IWhen Chinese developer Game Science revealed its debut console game Black Myth: Wukong last year, it immediately caused a stir. Inspired by the great 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, the action-packed footage showed the titular mythological ape Sun Wukong battling demons from Buddhist folklore and sword-wielding anthropomorphic foxes in lushly rendered forests. Smartphone games are extraordinarily popular in China, but console game developers are still few and far between, and enthusiasm for Wukong in Game Science’s homeland reached fever pitch. Within 24 hours, the trailer had racked up 2 million views on YouTube and over 10 million on Chinese video-sharing site Bilibili, much to the surprise and delight of its creators. One excited fan even broke into the developer’s officedesperate for more information about the game.
After playing Wukong for an hour and a half in a London hotel suite, as several Game Science employees nervously watched, I can confirm that, almost miraculously, this astonishing Chinese mythological take on Dark Souls delivers on what that flashy trailer promises, combining fluid combat with reflex-testing difficulty and the expensive cinematic polish of something like God of War. As I sprint through Wukong’s dense jungle, ducking and dodging its lethal array of flora and fauna, I come face to face with all manner of creatures, from gi-wearing toads to nightmarish babies with gigantic heads. Unlike many of its brutally challenging FromSoftware-inspired peers, the difficulty in Wukong feels expertly calculated. My simian avatar met a gruesome end more times than I care to admit, but I persevered. Eventually, I defeated enough enemies to unlock new abilities. Soon I’ll be able to hop on my staff in the middle of the attack, giving me an advantage against their murderous mythological monsters. I can buzz through the forest like a stealthy cicada, summon flames with my sword, and eventually take down a snarling werewolf the size of a truck on a ruined temple.
“We are under a lot of pressure,” reflects one of Game Science’s co-founders, who introduces himself only as Ted (Game Science declined to give his full name), through a translator. “This is the first time we’ve worked on a PC and console game, and we’re also a new studio, so we’d like to thank the tolerance that gamers and the market have towards us, their enthusiasm encourages us. However, the Chinese mentality tends to be that we look at the risks, and so when faced with such a big stimulus, the best we can do is try to meet gamers’ expectations as best we can… and communicate with them in a very honest way.”
Unfortunately, I encounter very little honest communication when I mention… A report from IGNwhich related to alleged sexist comments from several Game Science developers, as well as those in leadership roles. I present Ted with the opportunity to address the claims of misogynistic posts and whether he feels they represent Game Science’s values. Instead, I am shut down with a hurried “no comment” from their UK PR rep and then, after a long wait, given a longer “no comment” statement via Ted’s translator. I am then told that Game Science’s US PR agency will follow up later with a prepared statement, only to be sent back to me with the following: “Game Science is focused on the demo right now and will only be answering questions related to the game.”
The same thing happened to an IGN reporter in A demonstration in Los Angeles Last month, Game Science decided to invite journalists to talk to them and play the game, but refused to answer their questions. Perhaps there are no guarantees to offer. A generous reading of the situation would be that this inexperienced studio is terrified of saying the wrong thing. However, by saying nothing, Game Science is also failing to distance itself (and its game) from the many rude, disparaging, and misogynistic comments attributed to its employees and leaders.
Of course, Journey to The West isn’t a new game to the gaming world. From Ninja Theory’s 2010 Xbox 360 adaptation written by Alex Garland and starring Andy Serkis, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, to Akira Toriyama’s world-conquering Dragon Ball, its world of myth and monkeys lends itself perfectly to video games. Black Myth: Wukong’s stunning graphics, cinematic beauty, and refreshing sense of speed might well make it the best playable adaptation of the fable to date, but the unreserved excitement you’d feel about it is being trampled on by the elephant in the room.