Recent reviews by SoulSteppe

The game has made its journey to the west.

Destined Ones! Come hear my wisdom in my review of the wonderful game Black Myth Wukong!

Black Myth Wukong is a legendary game by the Chinese studio Game Science. It is a game you should buy and experience at least once in your gaming career.

You the player watch as the namesake Wukong gets up from his respite and fight Erlang, a boss sent to punish Wukong. Erlang uses a spell that causes a headache for Wukong, for whom he is defeated. As a result, the main character is another monkey who wields a staff so he can find the necessary items to resurrect Wukong from his frozen place, so he can be whole again.

The story line establishes it self quite nicely. The Destined One label affixes itself to a monkey set out to find each of the 6 relics so that 6 senses can be employed to resurrect the legendary Sun Wukong.

I have noticed a bunch of things that made my experience amazing.

Environment and graphics are amazing. Clearly, much effort went into the creation of the environment that they look realistic and borderline uncanny valley in a good way; it is as if real like was digitized and made digital, with blades of grass looking amazing. Each environment draws me in the places that I spent a lot of time wanting to explore and relax there. I love it so so much and I spent so much time everywhere. It is like the gold standard of how to do things. A+. The wonders of Unreal Engine is exemplified through this game in the environments. I really liked how pretty the first level was with the shrines, grass, water and how well done it was.

The original soundtrack proves its worth in a game such as this game, and worth a long listen. Most are instrumental in nature but well crafted for each moment. Each setting is well done and fully engrosses me into the moment so much so that I am not distracted. Piano, classical instruments, all so darn good. Chinese cultural instruments at work. The theme song Celestial Symphony, which is based on the theme song of the 1986 television series Journey to the West, which itself has been viewed by plenty of people in China, me included.

I wanted to mention the character design are solidly well done. From characters such as the Sisters, to the individual secondary one that appear and to the random Yaoguai that appear, they are wonderfully done to the point where, it is amazing and not distracting. Tiger Vanguard is one. The Sisters are the best done in game. Two women worked in conjunction with one serving as the motion capture, and face model, and another as the voice. All are beautiful and Second Sister especially the looker. The individual who brought Erlang to life is a great example of how well do to stuff. Looks polished and well done.

Combat feels great, smooth, and addicting to engage. A variety of weapons avail themselves to the Destined One, and spells, and spirits. The Destined Ones can transform into various forms so that they can deal with enemies quite efficiently. One form can be used for one type of enemy and another for a separate type of enemy.

The stances are the exemplary ones. There are quite a few versatile stuff that can be used. For example, I mostly used an aggressive combat heavy style that focused on damage dealing, which were efficient with assaulting yaoguai. Then there were defensive ones and agile ones that were useful for the Chiefs that were useful for bosses. I feel that if I didn’t use some of them, I would have died already. The combat system is the massive stand out aspect. Truly a masterpiece.

I also liked the way that that shrines were used as a method of saving, resting, and a point of convenience. Every time I got it one, it was a nice marker on the map where it auto saved for me. Additionally, I can use a spell to teleport back to that point, so I can rest, prayer, and readjust stuff to continue on. It is also useful to get around the map to get through some of the objectives. This fast travel proves it self so convenient and I love it.

A few things I noticed that could need massive improvement.

First Minimap
-A minimap needs to exist in game. When I’m playing, I want to know where on the map, and where to go. On some maps, it feels like a clue is needed to know where to go, but ends up going in circles or somewhere else unintended, and thus lost. Therefore, a minimap could make game life a bit easier

Second - Invisible Walls
The so-called “invisible walls”, that is, natural environment that are built so well that seem like it is part of the actual game boundaries of the world in-game, since it is built it is built so well that it blends in. A few times, I would walk somewhere, thinking it can be traversed, but cannot be done so. My argument goes back to the mention of a minimap earlier; the presence of one can help with the constant boundary crashes.


Comments about the game in general. The game is based on Journey to the West, albeit an inspiration with the setting and characters based on it. I read the book years ago, and re-read it as a refresher recently. It was a great read with loads of fantasy. I read the book and found lots of good things in the game that were borrowed directly from the book. Like Erlang, the Celestial court, and the Tiger Vanguard. The spiders and supposed husband. Those characters are done well. I love it.


Another interesting about the game are the music videos. After each chapter, there is a music video that plays at the end, and is accessible on the title screen. Each has some relation, if at all, to the plot of the chapter, and they tell a sentimental story of love, or change. Quite beautiful in telling. One thing that needs to change are English subtitles so that literally everyone can understand them, so it is not locked behind a particular language. Despite that, it is a neat thing to have in the game, and a bonus that really enhances the game so much.

Black Myth Sequels. One thing that stuck out to me was the name. The Primary name Black Myth with subtitle “Wukong” feels like it could be room for more content under the name. It could be more stories with another monkey or stories that can be enriched afterwards, which I don’t doubt. I have some ideas but probably not come to fruition. Instead lets keep an eye out for it later on.


Overall, it has come to my judgment on whether to recommend or not.

In Summary

This game is my personal game of the Year, no doubt. No other game released in 2024 comes close to this majesty of a game. It’s grandeur and splendor has captivated my attention for the better of 80+ hours, and it has sent me on a trip with my time.

I recommend this game to anyone who wants to play a fantastic action game.


I’m am glad that the game has made its Journey to the West.

I thank my friend Hotiraripha for gifting this game to me in March 2024. Before then, I have never heard of it all and am thankful to have the opportunity to play this game. The game by Bend Studio is a former exclusive game to the PlayStation 4&5 and has been on PC since 2021.

This open world RPG was a massive surprise to me. Reading the description, I was not enchanted, but when I started playing, I was hooked. There are a lot of good things to say about this game, with few flaws worth mentioning.

The overall story is interesting and the side stories are what fulfills the game. Its characters are whom we can emotionally invest in, and be happy that they exist. It is combined with an open world, that draws me to explore, with the graphics as the cherry on top. I was definitely drawn to the world with the main character Deacon who wanted to help his friend and find out wha thappened to his wife. I was definitely enthralled. Characters are well fleshed out. Each of their backstories are well developed, and they interact with some of the side characters that are surprisingly well done.

Soundtrack work well for the game. It is good for scenes in game, and keeps me in game, despite bein g slightly loud in game, and helps with the immersion. Credit for that. The theme song, is a wonder to listen to; the entire 2 minute charade is a super tranquil orchestral piece that evokes a sense of peace and stillnes that one experiences beofre action. I think it is one of the better performed strings compositions I have heard for a game. Then there is Lewis Capaldi, who wrote a song for this game, and I was surprised when I reached that point; I actually asked myself if I recognized this person because it sounded so familiar; I looked on Google and figured it was him.

In short, the soundtrack is well suited for each moment, and quite nice to hear. It is not intrusive nor distracting, but fits the mood. The theme music, the track that plays at the main menu, is worth a listen to from start to finish.

The motorcycle Largely stands out for being a fairly important part of the game, as well as being largely on its own when looking at other games. Its the most critical part of the game and I do appreciate being able to modify it, add paint, and fix it up in game, literally because it is the only reason the player can easily go from place to place. That was fun. Also, at the same time, it is also inconvenient when it runs out of gas. Then Deacon has to take a can and go to a gas station and come back to refill the bike. If only there was someway of holding gas cans. Despite this inconvenience, it is a cool gimmick. Plus, I can decorate it a bit and drift, of which I can get three achievements. (not important by the way but still something). The only other game I can think of that makes use of the motorcycle on a large scale is Double Fine Production’s Full Throttle. Nevertheless, the motorcycle is amazing.
Crafting is intuitive. I can easily find the necessary material in the immediate vicitnity, enough to dispel any need to travel extremely far.

The combat is intuitive, but sometimes feels a bit clunky that it feels a bit tough to move the Main Character when I need to. Other than that, no complaints from me abou the story, as the controls are intuitive both on a controller and keyboard and mouse.

Now I covered the good, I think it is fair to cover some gripes I had with the gripes and flaws.

The game upon launch in 2019 got unfair negative reviews from professional review sites such as GamesRadar, IGN, and Gamespot; those scores still remain UNFAIR after the devs patched things up afterwards and even for the perfectly fixed PC port. Those combined negativity would have maybe turned me away from it, but was convinced by friend to give it an HONEST and FAIR attempt.

An other thing is the mild dislike are the multiple achievements that depend on collecting….. well…. Collectibles. It is a mild inconvenience that makes one search out certain stuff all the time. It is tedious to a fault. I bet that it encourages players to be engaged, something that would show up in the analytics. The save system really bothered me that I’d put it as a flaw. The limitation restricts any save attempt under the following 3 conditions
1) at the conclusion of a mission where the AUTOSAVE is the only possible
2) at a bed, which is located anywhere, no matter how disgusting it looks. This is mostly at the safe house.
3) at the bike
The save system’s limitations, I found out the hard way. There are moments where I would have just preferred to make a manual save, but forced to rely on autosave.
My final gripe with this game is small but the game is 60GB in space. I rather see it be smaller and optimised.

At this point, I’d like to mention two interesting things. Days Gone was released in 2019, a year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit so close to home. The closeness and topic makes it hit close for comfot. . Even though I played the game in early 2024, the post apolyptic world makes it make the game surreal since the memories are still fresh and as a society, we’re still feeling the aftershocks. This review was written in May 2024, for the record.

The second thing is, as of May 2024, I see the developers at Bend Studios are working on a live-service game, a type of game I hope they backtrack on it. Instead of chasing dollars as the primary reason, they should shift to a story driven game, as a co-primary mission alongside earning profit, a tactic that made days Gone amazing.


If you have read my review for Days Gone down to this point, I thank you for reading the entire wall of text, and appreciate the patience you have invested in me. In a nutshell of my review, I recommend the game to anyone who wants to play it. The Regular price is $50USD, but goes down by 75% discount at $12.49 USD, so grab it while on sale.

Game is overall fun and the Star Trek theme is great. Fun and engaging.

However the game is abandoned by the developers, especially when it could use a bit more quality of life, it seems.

This dlc was a great expansion

This DLC includes the Georgians and the Armenians in the Caucuses, plus a rework for the Persians. The three campaigns are fun, well designed, and great campaigns.

Full disclosure, I won this off a giveaway on Reddit. This game is a remaster from a 1990s game. I say this is a charming game with intuitive controls. Sound desing is superb with great voice casting, nice plot, and easy to get achievements. Design i good, and the remaster is on point.

This game might as well be called “Agatha’s Christie: Murder on the MODERN orient Express”.


A modern atmosphere is the setting instead of the 1930s setting. A c hange like this does not change much of the atmostphere and enviroment.

Now, onto the meat of the review. What does a modern setting of the game change for the game? Not too much. Changes noticeable would b ethe inclusion of cell phones, modern police car, and modern glass ouse setting. Most of the game is set in the fabled Orient Express and is a nice change.

I love the addiitonal content and twist at the end. That was honestly surprisinging and unexpected entirely.
Graphics are decent enough, and rough estimation are from the late 2000s and early 2010s. Not too bad, but are ok and acceptable. That is not a distraction from the game. The story pacing is fine, and the prologue got me hooked, even though its slow and does slow start. That’s good though.
Overall, I like the game.

Very short game, and could possibly be done in less than the time I played. Overall, has little impact but mostly cosmetic and iirc only impacts one scene in one episode. Nice precurser to LIS2

Life Is Strange Before the Storm is a sweet prequel that focuses on the story of Rachel Amber and Chloe Price.

The game starts off slow but amps up after the first episode. Rachel is arguable the star of the ga,e despite it focusing on Chloe. The game also goes intoa bit more depth of Frank, which was nice touch.

The music is just as amazing as Life is Strange, and one of the storng points. I sometimes just want to sit around and listen.
Even though the remaster made some improvements, it had bugs at the beginning but it but got fixed, even with a delay after True Colors. It was fun.

Play the game if you have not, this remastered or the original one.

Lots of good memories in this game
The HD remaster is a significant upgrade.