Black Fantasy: Wukong is beautiful. It’s constructed up quite a lot of momentum, feeding trailer after beautiful trailer, and at Summer time Recreation Fest this yr, I lastly received to play it. Is it only a beautiful tech demo with a heavy dose of Chinese language mythology or your subsequent gaming problem?
A Chinese language folks story, Journey to the West, impressed Recreation Science Studio’s motion RPG. You play because the “destined one,” a monkey hero wielding an extending bo-staff and a handful of magic spells. I used to be given the higher-specced (although undisclosed) PC rig to play on, guaranteeing all that Unreal Engine 5 eye sweet had a preventing likelihood of operating easily. Whereas lower than an hour with a recreation gained’t give the definitive reply, Wukong ran easily regardless of my chaotic play fashion. The sport has been held up as a significant instance of next-gen graphical tech, so I’m relieved it did not chug throughout my demo.
I performed a comparatively early a part of the sport, beginning with the Forest of Wolves and the Guanyin Temple. I fought my manner by way of a number of typical wolf-humanoid enemies, an even bigger mid-level boss after which a large wolf creature. On the way in which, I unlocked the power to rework into one of many monsters, summoning their flaming weapon and opening up new assaults and expertise. Halfway by way of the demo, an outdated man with a head like a ginseng root gave me an immobilization spell with its personal cooldown meter and provided me a quick reprieve towards extra harmful foes, like the ultimate large wolf. He additionally briefly remodeled me into an insect, in a position to fly over enemies’ heads. This was enjoyable however will apparently solely be obtainable at sure factors within the recreation — you gained’t have the ability to dodge all of the fights.
Nonetheless, you gained’t progress (and even keep alive lengthy) until you get a deal with on the fundamentals. Assaults are separated into mild and heavy, with the power to cost the heavy assault for even stronger blows. Given how stamina drains throughout assaults, you’ll have to carry on prime of protection, too, with jumps and dodges. Dodge completely, and time slows a bit of, an additional phantasm of your self seems and also you get to tug just a few further strikes earlier than an enemy realizes what occurred.
As you progress, you earn factors to unlock new expertise from a expertise tree, which teases three employees kinds to modify between. I unlocked the ‘pillar’ fashion, so my character may vault as much as the highest of his employees and ‘grow’ it by holding the robust assault button. This fashion, you keep away from ground-level assaults. But when enemies hit your employees, your stamina (however not your well being) takes a success.
Releasing the button unleashes an additional robust transfer that appears to daze enemies if it interrupts their assault. It’s excessive danger, excessive reward and, like the very best motion RPGs, there’s nothing extra satisfying than nailing the timing and transfer alternative. Wukong’s battle system means you possibly can’t simply spam assaults and dodge rolls, as each burn by way of a stamina bar, which sits subsequent to your well being bar. The destined one additionally carries a chargeable well being potion, however he has to pause to make use of it. Extra danger and reward: When you don’t use it in a well timed manner, you’ll die and get reincarnated a couple of minutes down the mountain and need to face (or run previous) many of the enemies you’d already dispatched — the elemental spine of soulslike video games like Wukong. The battle system appeared responsive, and the largest challenges got here from teams of warriors: I needed to mix evasion with prioritizing, say, the archer, earlier than different enemies.
It’s all elevated by how good the surroundings appears to be like, the weird monster design and the quiet, unsettling soundtrack. The large wolf boss I encountered was small potatoes in comparison with different enemies the developer teased in earlier trailers — I wish to struggle that dragon. Whereas the protagonist was completely taciturn throughout my demo, Recreation Science, the studio behind the sport, says the participant will “uncover the stories behind various characters, understanding their love and hate, greed and anger, past lives and present.” I’m intrigued to see how that goes.
Black Fantasy: Wukong is, lastly, virtually right here. It launches on PC and PS5 on August 20, 2024.
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