6 Chapters. 81 bosses. A pile of mini bosses. What feels like new types of blisters.

Wukong is simply an amazing feat. I am not quite sure how a game like this can be built in today’s ecosystem. Scratch that, I can understand because we have things like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring. But those games are a result of years of design investment and a series of games to get there. Game Science has 3 games under record, the first two of little notice here. They started work on Wukong in 2018 and this is the result. Wild.

I’ve gone over a fair chunk so far. The long and short of it is that the game hits some amazing highs and struggles to get through portions of tedium. Chapter 1 and 2 are relatively solid, exposing you to the fundamentals of the game and building confidence on the way forward. Fights are a challenge, but not particularly long.

Chapter 3 is the size of any other 2 chapters, double the difficulty and double the confusion on direction. The pagoda portion is a true nightmare, and once completed, what follows is massive in scale. Chapters 4 and 5 are relatively straightforward, and Chapter 6 is a tone turn with an open world approach. By the end of the game, the difficulty splits into a) a single easy attempt or b) death incarnate.

Where people struggle with the first optional boss (Wandering Wight), it is a drop compared to Erlang, Ying Tiger, or the Broken Shell. These are bosses where you need to dodge a half dozen times per attack chain, have limited options to attack, and need to make very good use of specific skills.

It is hard to state how magical it is that you can reset skill points, and try out different strategies per boss. I can easily say that the method used to beat a boss in Chapter 3 is vastly different than the tail end. Being able to move things around and experiment… that’s just crazy fun.

Where Wukong struggles is in the clarity of purpose and sheer length of the game. Poor descriptions, a lack of a map, and no real tracking of progress means you never really know where you are along the path. It is really easy to miss the secret areas per map, and moreso possible to lock yourself out of some rather powerful upgrades. A bit more clarity, or tracking options would be great! 81 bosses, of which nearly 70 are mandatory, is a HUGE amount of content. I am sure I spent more time on Erlang (above) than I did in all of Chapter 1. It’s not a complaint here… it’s just that compared to the rest of the absolutely amazing stuff here, these two items come out “ok”. Wouldn’t Rocksteady have liked for Suicide Squad to be “ok”?

I put in nearly 50 hours on Wukong, and don’t regret it for a minute. Put this on a watchlist, full price is worth it, and any sale is doubly so.