Game On: Hype around ‘Wukong’ is justifiable

It has become the most popular single player game in China

I begin this review with a disclaimer: The copy of Wukong used for this review was purchased by me and not provided by Game Science. Therefore, I am not bound by any terms and conditions set by the developer, allowing me to freely critique the lack of gender representation and meaningful female characters in the game.

While I firmly believe that building strong female characters for media contributes to more accurate societal representations, dismissing these efforts as ‘feminist propaganda’ is, in fact, a much bigger problem for us to contend with.

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Onto the review The much-awaited Black Myth: Wukong is not just China’s first AAA game but has quickly become one of the most popular singleplayer games of the year. The numbers surrounding the game’s launch are staggering; as reported by Gamerant, Steam users in China alone downloaded a total of 1.5 exabytes (1.5 billion GB) of data within the seven-day window ending on August 25.

The hype surrounding this gaming adaptation of the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West” is justified, as there is a lot here to like. The game, set in a mythical version of China, draws from the same source material that has inspired wellknown franchises like The Monkey King, Dragon Ball Z, and characters in Naruto and Persona, to name just a few.

However, you don’t play as the mythical monkey Sun Wukong himself – at least, not for long. After a brief stint as Sun Wukong at the beginning, you instead play as a monkey who aspires to become him, known as ‘The Destined One’; Your journey revolves around unlocking the five senses of Sun Wukong, battling every monster the game throws at you, and in the process growing stronger and worthy to be the monkey king yourself.

Wukong gets most things right – a fantastic story, flawless combat, and an open world that is both intricate and unforgiving. However, it’s important to remember that this isn’t a traditional Soulslike game. You’ll find yourself juggling attacks from your staff, harnessing powers from your gourd, and unleashing special mythic abilities. This is a game where you will die many many times, but you will not stop trying repeatedly because it is all top-notch.

However, not all is perfect with Wukong, on the PS5, in performance mode, I found that the game wouldn’t register button inputs as it tried to gimmick its way to 60 fps. However, none of these minor issues stop Wukong from being a game-of-theyear contender. A must-buy if you like hack and slash, despite my belief that modern-day adaptations need to be more in line with the society they are designed for.