Four years after it was announced, Black Myth: Wukong is finally in the hands of critics who have reviewed the third-person action RPG ahead of its August 20 release. The general consensus seems to be that while the upcoming game looks great and has some cool boss designs, it’s buggy, too easy, and has repetitive combat.
Black Myth: Wukong was first announced in 2020 via a short but impressive-looking gameplay trailer. Since then, hype around the game has steadily built thanks to its slick combat and gorgeous visuals. However, an IGN report in 2023 alleged that some top individuals at Game Science, the studio behind the game, had participated in awful online discussions about women and fostered a toxic culture at the studio.
That report hasn’t stopped Black Myth: Wukong from becoming one of the most anticipated PS5 games of 2024. Oddly, no outlets (Kotaku included) received the console version of the game, so all reviews are of the PC version. That seems like a potential red flag to me, but we’ll have to wait and see how the PS5 plays once folks can get their hands on it.
For now, here is what other critics and writers are saying about Black Myth: Wukong on PC:
Black Myth: Wukong is a fantastic video game – and a staggering achievement from an indie studio. Like Lies of P last year and Nioh 2 before it, Black Myth: Wukong is a sterling example of how to take Soulslike elements and weave them into something that feels fresh and original. It’s gorgeous to look at, has some of the best music in any game this year so far, and presents itself with such confidence and panache that it’s hard to pick fault with it.
Wukong is one of the most joyful action RPGs I’ve played simply for how lovingly it treats its world and characters and, by extension, how much it clearly wants me to love them too. It worked: Punchy combat aside, I wanted to keep working through each area to meet another weird little creature with a mysterious quest or to get jumped by another animal who learned MMA. In a pool of games about fallen kings and sad dragons, it’s delightful to play an action game that isn’t obsessed with being dour and where the best solution to the most grueling fights is to use as many fun abilities as you can.
In a year with the tremendous Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, I never thought I’d play a game that veers in such a wildly different direction but manages to reach similar highs, even if it lacks the sheer scale and build complexity as FromSoftware’s masterpiece.
Wukong is its own beast and if it has to be labeled a soulslike, then I think we’re going to have to come up with a new definition. There’s nothing else quite like it.
Do I feel that the game is unfinished? In large pieces, yes, but at least with the story, no. I felt satisfied with how the tale wrapped up…but I can’t shake the multiple, lingering frustrations I had throughout the journey to the end.
A game with peaks and valleys like this is, as I’ve stated throughout the review, frustrating. I can see a 10/10 in this game somewhere, but multiple questionable-level design and game design choices combined with a hefty amount of performance issues and bugs unfortunately drag it down. Black Myth: Wukong is a beautiful, somber, fascinating tale to experience — you just have to muddle your way through a forest of problems to enjoy it.
Black Myth: Wukong is a stunning game to look at, but the exploration is lacking, and the fighting is just sort of fine for the most part. It’s just a bit uninspiring, and isn’t a game that I’m expecting to stick with me for any length of time now that I’m done with it.
As GameScience’s debut action game, Black Myth: Wukong is mostly a great success, despite some major technical black marks and localization issues that are likely to cause some frustrations at launch.
Combat is fantastic thanks to a great balance of careful resource management and lightning-fast, twitch-reaction gameplay that tested my skills as much as Elden Ring ever has, despite being a more traditional action game than FromSoftware’s style. Not only that, but there are a ton of exciting boss battles, a great variety of enemies, and the world they inhabit is an absolute treat for the eyes and ears.
Its story has its moments but relies a bit too much on having prior knowledge of the events of Journey to the West, and it really could have used a map to make its rewarding exploration measure up to the strength of its combat. That said, its strengths more than carry it through, making Black Myth: Wukong a great action game that could be even greater if GameScience can squash the bugs.
I absolutely loved Black Myth: Wukong for the first two chapters, but recurring annoyances and some drawn-out sections began to wear me down around the halfway point. Combat carries the experience, the story is interesting albeit too fragmented to put me on the edge of my seat, and the world is a wondrous place to be.
It’s exciting to see such a rich setting, which has gone largely untapped in games, treated with clear love and care by an action RPG of this scale. Despite some frustrations, Black Myth: Wukong feels great and finishes strong – so strong that I’ve half a mind to give New Game Plus a try, if only to find yet more stuff I missed.
Black Myth: Wukong is definitely not a souls-like. What I wasn’t expecting was for it to be essentially a lengthy boss rush. It’s not uncommon to go from one boss fight into another and then another, and it’s in these elaborate battles where Black Myth: Wukong shines. The moments in between, however, aren’t quite as strong, sometimes devolving into aimless tedium. But its satisfying combat and unique variety of boss fights mostly manages to overcome these flaws.
Black Myth: Wukong is a game that shies away from the Soulslike label, yet it is clearly gunning for the Soulslike audience. It is far from the best in the genre, but it’s also not the worst game that has followed in Dark Souls’ footsteps.
If you go into it expecting a mostly standard Soulslike experience with some blood-boiling boss encounters mixed in with basic level design, you will have a better time than if you were going into it expecting it to be like a traditional character action game.
Black Myth: Wukong offers about 30 hours of gameplay for its first playthrough with a ton of side content to check out as well, but many will tire of the limited combat options long before they reach its dazzling yet equally aggravating final boss fight.
