As a seasoned gamer with over two decades under my belt, I’ve seen it all – from the pixelated glory of the 90s to the photorealistic masterpieces of today. So when I stumbled upon Black Myth: Wukong, I was intrigued by its promise of an immersive action-adventure experience set in ancient China.
Describing a game like Black Myth: Wukong can be challenging due to its mixed qualities. On one hand, it impresses with outstanding art direction, game design, and environmental elements that often leave me in awe. However, there are equally many instances where these impressive moments are countered by frustrating aspects that make me question if I’ll see the game through to the end. In essence, while the game offers stunning moments that take my breath away, it also presents challenges that test my patience and enjoyment of the overall experience.
Fresh Brew in an Old Cask
Let’s get started: The game Black Myth: Wukong follows the style of an action RPG in the vein of classic adventure games. Although some might find the term ‘soulslike’ overused, there isn’t a more fitting description for a game where you explore expansive maps seeking hidden treasures, vanquish adversaries that usually regenerate when you perish or take a break at a sanctuary, and engage with formidable bosses boasting multiple stages.
In this game, you take on the character of a monkey resembling Sun Wukong, who is known as the “Destined One” after completing the tutorial. This character doesn’t have the ability to speak but possesses unique abilities such as an extendable staff, the power to create temporary clones by mastering evasive maneuvers and later actual fight-ready clones, and the capacity to transform into different forms throughout the game. However, the story can be quite confusing if you’re not familiar with “Journey to the West,” a renowned Chinese tale. Although Sun Wukong is well-known in popular culture, inspiring characters like Goku from Dragon Ball and others across various media platforms, if you haven’t read the original story, you might feel lost. But this sense of bewilderment is engaging because the narrative is intriguing as it unfolds.
The game named Black Myth is deeply rooted in Chinese mythology, from its item descriptions to the surroundings, and it’s truly stunning. Despite certain frustrations I encountered with the game (which I’ll discuss later), the environment and artistic design are exceptional. Almost every time I reached a hilltop or turned a corner, I found myself pausing to appreciate the incredibly captivating landscapes – from the ruins of Chapter 2’s desert to the volcanic peaks of Chapter 5, and everything in between, there was always something visually enticing. If you have an affinity for Chinese or Buddhist mythology or aesthetics, this game offers a sensory feast.
But, beautiful vistas do not substitute for basic level design. Picture this scenario: Ahead of you is a knee-high wall blocking what appears to be a path leading through some crags. You would imagine that, since you have a jump button, you can clamber over the wall and explore down that path, right? Well, no. Only some paths are explorable, the rest are blocked off by invisible walls. Or, perhaps you’re exploring a wide-open area and see a clearing beyond the trees. Well, too bad, that’s terrain you can’t explore. The lack of proper signaling in Black Myth: Wukong‘s environments can lead to disappointment. Running across an area that feels too large to explore what you think is a path forward, only to run into an invisible wall, is frustrating.
The recurring level design flaws in this game make it difficult to overlook, as they’re present throughout all chapters, impacting various landscapes like forests, deserts, snow-covered areas, caves, and cliffs in Black Myth. These issues were so prevalent that I found myself abandoning my exploration around Chapter 3. The game rapidly transitions from narrow corridors or pathways to expansive fields, sometimes making it unclear if the path I was on was the optimal one. While this isn’t a major issue because multiple paths can lead to the final boss of an area, it does create confusion when taking a detour and finding myself back where I started, which weren’t shortcuts but entirely different routes.
It would have been useful to have a map available while playing Chapter 6 in Black Myth. I’m not sure if I overlooked any instructions for using a map, but there was no map provided and there was no indication that one should be present. I’ll go into more detail about my frustrations later regarding Chapter 6, but keep in mind the lack of navigational tools such as maps, compasses, waypoints, or anything similar made exploring Black Myth quite difficult.
A Good Match Calls For A Good Weapon
In the game Black Myth: Wukong, the combat and skill progression systems offer a rich diversity, allowing for multiple melee fighting approaches. You can specialize in your staff by mastering three unique stances, or expand your arsenal with various magic spells that range from freezing enemies in place to disappearing and reappearing somewhere else to attack. Additionally, you can transform into a creature, adopting an entirely different combat style altogether. Alternatively, you can strengthen your core abilities through passive stats enhancements. The magical elements in Black Myth, while not the main focus, provide useful augmentations such as summoning a ring of fire for self-buff, creating doppelgangers to aid in battle, and so forth.
If you’re not keen on dealing with enchantments and incantations, consider activating a skill that denies you magic use, depletes your mana, but in its place amplifies your battle prowess substantially. I frequently employed this Spell Binder setting following its acquisition, and although it compelled me to sharpen my evasion skills (since I was devoid of magic, I couldn’t parry or freeze myself out of predicaments), it also underscored that the combat system wasn’t finely tuned for play without magical abilities. Indeed, your parry is a spell and you can only unlock it in Chapter 2.
To stun specific enemies, you must use a combo finisher, a charged heavy hit, or a mix of various heavy attacks. However, due to your light combo being quite lengthy, it’s challenging to complete the entire sequence without dodging between each boss. If you possess the skill that maintains your combo after a dodge, then this is possible. Otherwise, you can manually charge your heavy attack, but if you get hit, move, or dodge, the charge will disappear. Certain abilities let you keep the charge while sprinting or following a Perfect Dodge, but generally, you must time it correctly. Given that some late-game bosses don’t offer much space to maneuver, this essentially makes those talents necessary.
With enough practice, you can master Spell Binder mode and hand-to-hand combat to conquer most obstacles – I myself, who consider myself an average gamer, have achieved this. However, my battles often encounter challenges related to hit detection and feedback. At times, enemies seem to strike with empty space between them, while your own attacks may miss even when they seem connected. Additionally, some enemy attacks lack the necessary visual cues to indicate damage is being taken, as your character might not react or be pushed back, but health will still decrease without obvious warning.
In many action RPGs, dealing with certain elements can be quite challenging due to their unpredictable nature. For instance, a boss in Chapter 6 might summon chilling tornadoes without clear area-of-effect (AoE) boundaries. At times, these whirlwinds could appear close enough to you that your character takes damage, yet there’s no sign of being knocked around or flinching – instead, you may notice a slight icy effect and an increase in your Frost gauge. The harm isn’t trivial; if you’re not cautious, it could deal three consecutive hits to your character’s health bar. This can be aggravating because without constantly checking your health status, there might not be any warning that I’m in danger.
Occasionally, an adversary will deal a significant blow to Destined One, yet they remain unfazed. Sometimes you’ll evade an attack and still sustain damage, but Destined One will flawlessly execute their dodge maneuver and be prepared for your next command. In some instances, you might fail to evade an attack and end up being hurled away, miraculously incurring no injury at all (although this is advantageous, it can be confusing). As the game advances, you’ll encounter numerous bosses whose attack pattern resembles Radahn’s Promised Consort – a sequence of swift attacks followed by prolonged heavy attacks. These issues with feedback were noticeable from the initial chapter, but can be addressed with practice. While the overall game isn’t particularly challenging, the inconsistency in feedback can be aggravating.
Harsh, Rash, Ever Unquelled. Rank, Dank, Muck-impelled
In essence, the combat system presents a blend of aspects… let’s delve into the RPG elements now. You have several options to tweak your character stats. Leveling up and assigning stat points as you prefer is straightforward, and there are numerous decisions that influence your encounters with adversaries. The option to customize your passive stats for a constant advantage, albeit at the expense of a new skill enhancement, adds a layer of complexity that feels empowering. Additionally, you can utilize purple tokens (Mind Cores) obtained in Chapter 2 to acquire additional passive stat modifiers from the Pill Fox. A wide array of attributes such as health, mana, and resistance to poison can be amplified. The most appealing part is that you can alter these decisions whenever you wish. The Pill Fox allows you to reformulate and reproduce those passive pills, while the Shrines grant free respec options for your talent trees. This flexibility encourages experimenting with various builds to tackle diverse challenges, which is commendable game design!
As a gamer, it’s mind-boggling why we get so much customization at the start, only to find that our choices are set in stone for the rest of the game. At the end of each chapter, I acquire a relic, and when I inspect it, I’m given the option to pick one out of three passive benefits. The catch is, this choice seems to be permanent.
The gear upgrade system is frustrating too — if you get a weapon or armor set that complements your playstyle, don’t get attached to it because you will replace it with a later one simply because it has better basic stats. As far as I can tell, you cannot upgrade older gear up to match your current gear, either.
In my experience, I tend to use the phrase “as far as I can see” quite often due to the game’s scarcity of tutorials or tooltips. For instance, there’s no guide when you initially unlock your second spell for the first slot, making it unclear how to switch spells (you can only do this at shrines). Similarly, when you obtain your first relic, there’s no hint that there’s a passive bonus associated with it until you explore the Relics section of your in-game HUD. Additionally, one equipment slot appears to remain empty until after Chapter 5; it doesn’t seem to be filled with anything until then. When you progress into Chapter 6 and conquer the first boss, you acquire the ability to fly, but the game fails to inform you about your next objective; you’re simply expected to fly around, looking for bosses to defeat (I’ll discuss this further later).
As a gamer, let me share my experience: The game generally ran smoothly on my mid-range PC, but there were some notable glitches here and there. For instance, certain scenes dropped frames significantly, especially in Chapter 4, which felt like playing through the most poorly optimized zones from Dark Souls (yep, Blighttown is back!). To add to the mix, a significant portion of the cutscenes played with incorrect voiceovers. I had English voices selected and found that about 40% of the time, the dialogue switched abruptly from English to Chinese. While the Chinese voice acting was impressive, it did feel odd when characters like Zhu Baijie suddenly switched languages in mid-conversation.
In some instances, certain scenes had no voices or subtitles at all, and one specific scene only offered ambient noise without any dialogue or captions. This made understanding what was happening nearly impossible, especially since this was the climactic cutscene for Chapter 3. Additionally, numerous journal entries discussing various yao guai in the game were left untranslated from Chinese, making it difficult to delve into the game’s lore. It’s frustrating because the parts of the story that are accessible are quite intriguing.
As a gamer, I found some peculiarities in the combat system that were downright annoying at times. In most action games, you can deploy a consumable item when your attack or skill animation has wound down, correct? However, during my playthrough of this game, there were numerous instances where I couldn’t use my consumables even after my previous action had ended. It seemed like the game failed to recognize my “use” command for several seconds following a completed action. Given how crucial consumables are for staying alive in combat, this inconsistency made the experience more frustrating than it should have been.
Two Minds’ Long Fray Leaves But One To Stay
In conclusion, let me clarify that in this chapter, you acquire the ability to fly, and an expansive valley is provided for your exploration. Unlike previous chapters, there are no specific directions or guides as to what you should do. Instead, you’re left to freely explore the area, searching for points of interest. Visual indicators such as distinctly colored trees pointing towards shrines, ripples in the water hinting at optional boss fights, and lightning strikes marking the golden path are present, but much of your flight will cover vast areas filled with nothing more than trees, rocks, and small creatures. This chapter represents a significant departure from the rest of the game, and can be frustrating due to long periods of finding little or nothing. The boss fights themselves, unfortunately, rank among the worst-designed I’ve ever encountered. If Chapter 6 were removed and only the impressive final boss rush was included, the game would likely be improved as a result.
In wrapping up this review, it’s important to address some points. While the game as a whole seems incomplete in many aspects, I must admit that the storyline was well-resolved, leaving me content. However, my feelings throughout the gameplay were often marred by recurring frustrations. Usually, I strive to keep my reviews concise, focusing on the key takeaways for readers. But for Black Myth: Wukong, I felt compelled to detail both the aspects that won me over and those that left me less than impressed.
As a seasoned gamer with over two decades under my belt, I’ve played my fair share of games that show great potential but ultimately fall short due to various issues. Black Myth: Wukong is one such game – it’s a captivating tale that has the makings of a 10/10 masterpiece, but unfortunately, its numerous design flaws, performance problems, and bugs have left me feeling frustrated.
7
Versions tested: PC. Black Myth: Wukong is also available for PlayStation 5.
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2024-08-16 17:27