Black Myth Wukong difficulty explained: How hard is the game?
A Sekiro or a Star Wars Jedi?
If you weren't thinking of playing Black Myth Wukong before, chances are it's at least on your radar after this week. After breaking concurrent player records on Steam, it's looking to be one of the biggest hits of the year.
But you might have heard talk that it's a Soulslike, which, if you're a casual gamer, is quite the alarm bell. To call this genre punishing would be an understatement.
But other loud internet voices claim that it's more like the recent God of War, and fairly user-friendly.
So who do we believe? Can anyone play Black Myth Wukong? And is it even a Soulslike?
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Black Myth Wukong difficulty: How hard is the game?
While it's impossible to give an objective difficulty standard (difficulty being an subjective matter), we can share our own experience of the game and compare it to others. So how hard is the game?
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We would argue that Black Myth Wukong is above the average difficulty for a hack and slash game. So if you're only used to, say, God of War and Devil May Cry, this one might take a bit of getting used to. It'll be all the more rewarding when you beat the tough bosses, but you'll need patience.
That said, it's not anywhere near as hard as the recent Elden Ring DLC. So if you beat that, Wukong will be a breeze.
Does Black Myth Wukong have different difficulty options?
If you're stuck on a boss, you might be wondering if there's an option to take the load off and lower the difficulty.
If this is the case, we regret to tell you that there are no difficulty settings in Black Myth Wukong.
Just take a deep breath and try again, as is the way with every Soulslike.
Speaking of which... does it really fall under that genre?
Is Black Myth Wukong a Soulslike?
This is a question that's causing many a storm on social media, so we'll try to give a balanced answer. But first we have to give a say what a Soulslike is, which is difficult because the term is thrown around a lot and many disagree.
Typically, a Soulslike contains the following: difficult combat that requires perfect timing (usually involving stamina), a currency gained in victory and lost in death, and checkpoints that act as recovery points but also respawn enemies.
And because Black Myth Wukong ticks all these boxes, it must be a Soulslike right? Not quite. As many players point out, you don't level up at the checkpoints, but as you go like a typical RPG. There's also no block or parry system, and the player must fight far more offensively than you would on a typical Soulslike.
Without wading too far into the debate, we will argue that Wukong is a Soulslite.
Plenty of elements of the genre, but there's lots from the action-RPG world too.
Either way, we recommend playing it!
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