Like many who picked this game up for the first time expecting a fromsoftware inspired adventure full of punishing battles and back tracking galore, I was pleasantly surprised to find Black Myth has more in common with the likes of God of War. Don’t get me wrong, every showdown is a life-or-death affair complete with plenty of dodging and on your feet thinking. I died more times that I care to admit against the big-headed Budha man that struts outside the arena of the first boss fight. But the combat itself is weighty, giving heft and feedback to hits and emphasizing the critical moments of the fight. On the other end of the staff, Sun-Wukong is light on his feet able to deftly dodge any direct dangers, and man if this game nails one sound design element above all else its that perfect dodge sound. Like the afterimage super speed sound of Dragon Ball Z but distinctly more mystical sounding. Nailing multiple perfect dodges in a row is akin to reaching enlightenment. The actual combat of Black Myth is deceptively simple, so much so that many of you may attempt to just mash buttons. This would be a mistake though because Sun-Wukongs staff combat isn’t about wailing on an opponent. It’s about timing and pacing, light hits have a combo string that can be augmented and extended with skill points but always ends with a big bombus stick hit that does a good amount of damage. As you land those hits you generate focus allowing you access to spend focus points of a charged heavy hit, staggering your foe and even interrupting moves. The monkey king can take on 3 forms of stances to handle combatants, these are the smash, pillar and thrust stance. Smash is exactly as it sounds, all about dealing damage and earning focus to stay engaged. Pillar allows our monkey man to jump atop his staff to charge his heavy attack. This stance comes in handy to dodge ground attacks while charging your big stick go thud move. And lastly thrust stance which has the most devestating charge move that almost always staggers enemies and lets you hit them from a much farther away range.

The last element of Wu-Kong’s cinematic combat is the abilities the monkey king recieves along the way. At the very beginning of the game you get a sweet taste of what a fully decked out primate is capable of. His unique set of skills range from “ape together strong” to the more anime feeling abilities of cloudy step and immobilize. The flow of combos into abilities is less like Devil May Cry and more like God of War 2018. Breaking your combo to respond to an incoming attack by immobilizing the enemy only to return with your final combo hits and a focused strike is a satisfying as hell dance. Add to that the large encounters that have a dance all their own and it really does feel like a Kung-Fu epic brought to life. The skill isn’t in reaction, it’s in watching and learning. It’s not enough to master attack patterns alone, to conquer this mountain you must channel yourself into a restrained aggression.

Black Myth Wu-Kong does a lot right for me, it’s a more than excellently put together action game with weighty and appropriately epic combat. It also features multiple vignettes each done in a different animation style that makes me wish we had games that felt more like those depictions instead of endlessly clamoring for photorealism. The voice acting and soundtrack are phenomenal and its world while a little undercooked between bosses, is still a joy to journey through. The fighting isn’t everything here either as the game has plenty of places to take a moment of peace from. I can’t stress enough how cool this game is and the reverence for the source material can be felt in every aspect. But the voyage is a little lackluster thanks to a mostly silent protagonist, some pacing issues and while the boss rushes are a great time, most everything else feels mediocre in comparison. All that said, Black Myth Wu-Kong is a strong outing for GameScience whose unique feeling combat along with stellar visuals elevate this game above many of its contemporaries. I give Black Myth an 8/10.

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