Black Myth: Wukong Review – A Spectacular Adventure Marred by Disjointed Storytelling

Several factors work against Black Myth: Wukong, all of which I’ll detail in this review. However, none of them take away from the addictive spectacle of this experience. It’s a journey through many unknowns that compile onto the player until you ask, “How did we get here?” A question I continued asking myself while playing. Yet, there I was at 2 am, taking mental notes about the direction of this game, only for it to pull the rug under my feet to reveal a more ridiculous hand—fitting of the source material’s comedic roots. Ultimately, for better or worse, Black Myth: Wukong is a game that follows the old saying of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. Luckily for Game Science, a few of these systems do, but the demands of player time and understanding lead to the exhausting exhibition of tales closer to the Odyssey than Journey to the West.

Storyline and Narrative Structure

Black Myth: Wukong has players assume the role of the Destined One, who shares the appearance of Sun Wukong, a powerful monkey currently stuck in stone. The opening depicts a mighty battle, which follows the monkey king’s imprisonment in stone and the years that pass as followers await the revival. As a hopeful, you train and take on various missions to gather the objects needed to revive the king. And that’s where the story kind of evaporates. Sure, you’ll encounter other characters, and things happen, but nothing makes sense.

Characters and systems are introduced only to be forgotten moments later, leaving the impression that the developers worked in separate groups and slowly brought the project together. The game’s pacing is never questioned because you are always in action or going somewhere. Time isn’t wasted on exposition or adequately preparing you for what’s happening on screen; it just plays out and demands you keep up. The required lore can be found in text entries in the menu. These outline encountered characters and enemies and give you a better understanding of who or what they are. Outside of that text, though, good luck.

I was amazed by the speed at which the game would introduce characters, only to have you fight them within seconds and never see them again. There’s this character called the Tiger Vanguard, who makes the best introduction ever, only to be defeated and never come up again. In any typical game, this character would easily be one of the main villains, but here, he’s just a set piece. And the villains get even more incredible. I stopped wanting substance and found myself eagerly searching for my next foe. This game makes you hungry for the thrill of whatever it’s about to throw at you, and going in unprepared only adds frustration to the experience.

The game excels in combat, offering exhilarating action that keeps players engaged despite the lack of coherent storytelling.

This is where the player experience will be divided. In the same breath as games like Stellar Blade, Black Myth: Wukong seems to only care about pushing action systems to their limit while shoving gorgeous set pieces and well-designed boss encounters into our faces and hope you don’t care too much about why you’re doing it. There’s a narrative there for those who want it, but you’ll have to read the menus to fill in the gaps because this game is a bullet train, and there’s only time to stop for fights, which there are many.

Boss battles happen often out of nowhere. Sometimes, you have to randomly fight multiple bosses back to back for no apparent reason. Thankfully, there’s a gracious checkpoint system that puts you close to the beginning of a fight, but in the event of multi-phase battles, you do start for the form that you died on to save time. Grunt encounters also take up a bulk of your time playing, but they are taken down pretty easily most of the time and are only really a threat in groups. The Soulslike systems are pretty forgiving in this game, which has me almost just referring to it as a challenging action game, but I rarely felt like I couldn’t get through a fight.

Exploration and World Design

Each of the seven areas is huge, and the branching paths allow you to head out in different directions and see what happens. There’s little to no direction, but you quickly get used to being lost. One time, I was knocked out, captured, imprisoned, and woke up. A scene showed my character pulling out his staff, which they left with him behind bars, and I broke out to another weird alarm system that never came back up again or was explained. Anyway, you get the point: this game is a journey that wants you to feel like you’re on a real adventure, and I think it accomplishes it.

Combat System and Mechanics

So, let’s talk about the action system. Players are equipped with a staff, which becomes more powerful as you gain levels. Taking down enemies gives you experience, and Will used to buy and upgrade equipment, but I’m getting ahead of myself. In the opening hours, combat is very straightforward, and then you start unlocking new abilities and skills, each with a skill tree that can be used to refine your combat capabilities. I found myself filling out the skill trees of the defensive abilities like Paralyze to make combat more accessible, but there’s a lot to parse through when considering how you want to build out your character. Further, you can reset these skills at a shrine whenever you want, which we’ll discuss later.

Combat is exhilarating and probably the best part of this entire experience. In action, you can’t help but be hypnotized by the on-screen acrobatics and skill-based combat. Players can cycle through stances that change light and heavy attack patterns. As you land attacks, you’ll increase a gauge that allows you to unleash a powerful heavy attack. Further, you can equip spirits that can be individually upgraded for greater effect. Perfect dodging slows down time and adds i-frames, but I will say that if you’re looking for relentless Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice meets Elden Ring levels of the challenge here, I will lower those expectations. This game wants you to complete it eventually, and deaths only send you back to the most recent Shrine, but you still keep Experience and Will. The consequence of dying is mainly found in time wasted. Some enemies and navigating stages tax the player as they run headfirst into a fight, which they have just died on ten times already. Luckily, you can travel to other areas, grow stronger, and return. Enough side content is happening alongside the main campaign, allowing you to gain some levels. My only wish is for proper Arial combos because this weird jump-kick isn’t fun.

Black Myth: Wukong is a breathtaking visual spectacle, but its disjointed narrative leaves much to be desired.

There’s an enormous pool of enemies that you’ll encounter aside from the boss battles that constantly push your understanding of combat and reading enemy telegraphs to get through. I will say that the lock-on option is a little wonky, and some enemy placements come off as lazy as areas seem to have copied and pasted layouts, dampening the experience. An example of lousy enemy placement is an area where you have to climb out of prison and get to a part where you have to balance on some wood, but three enemies are present to knock you off. If you attack any of them locked on, your character will launch off the support beam and fall to their death. Situations like this feel very disjointed from other areas but are rare.

One of the most significant downsides of the entire experience is the lack of a map. These areas are enormous, and while you get accustomed to their layout after multiple visits, a map would greatly help. Fast travel is also hurt by these, with Shrines allowing you to visit early areas but with no indication about where those points are in the level. Shrines also allow you to craft new items, weapons, and equipment, which are all unlocked linearly. While it’s possible to find some rare equipment in chests around the map, most of the strongest equipment unlocks during event milestones. Equipment has some unique buffs and stat increases, but I got through the game without much thinking by equipping the newest items as they were available.

Visuals and Presentation

Black Myth: Wukong is gorgeous graphically. Each environment has distinct areas to explore, but cave dungeons are overused far too often. An argument could be made that they play it safe regarding locals, but they do some unique things here. Such as environmental puzzles that change the landscape or mid-bosses that keep you from realizing you’ve been in a forest area for the last 10 hours. That brings me to the length of the game. Completing everything could be around 50 hours, but getting through the campaign takes around 40 hours. However, that time is mainly packed with action and minimal story scenes, making this a true action game.

Final Thoughts

Black Myth: Wukong is a spectacle from beginning to end. Those who wish to immerse themselves fully into the world will be treated to a large serving of Chinese lore, and those who don’t can enjoy a challenging action game. Ultimately, I believe Black Myth: Wukong put all of its resources into the combat system, and that pays off by keeping the player invested in taking down the many, many enemies within this adventure. The result, though, can appear disjointed, only focusing on a specific group of players. With that said, I applaud Game Science for creating an adventure that feels like an adventure. Thirty hours in, I was reading through some in-game journals as if reminiscing on quests that took place 20 years ago, and I was overcome with nostalgia. I don’t know if a game like this can ever be replicated in this same way and still deliver this amount of charm, but for what it is, Black Myth: Wukong is an enjoyable video game.