For the 4 of you who haven’t purchased it but, Black Fable Wukong is a enjoyable Soulslike riff on Journey to the West the place you play as a delightfully lethal monkey. Our evaluation gave it 87, a rating PC Gamer does not usually slap on dangerous video games. Wukong is at its greatest when it throws a spectacular boss struggle your manner and also you get the satisfaction of taking it down with an enormous whacky stick and a number of other gloriously OTT spells. Conjuring three clones of myself and watching my monkey doppelgangers go completely ape on a boss is yet one more energy fantasy ticked off the ol’ bucket checklist.
Wukong can also be, even by 2024 requirements, eye-poppingly beautiful. I needed to flip the graphical settings down somewhat so my gaming laptop computer would cease screaming and it nonetheless regarded spectacular. Lush inexperienced forests and blinding-white snowy mountains are sport location tropes practically as outdated as Pong’s paddles, however that’s lots simpler to disregard once they look this beautiful. Till you strive exploring them correctly and uncover how hemmed in you truly are.
Wukong is totally infested with invisible partitions. Tedious, immersion-breaking obstacles that efficiently slam the brakes on the enjoyable of exploration. This can be a sport with 91 bosses and a few of its greatest bouts lurk off the vital path. Identical goes for essential crafting supplies, treasures, and meditation spots that presumably grant you serenity (yawn) and an additional ability level (yay!).
Principally, it’s filled with motivation to discover, regardless that it doesn’t offer you a map. I don’t suppose the repetitive degree design is almost memorable sufficient to get away with being mapless (and it appears no less than 30,000 individuals agree with me) however I begrudgingly settle for that as a design alternative. What I can’t get previous—actually—is nonsense like this doorway:
What’s behind these doorways? An epic boss struggle? A robust new weapon? Feminist propaganda? I’ll by no means know as a result of there’s an invisible wall blocking you from passing via that huge opening. Who thought placing an invisible barricade in an open doorway was a good suggestion? That’s the sport design equal of placing further lives in a bottle labeled “Poison: Additional Deadly” or hiding an NPC it’s essential save in a vivid pink barrel.
Wukong did not invent this historical downside after all, however it’s disappointing to see it making a comeback in a big-budget 2024 launch. As of late builders choose subtler smoke and mirrors to disguise limitations, like making you squeeze via gaps in partitions to cover loading occasions. That one’s getting fairly outdated too, however I’ll take it over the time I trudged throughout a frozen lake in Wukong, solely to find that land mass within the distance was nothing however a fairly screensaver. I spent the lengthy stroll again throughout the lake inventing new swear phrases. Why would I need to search this world for secrets and techniques once I know this tedium will too usually be my reward?
I can see the place the temptation to try to get away with this horseshit comes from. Placing seen obstacles in place could make a sport world look smaller on the floor. But naturally, once I slam into invisible partitions, the world feels each considerably smaller and extra synthetic. I’m not attempting to select on Wukong particularly for this for any nefarious purpose. I’m extra involved that, in a 12 months the place nice Soulslikes have began to interrupt out of FromSoftware’s shadow by doing their very own factor, we could be seeing the start of Elden Ring’s affect, and never for the higher.
If Soulslike builders begin pondering that they now must match or no less than bluff the size of an open world to compete, we’re going to see much more invisible partitions and pointless empty house. One of many issues that makes Elden Ring so excellent is how rigorously crafted its world is regardless of its appreciable measurement, and the way a lot of it truly might be interacted with (it additionally has a map trace trace). It’s a staggering achievement from an skilled studio on the top of its powers. When you suppose your debut Soulslike might be of the same scale, or fake to be larger than it’s, and match/surpass that for high quality, then you definitely’re both extremely courageous or an even bigger fan of tragic hubris than [insert clever reference to dark souls lore that will make about three awful people feel incredibly smug for getting it here].
Please don’t depart this pondering Black Fable: Wukong isn’t value your time. I’d hate for this op-ed to end in all 10 million+ copies being refunded and the sport changing into considered one of 2024’s largest flops. It’s a charismatic, surprisingly humorous, charming journey with some terrific boss fights and an impressive energy set. Having the ability to freeze enemies in time and get some extremely low cost smacks in is a continuing pleasure. And the ability that leaves somewhat explosive shadow of your self once you time a dodge excellent is the impressed dose of Bayonetta injected right into a Soulslike that I’ve all the time dreamed of.
However crucially these are standout options as a result of they’re not in FromSoftware’s video games. Copy that studio’s homework too carefully and you find yourself with one thing forgettably generic at greatest, and downright terrible at worst. I nonetheless haven’t forgiven Lies of P’s bounce controls, whereby you needed to maintain down the run button after which click on the analogue stick (what). They’re the direct results of a developer taking a look at OG Darkish Souls’ crap bounce controls and going ‘yep, no notes’. And thus considered one of FromSoftware’s weirdest design choices was given a grim second life.
Wukong fortunately has a pleasant, smart devoted bounce button, albeit one that you just use to always leap face-first into these sodding invisible partitions (each screenshot on this piece is me operating into one, by the way in which, although it’s oddly difficult to seize invisibility in pictures). Fats probability of this occurring, however I’d love the inevitable sequel to be an unashamedly smaller scale Soulslike that leans into the excellent, artistic spellcraft that’s this sport’s energy. On the very least, how a couple of spell that lets us tear down these invisible partitions for good?
