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Personal Selection
In addition to our primary Game of the Year Awards 2024, every member of the PC Gamer team is spotlighting a game they cherished this year. We’ll share new individual selections, alongside our main awards, during the remainder of this month.
I’ll be candid with you, respected reader—I possess minimal knowledge about Chinese mythology. Aside from my fascination with the Three Kingdoms era, chiefly cultivated through strategy games, it isn’t something I’ve truly engaged with. Nonetheless, every year, I rave about the thrilling diversity of the soulslike genre and how it serves as an excellent platform for delving into fresh settings and mythos.
With Enotria: The Last Song drawing from Italian folklore and Black Myth: Wukong taking inspiration from Journey to the West, this year has been quite good for soulslike enthusiasts in search of settings that are more rooted in genuine mythology compared to last year’s Lies of P and Lords of the Fallen. Although I personally considered Enotria to be somewhat cumbersome, I believe Black Myth: Wukong acts as a superb example of what this genre can achieve.
Many claim Black Myth is overly simplified, yet I share Tyler’s viewpoint that it’s a wonderful introductory soulslike for those who have found harder titles challenging—this genre is not solely for those who seek out difficulty or yearn to conquer a formidable boss. If anything, I commend Black Myth for being a straightforward soulslike with bosses you don’t need to endlessly batter your head against.
In the aftermath of Elden Ring, it’s difficult to forgo the opportunity to explore something else in the open world and return later, and in a game featuring numerous bosses like Black Myth, making them excessively tough would destroy all momentum.
The astonishing production quality of Black Myth also aids in bringing its world to life. Lacking extensive knowledge of the mythology, I could simply immerse myself in the sheer wonder of the setting—that opening cutscene exemplifies this perfectly. You have this instantly charming monkey king bantering while defending his mountain against the united armies of heaven, resulting in the most cinematic soulslike introduction I’ve ever experienced.
With each chapter, Black Myth offers areas brimming with visuals and narratives. Some you need to discover—like the hidden regions and quests in each area—while others are conveyed through the characters you encounter, and revealed in the stunning animations at the conclusion of each chapter:
These interludes, in particular, reveal a significant level of dedication and genuineness regarding the environment—I was genuinely speechless when I witnessed the stop-motion sequence in chapter two. Regardless of your perspective on Black Myth: Wukong as a soulslike, the dedication it invests in manifesting its setting cannot be disputed, making it an extraordinary game for enthusiasts of the genre who are acquainted with the mechanics yet seek something novel to discover—a rare illustration of a game not attempting to replicate Yharnam or Lordran.
Consider chapter two, for example. You awaken in a desert, peppered with arrows, to discover a headless priest serenading you—somehow—with a sanxian; a type of shamisen-like instrument. While you traverse the landscape, battling its rat-men inhabitants, the priest repeatedly appears and his melodies evolve into the region’s soundtrack; a brilliant method of subtly alluding to the area’s history, the misfortunes that transpired there, and the priest’s persona.
There’s the Pagoda Realm in chapter three; a prison reminiscent of the Tower of Latria, centered around an enormous prayer wheel, which plunges the region into chaos when it starts revolving, heightening the challenge and diversity of foes. It will feel recognizable to anyone who has played Demon Souls, but it presents a refreshing reinterpretation of that idea.
This is what Black Myth: Wukong excels at for me; continually bringing its setting to life in enjoyable and unexpected ways. That’s not to imply it isn’t a commendable soulslike, either. It may lack the loadout flexibility you might encounter in other instances of the genre, but its skill system possesses considerable depth, and due to its less rigorous difficulty, you can essentially determine how far you delve. You can combine combos and spells to confront its more challenging bosses and adjust your equipment to mirror your selected playstyle.
It still features the recognizable mechanics of the genre—collecting currency from adversaries to level up, healing flasks, challenging bosses, shrines you return to upon dying, and respawning enemies, but it also integrates many of its own clever concepts. I particularly relished the spirit system, which allows you to gather enemies and bosses like Pokémon, utilizing them to execute special one-off attacks. Spells are quite enjoyable as well, such as A Pluck of Many, which enables you to summon numerous monkey clones to batter the foe into submission.
If you missed out on Black Myth: Wukong this year, but you are a soulslike enthusiast who desires a more original approach to the genre, I wholeheartedly suggest experiencing it. Perhaps due to my unfamiliarity with the original narrative, there were countless occasions while playing it where I was pleasantly taken aback by the rich and imaginative manner in which it conveyed its story. For me, Wukong truly is a must-play if you’re intrigued about recent soulslikes and the potential of the genre.
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