Black Myth: Wukong Review (PS5) | Push Square
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
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