Black Myth: Wu-Kong – Monkey See, Monkey Kung-Fu

WACO, Texas (KWTX) –

The equation is simple: Monkey Man TM + Big Stick (makes a thud) + hyper-frenetic action = one of the best action games of the year. Black Myth Wu-Kong is exactly my type of game. Chinese mythology, kung-fu, and plenty of fun attacks to bombard your opponents with? Yes, please! But it's also an escalating boss-rush action-adventure game based on Journey to the West that uses some of the most exciting combat to make me feel small and powerful. Black Myth largely achieved what I wanted it to. It does a lot of things right, and some are even killer, but I feel like it's not quite there in terms of execution. Don't get me wrong, this game is a great example of what Unreal Engine 5 is capable of, its martial arts-heavy combat is heart-wrenching and glorious to watch, the boss fights are complex and feature wonderful designs inspired by a deep connection to Chinese mythology, and the story choice is a bold reinvention. No, while Black Myth Wu-Kong has all of that going for it, I find the detail and performance problematic. Dialogue was often out of sync and subtitles didn't display, I clipped through the floor while climbing across several bridges, and even got stuck defeating a boss, causing my game to crash and require me to replay the fight. Despite my frustrations, the ape man's adventure to overthrow gods is just too much fun to disdain.

Black Myth is a continuation of sorts to the Journey to the West story, and begins with an epic encounter following Wu-Kong's ascension to heaven. Most people in the Western world will be familiar with adaptations of the original story, so I'm not sure if you Dragon Ball fans will be as prepared as you think. Developer GameScience clearly has a deep reverence for the source material, because the game takes no time in explaining anything to you, throwing you into the depths of the world. While this would normally bother me, I kind of liked how matter-of-fact the world is. There's no need for a long explanation of what happened, so you can focus on what's happening. As a result, though, you may find yourself digging through the information sections for backstory and Googling how certain characters are connected. And as much as I loved being thrown into such a well-established world, I regularly found myself getting lost in the matter and losing the thread entirely. So if you want to have a good understanding of things, there is a solid breakdown of the original story on YouTube.

In any RPG, you're handed the reins of a chosen one and Black Myth doesn't shake off that cliche, but man is different when he's behind the jungle gym of The Destined One. As the chosen one, you'll embark on a path of self-discovery and encounter the many enemies protecting the 6 Artifacts of Wukong. These artefacts contain the pieces of Sun-Wukong so he can escape the icy clutches of death. You start your journey in the thick foliage of the mountains, which is mostly made up of fairly linear areas leading to bosses to defeat. The environments here are a damn example of what Unreal Engine is now capable of, with some of the most vibrant and dense locales I've ever seen in a game. The ray-traced lighting and reflections make water and sunlight particularly cool to marvel at. There's a real sense of carved-out existence here too, creating a world that seems believable even in the face of a headless musician. The downside of this hyperrealism, however, can often be readability. When everything is similarly graded, detailed, and lit, it's easy to lose your enemies in the sea of ​​polygons. Bosses stand out, though, and Wu-Kong's own wardrobe and powers provide clarity in the most intense fights. The real problem with all the gloriously high-res landscapes is that their vastness often makes them seem empty. Sure, you'll occasionally encounter NPCs and plenty of regular enemies, but the world itself seems inhabited, as if in the past tense. Thankfully, you don't linger in one place for too long, so this distracting effect doesn't detract much from the experience. As the story progresses, the intricacies of the battles with the major baddies also become more complex. From a blood-soaked tiger warrior to a shimmering white dragon, the fights are nothing short of spectacular, and the game's final few battles are some of the best I've ever tackled.

Like many others who picked this game up for the first time expecting a Fromsoftware-inspired adventure filled with tough combat and countless backtracking, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Black Myth has more in common with games like God of War. Don't get me wrong, every showdown is a matter of life and death, complete with plenty of dodging and thinking on the sidelines. I died more times than I'd like to admit against the big-headed Buddha-man who struts out of the arena of the first boss fight. But the combat itself is weighty, giving weight and feedback to blows and emphasizing the critical moments of the fight. On the other end of the stick, Sun-Wukong is light on his feet and can deftly dodge any direct danger, and man, if there's one sound design element this game gets particularly well, it's that perfect dodge sound. Like Dragon Ball Z's afterimage superspeed sound, but significantly more mystical sounding. Pulling off multiple perfect dodges in a row is like achieving enlightenment. The actual combat in Black Myth is deceptively simple, so much so that many of you will try to just hammer away at the buttons. That would be a mistake, though, because fighting with Sun-Wukong's staff isn't about bashing away at an opponent. It's about timing and pacing. Light strikes have a combo chain that can be boosted and extended with skill points, but always ends with a big Bombus staff strike that does a ton of damage. Landing these hits generates focus, which lets you spend focus points on a charged heavy strike, stagger your opponent, and even interrupt moves. The Monkey King can adopt three different stances to deal with fighters: smash, pillar, and thrust stance. Smash is exactly what it sounds like: it's about dealing damage and gaining focus to stay in the game. Pillar allows our monkey man to jump on his staff to charge up his heavy attack. This stance is handy for dodging ground attacks while charging up your big stick go boom move. And finally, the thrust stance, which has the most devastating attack move that almost always staggers enemies and allows you to hit them from a much greater distance.

The final element of Wu-Kong's cinematic combat are the abilities the Monkey King gains throughout the game. Right from the start of the game, you get a sweet taste of what a fully-equipped primate is capable of. His unique abilities range from “monkeys together strong” to the more anime-esque Cloudy Step and Immobilize. The flow of combos into abilities is less reminiscent of Devil May Cry and more reminiscent of God of War 2018. Breaking your combo to react to an incoming attack by immobilizing the enemy, only to return with the final combo blows and a well-aimed strike is one hell of a satisfying dance. Add to that the big encounters, which have their own dance all their own, and it really does feel like a kung fu epic brought to life. The skill is not in reaction, but in observation and learning. Mastering attack patterns alone is not enough. To conquer this mountain, one must channel oneself into restrained aggression.

Black Myth Wu-Kong does a lot of things right for me, it's a more than excellently put together action game with weighty and appropriately epic fights. It also features several vignettes, each in a different animation style, which makes me wish we had games that felt more like those depictions instead of endlessly screaming for photorealism. The voice acting and soundtrack are phenomenal, and its world, while a little half-baked between bosses, is still a joy to travel through. The fights aren't everything here either, as the game has plenty of places to find a moment of calm. I can't stress enough how cool this game is, and the reverence for the source material is palpable in every aspect. But the journey is a little lackluster, thanks to a mostly silent protagonist, some pacing issues, and while the boss fights are a blast, almost everything else feels mediocre in comparison. Overall, Black Myth Wu-Kong is a strong effort from GameScience, whose unique combat feel and outstanding graphics make this game stand out from many of its contemporaries. I give Black Myth 8/10.

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