‘Black Myth: Wukong’ review: a mind-bogglingly beautiful action adventure

After years of anticipation, Black Myth: Wukong is finally here – and the game’s stunning, flashy combat delivers spectacularly. This action adventure follows in the epic footsteps of Elden Ring as players venture across various lands to obtain a set of relics in a tale inspired by the classic Chinese novel Journey To The West.

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These lands are filled with a variety of enemies to fight, bosses to challenge, characters to talk to, and secrets to discover. These moments are where Black Myth: Wukong shines, as combat is fast, fluid, and incredibly satisfying. The game offers a collection of powers and abilities, like ‘Immobilise’ (freezing enemies in place) and ‘A Pluck Of Many’ (a powerful spell that casts dozens of copies of yourself), on top of your regular staff, which can be swung to deal damage and spun to reflect projectiles.

Utilising all these abilities and powers allows you to be incredibly menacing, strolling up towards an enemy or mini-boss, freezing them in place, and then offloading a ton of damage with a charged heavy attack. You can even turn into enemies briefly by collecting their spirits when they die. Black Myth: Wukong is an incredible power fantasy, and you feel like an imposing force in this world as you move through it. It helps that the game’s visuals are gorgeous too.

Difficulty spikes are a problem though. The game bounces between extended periods where enemies die almost instantly before the player is suddenly forced to face some of the toughest opponents in the game, all within the same chapter and often without warning. The same goes for bosses; some are pushovers, others are incredibly difficult and the order in which you face them has seemingly been chosen at random.

Outside of the enthralling combat system, players are given the freedom to move through the world of Black Myth: Wukong. As they explore, they’ll interact with the locals, complete isolated questlines and uncover unexplored areas, complete with their own bosses and treasures. These secrets provide some of the best moments in the game, but also allow players to get their hands on key items that unlock rare resources to upgrade armour.

However, these collectibles (alongside Black Myth: Wukong’s overall upgrade system) can get a tad messy. It is extremely easy to get confused as to what exactly each item of gear does and how they work together, thanks to the convoluted set-up.

Additionally, Black Myth: Wukong’s level design is rather poor. Each chapter feels jumbled  together like bricks of a precariously balanced Jenga tower and dead ends are rife. Sections of chapters often loop back in on themselves or feel casually bolted onto other sections as well, which creates a frustrating landscape to explore, rather than a gloriously immersive one.

On top of that, the mission objectives in each chapter are not all that enjoyable, and the clear path forward can be hard to discern. Black Myth: Wukong is a game where the journey is a slog, but the destination setpieces are a delight.

Black Myth: Wukong delivered a solid performance on PC, but the game did suffer from frame drops during cutscenes and busier moments. It’s less easy to overlook the fact that entire sections of this game just aren’t localised yet either, with the journal menu that lists enemy types and the characters you meet impossible to understand. It makes for an odd, jarring experience, set against a bewitching backdrop.

Black Myth: Wukong is released August 20 for PS5 and PC. We reviewed the game on PC