All Aboard the Black Myth: Wukong Hype Train!
It’s been 4 long years since we saw the first stunning trailer for Black Myth: Wukong from then-unknown and new developer Game Science. What I found exciting about this new trailer was that the game visuals were absolutely jaw-dropping and truly something to be excited to get a PS5 for, but it also raised the question “Is this the start of something great from the next big developer?” I’ve enjoyed many games from Eastern developers, but you can clearly see Game Science is taking things to a whole new level!
As a fan of action hack-and-slash games, it’s also been pleasing to see a resurgence in the linear third-person hack and slash genre sadly MIA in the last generation of console games. God of War: Ragnarok has a semi-open world but is still a fairly linear experience, as are Stellar Blade and Kena: Bridge of Spirits. As for Black Myth: Wukong, it has been confirmed to be of the same game design of a mostly linear experience.
Many in the industry are also trying to paint Black Myth: Wukong as a “Souls-like” game, but this irks me terribly. The developers have stated the game is fast-paced and linear but hard. Ninja Gaiden is a fast-paced, hard, hack-and-slash game, but no one calls that “Souls-like”. Just because games like Elden Ring and Bloodborne are popular and have melee weapons, don’t lump everything else slightly similar to them into the same genre. It’s clear from the fast action and no blocking gameplay we have seen that Black Myth: Wukong is an altogether different beast.
We then must get to the timeless story. Ever since I was a young lad and I saw the TV series Monkey Magic, I’ve enjoyed the retelling of the story Journey to the West over and over. It was the same for the game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and even the 2019 game Monkey King: Hero Is Back. Again, the developers have stated that the game will have a more traditional method of storytelling that is more focused due its linear, mission-based, point-to-point, design.
Where Black Myth: Wukong is going to take this to a new level of excitement is that in the book, there are 72 monsters to defeat, and they will each be represented as 72 boss fights in the game! It will be a challenge to see if any of these boss fights have any repeating assets or are the same as previous boss fights, but the amount of content for this game if they pull this off will be huge! The best bits of the God of War games are the incredible boss fights. Imagine 72 of them in one game, let alone sub-bosses and minions!
There is the added bonus of Monkey being able to shapeshift into any bosses (apparently) he has already defeated in the game. This adds a whole new layer of playstyles on top of the combat you will have access to.
The only niggle I have with the details leaked so far about the game is that they have, by design, not given Monkey the ability to block with his staff. The game is all about movement but most specifically dodging. You won’t be able to spam the dodge mechanic either, but you will be rewarded if you manage to pull off perfect last-second dodges.
The key feature for me as a hack-and-slash guru is the ability of the player to be able to express themselves on the battlefield as they want. This is an especially important component to get right in the mechanics if you can’t block. Until we get our hands on the game to try this out, we won’t know for now, but stay with us here at Gaming Respawn when we can hopefully give you an answer to that question and more with a full written review upon the game’s worldwide release date of the 20th of August for the PlayStation 5 and PC.
