Wukong’s big bosses highlight the game’s biggest problem

Black Myth: Wukong is filled to the brim with fantastic boss fights, but the spectacular nature of the challenges helps shed a brighter light on the game’s most glaring weakness. As an interesting hybrid between a soullike, boss rush and traditional action game, Black Myth: Wukong Spare no expense when it comes to the presentation of its great moments. While some later fights can come with intense difficulty spikes, bosses tend to be a joy to play, with unique movesets and fluid attack animations that make even the most frustrating encounters feel satisfying.

If Black Myth: Wukong Were it nothing more than a boss rush, it would still be a reasonably satisfying experience, and some parts of Chapter 1 feel like the game is leaning in that direction. As it progresses, however, it becomes clear that A significant amount of the runtime is still spent on normal level traversalWith lots of minor enemies to fight and occasional secrets to uncover. Some segments still have many bosses in short succession, but others tip the balance in the other direction, especially when exploring alternate paths and searching for hidden areas and treasures.

Black Myth: Wukong’s levels don’t match his boss fights

Brilliant heights are mixed with pedestrian design

Black Myth: Wukongs levels are often perfectly pleasant to play through, but when you look at them side-by-side with the boss fights, it’s hard to argue that there’s much comparison. In its often climactic encounters, the game is punching well above most of the competitionAnd there’s definitely an argument to be made that the lineup is more consistent than the bosses that some big titles like Alden ring Bring to the table. Outside of them, however, much of the level design feels like something taken from a passable but forgettable game.

That’s not to say that the levels aren’t capable of impressing, as they certainly have their strong points. Gorgeous environmental detail and an abundance of bespoke enemy designs and animations are wonderful touches, and some stretches are tightly designed. Others, however, can feel like repetitive marches through long corridors of mostly predictable enemy placements. The boss fights in Black Myth: Wukong Incentivize players to continue the tantalizing pull of mastery, while Levels often rely on little more than inertia.

Levels are also let down by an over-reliance on invisible wallsWhich can often be found in areas that look like they could be reasonably traversed. Black Myth: Wukong Does not use any very consistent standards of logic about which rock formations can be traversed and which are not, so anyone who wants to find every other path and hidden secret will inevitably find themselves against many invisible walls in the course of the game. In a world so undeniably gorgeous, it’s a shame to have the immersion broken by such a rudimentary design limitation.

Black Myth: Wukong could be even better

Great design would enhance the experience

Although Black Myth: Wukong Is not exactly a soullike, it is difficult not to compare its lower points to the areas in games of Dark souls Developer FromSoft, which tend to be just as interesting as the boss fights that accompany them. There is nothing wrong with that Black Myth: Wukong choosing to avoid these Castlevania– As gauntlets found in Dark soulsHow easier traversal can provide appreciated downtime between bosses. Sekiro Already provided a better example of how to load the difficulty on the bosses while the rest of the game entertaining, however, to say nothing of action games from other studios.

A game doesn’t necessarily have to be firing on all cylinders to deliver a great time, and the high points of Black Myth: Wukong are more than enough to manage it. It’s hard not to imagine how cool a game that punched up the level design to match the fantastic bosses could be, and to see developer GameScience take this path in the future would be a dream come true. The boss fights in Black Myth: Wukong Outshine a lot of what other games have to offer, but they also end up highlighting how weak other elements of the experience are in comparison.