I grew up reading and watching Journey to the West, so when Game Science announced Black Myth: Wukong in 2020, I knew I didn’t want to miss it. For those who don’t know, Journey to the West is a 16th-century novel, one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. It tells the story of a monk’s pilgrimage to retrieve sacred Buddhist scriptures, aided by his disciples, including Sun Wukong, a mischievous and rebellious monkey. There’s a reason many people are most eagerly awaiting this title of the year, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint.

So narratively, Black Myth: Wukong doesn’t tell the story of Journey to the West. Instead, it builds on the already known story of Sun Wukong and offers a fresh approach. You take control of the Chosen One, a monkey who goes on a quest to find relics of the legendary Wukong after he is defeated by a deity named Erlang Shen. If you’re familiar with the original, this game will certainly be a treat, as you’ll meet several characters mentioned in the original story, including the fan-favorite pig Zhu Bajie. However, the plot can be difficult to follow if you’re unprepared. Plus, there are multiple endings depending on the choices you make throughout the game, including a secret one!

Everyone wants to know if this game is a Souls-like game, and the answer is: kind of yes. It’s clearly inspired by those types of games, especially in terms of stamina management and boss difficulty. The game is no picnic, but it’s more than fair. You have a light attack and a heavy attack, as well as an option to dodge. Heavy attacks can be charged using a focus meter that fills up as you attack enemies. Interestingly, there’s no traditional block or parry mechanic, but there are skills you can use at the cost of a cooldown and mana that can mirror the same result. While you respawn at campfire equivalents, you don’t lose any “souls” currency needed to level up. One of the standout features is your ability to transform into various creatures and objects after defeating them. This not only gives you an advantage in combat, but also in exploration, as you can transform into a cicada to reach previously inaccessible areas.

Progression comes in the form of an extensive skill tree system that allows you to not only improve passive stats like health and stamina, but also unlock different stances and abilities. There are some cool skills, and all of them correspond to Wukong’s abilities in the actual story, like plucking hair to create clones. You can refund your points in the tree for free at any time, so don’t be afraid to experiment with different builds and skills! Wearing full sets of the same armor provides bonuses, like in recent God of War games, and you can use collected items and materials to craft new armor and weapons. Then there are also relics that serve as passive bonuses, and curiosities that act as a typical amulet or ring in other RPGs. Exploration is mostly linear, with a few side areas to explore. This isn’t an open-world game, even though the level design can look sprawling despite being cordoned off by invisible walls. My biggest gripe with getting around is the lack of a map, which can make exploration a little frustrating. There are over 80 bosses in this game with plenty of hidden secrets and even a New Game Plus mode at launch.

Technical performance is mostly decent on a PC with an RTX 3080 and 32GB of RAM. Keep in mind that the recommended configuration on Steam is an RTX 2060 and 16GB of RAM. But even then, I can’t play the game with all graphics settings on Very High and Ray Tracing enabled without experiencing stuttering and frame drops. Plus, there’s inevitable input lag and delay. I had Super Resolution set to 50, DLSS quality mode set to Performance, and everything else in the graphics settings set to High. The game mostly holds 60fps, but sometimes settles around the 50s, with significant dips to 30s in some areas. Nvidia has released a driver update for Black Myth: Wukong, but I’m not sure how much that helps. On the other hand, loading times are pretty long, taking over 17 seconds to load from the main menu.

That being said, the graphics here are some of the most stunning and realistic I’ve ever seen in a video game, with extremely detailed environments and impressive character models. The transition from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 has significantly improved the overall graphical fidelity. The lighting in particular deserves high praise, with realistic shadows and reflections adding depth and realism to scenes. What I liked most is the game’s art direction, which is obviously directly inspired by Chinese mythology and folklore, creating a unique and culturally rich aesthetic. The mythical creatures, ancient temples, and mystical landscapes are all designed with a high level of authenticity and creativity.

Settings-wise, you can adjust and remap keyboard/mouse controls, but you can’t do that if you’re playing with a controller. Still, I appreciate that there are official mappings for Xbox and PlayStation controllers, as many PC titles only support Xbox controller schemes. Spoken audio can be switched between Chinese and English, though I recommend you play in Chinese with English subtitles. There aren’t many accessibility settings, as you can’t adjust the difficulty level, but you can toggle colorblind mode and change the motion blur. However, if you need a refresher on the game’s mechanics, there’s a handy Know How section in the menu that will remind you of pretty much anything you’d want.

An avid fan of board and video games who finds endless joy in exploring different areas of entertainment!

Corvo is a writer who enjoys exploring journalism through video games. He writes and edits reviews for triple-A games and indie games and finds his passion in expressing his experiences in a fair and accurate way. Some of Corvo’s favorite games are Destiny 2, Mass Effect, and Disco Elysium.

Unless otherwise noted, the product in this article was provided for review purposes.

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