Black Myth: Wukong is, ultimately, a game about boss fights. Tense, dynamic boss fights that’ll have you gawking in awe one minute, and potentially spiking your controller the next. This is a challenging action title — a constant push against increasingly complex and deadly opponents, and there are no difficulty settings to fall back on. That fact alone will be enough to put some people off, but if you can stick with the game and become invested in its rather unique brand of staff-based battling, you’ll be rewarded with a degree of spectacle that’s so rarely seen outside of bona fide blockbusters like Final Fantasy 16 and God of War Ragnarok.
Structurally, Wukong is a traditional Soulslike. There are shrines that you’ll return to upon death, there are dedicated boss arenas, and the level design is largely linear, always funnelling you towards the next battlefield. Indeed, exploration is kept to a bare minimum. While later environments are slightly more expansive overall, it’s not like there’s a must-see secret down every dead end, and frequent use of invisible walls — a jarring choice given the title’s graphical prowess — ensures that you submit to the beaten path.
Wukong is at its weakest when you’re trotting between boss encounters. We’re not saying that the game needs exploration, that it would be better if it copied Elden Ring’s homework — but beyond a bunch of pretty vistas and the occasional side quest (which is typically completed just down the road anyway), Wukong struggles to fully justify its own design. At worst, the game’s world ends up feeling artificial — a walled-off series of walkways that exist purely to fill space between the fights that actually matter.
On a fundamental level, however, you could argue that downtime between bosses is a necessity. As alluded, key clashes are intense affairs that only grow bolder and more bombastic as the game progresses. Boss battles are without doubt the beating heart of the experience; they’re both frequent and impressively varied — a seemingly never-ending stream of immaculately crafted opponents for you to struggle against and eventually conquer.
Wukong’s many, many foes are plucked from Chinese mythology, and the game itself is based upon Journey to the West — the timeless 16th century novel that’s influenced countless works of fiction. The titular Wukong — a monkey who ascended to near godhood — is struck down in the game’s opening, and you take on the role of another, nameless ape who sets off in search of Wukong’s scattered relics.
Admittedly, it’s a plot that much better resonates if you’re already familiar with China’s most culturally impactful legends. Without prior knowledge, the title’s storytelling comes across as disjointed and almost ethereal — little more than a barely coherent string of events that loosely tie each of the game’s six chapters together. But even if you’re firmly out of the loop, there’s a fairy tale whimsy to Wukong’s writing and dialogue that makes everything seem… cohesive.
But Wukong doesn’t want you to get bogged down in lore and narrative — it wants you to clobber demons with your smacking stick, and in that regard, it’s fairly hard to fault. Combat exists in a space somewhere between your classic Soulslike blueprint of attack, retreat, repeat, and a more action-oriented approach, replete with combos and special abilities. It’s an odd mix that, at times, can feel a little confused, like it’s trying to have the best of both worlds but never quite manages to settle on an identity of its own.
However, the combat system only gets better as the game goes on, thanks to a slew of unlockable perks, skills, and magical feats that all dovetail quite spectacularly in the title’s more demanding moments. Wukong gets brilliantly creative with the abilities that you’re eventually afforded, as our simian hero is capable of transforming into previously defeated demons, and casting spells that can turn the tide of battle.
With all of this in mind, it’s a bit of a shame that you’re stuck with such comparatively basic tools for the title’s first 10 to 15 hours of gameplay. Granted, there needs to be some kind of progression curve, but several of the protagonist’s later abilities feel borderline essential in fully appreciating the combat system as a whole.
We’re hesitant to say that Wukong gets easier as you unlock more and more nodes across its shockingly large skill trees, but most players will hit a point where the sheer breadth of your arsenal lets you bypass the cautious style of play that earlier chapters enforced. It actually makes for a satisfying sense of growth; just like Wukong himself, you’re beginning to embrace the inner monkey, taking your opponents for a ride with increasingly devious tactics.
It takes a while to truly click, but this is an excellent action game at its core — and that makes its lack of PS5 optimisation harder to stomach. Specifically, it’s the title’s ‘Performance’ mode that drops the biggest metaphorical ball. It promises a smoother gameplay experience targeting 60 frames-per-second — something that many would claim is crucial for any hardcore action game. However, Wukong’s 60fps is essentially an illusion — a product of clumsy frame generation. In essence, you’re playing at 30fps, but visually, it looks like 60.
Input lag is a very unfortunate byproduct of this technique, and it can absolutely be felt every now and then, when your dodge doesn’t come out in time, or when your heavy attack doesn’t link up with your standard combo. It’s not a total dealbreaker — Wukong’s combat is staggered enough to where you’re never hitting too many buttons in quick succession — but not knowing whether your death was down to a lack of skill, or the game’s technical ineptitude, can be deeply frustrating. We can only hope that developer Game Science cleans things up post-launch.
We wouldn’t mind a boost in resolution, either, if only so that we can better appreciate the game’s frankly incredible art direction. Visuals obviously aren’t everything, but Wukong’s eye-popping presentation is a reason to keep playing, pure and simple. Every new enemy, every new boss, is a joy to discover, and they’re all superbly animated. The artistry on display across the entire adventure is outstanding, even at the meagre 1080p resolution of performance mode.
Conclusion
It takes time for Black Myth: Wukong’s combat to truly click, but when it does, this is one of the most creative action titles on PS5. One after another, its spectacular boss battles steal the show — a procession of memorable encounters that showcase the game’s incredible artistry. As a whole, however, the experience is held back by limited level design and frustrating technical issues on PS5 — a damn shame, since Wukong is pure monkey magic at its peak.
