Black Myth: Wukong’s controversy was no match for its gameplay. The game released last Tuesday to much contention around Chinese developer Game Science, whose streaming guidelines were a blast from the Gamergate past, but it lived up to our high hopes anyway. Less than 3 hours in, the game had already crushed Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077’s all-time player records, logging 1.2 mn players on Steam.

ICYMI: You, the Destined One, set out to decipher the secrets of an ancient legend in an epic action RPG rooted in Chinese mythology (watch trailer, runtime: 4:45). Your primary weapon is a staff that extends and shrinks in size, used for attacks of different stances that allows for multiple styles of strike patterns and levels of power. But the art of war is not just violence. You can cast spells that include transformation into different creatures and beings. Each transformation comes with its own movesets and stats.

Game critics everywhere agree on one thing: The game is a cinematic masterpiece… When it works. The stunning in-game world is breathtaking in its optimal settings, but your GPU will suffer to render it. People complaining about bugs reported stuttering, severe lag, desynced audio, and awful frame rates, so keep an eye out for some patches soon.

Combat is customizable… In the main menu, you can adjust your combat levels, called Sparks, to customize your stamina, fighting skills, combat stances, mysticism, spells… You get the gist. This might seem overwhelming and complicated at first, but your playstyle becomes a fingerprint — no two players will have the same experience playing this game.

…And insanely fun. Even though you only have the one weapon in your arsenal, combat never becomes boring. It does test your learning curve — if you don’t have a knack for picking up new skills, you will definitely feel the wrath during challenging boss fights.

If you’re an Xbox player, brace yourself. The game wasn’t available for pre-ordering or pre-downloading on the console, sparking fears that Sony had once again bought console exclusivity. This was only exacerbated when the game failed to launch on the online store on Tuesday. But turns out, it’s no one’s fault but Xbox. Game Science released a statement saying that release on the console will be delayed until the Series X|S port meets the developer’s quality standards.

💯 Rating: 10/10 on Steam, 95% audience rating.

⌛ Hours of gameplay: 39 hours to complete the main story and the side quests.

🔁 Replay value: 9/10.

👾 Platforms: Steam and Epic Games for PC, and Playstation.

💵 Price: USD 59.99 for the standard version, USD 69.99 for the deluxe version.

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