Based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, the long-awaited ‘souls-like’ role-playing game Black Myth: Wukong is finally here — at least for some.

The game won’t be released until sometime in the summer of 2024. But Game Science, the studio behind it, debuted a public, playable demo at German video game fair Gamescom earlier this month.

Now, we’re finally starting to see more footage of actual, hands-on gameplay.

Since its first gameplay video was released in August 2020, Black Myth: Wukong has been the subject of much hype — for its innovative visuals, vivid mythological setting, and intense boss fights. Some speculate it could be China’s first AAA game, an informal designation for blockbuster titles.

While it’ll be almost a year until fans at large can get their hands on Game Science’s creation, there’s finally a growing amount of information already out there, from reviews of the demo and gameplay videos. Here’s our guide to everything you need to know about Black Myth: Wukong.

Story & Gameplay

The Monkey King — Sun Wukong — is the protagonist of Black Myth: Wukong’s dark fantasy world, although he’s referred to in the game as “the Destined One.”

Players take on the role of Wukong, embarking on an odyssey across the Journey to the West-inspired universe and completing eighty-one challenges along the way.

The combat itself is ‘souls-like,’ a subgenre of mechanics pioneered by the Dark Souls franchise. Enemies span “cunning fairies, brutal monsters, amorous lords, or coward gods,” according to the official website.

Black Myth: Wukong owes its sleek look to Unreal Engine 5. And drawing on NVIDIA’s new DLSS software, the game’s third-person visuals are ultra-smooth, with minimal frame-rate drops.

A full playthrough of the game will reportedly take over fifteen hours. In contrast, the demo released at Gamescom is just forty-five minutes long, featuring four levels.

Demo Reviews

“What I didn’t expect,” wrote GamesRadar’s Jasmine Gould-Wilson about the Black Myth: Wukong demo, “was that the devs would…craft a demo that actually helps you get better as you progress, starting you off with simpler abilities and slowly stepping up the complexity over the course of a 45-minute playthrough.”

Though she didn’t make it past the second level, she praised the way the game “takes its time in teaching its mechanics.” The demo’s four levels featured a sampler of boss battles, with opponents including the Macaque Chief, a huge gorilla-like figure, and Centipede Guai, a venomous insect.

Other standout details from the demo, according to Ed Nightingale at Eurogamer, include “impeccably detailed fur textures,” “incredibly fluid” combat, and a finely-tuned balance between struggle and reward.

Release Date & Platforms

Game Science announced earlier this year that Black Myth: Wukong will be released next summer, for PlayStation 5, XBox Series X|S, and PC.

For now, fans will have to content themselves with watching — or for a lucky few, playing — the demos.

Cover image via RADII, additional images via Twitter