This dystopic reimagining of Journey to the West barely escapes the shadow of its influences.

The idea is sound: take one of the most popular and widely-adapted works of Asian literature and reframe it as a cyberpunk post-apocalyptic action video game! Unfortunately there were some stumbles along the way. There are bright spots too though.

The gameplay systems are decent, with satisfying if basic combat interspersed with scripted clambering sequences and some light environmental puzzling. Every now and then you also get to zip around on a hoverdisc. Despite being a relatively standard seventh-gen action game in this way, it avoids one of the pitfalls of this era by actually having colours other than brown and grey: the setting of a ruined wasteland being overtaken by nature means there’s lots of green and red vegetation, not to mention the lovely elevated windfarmer village later on. Even the junkyard area is full of colour!

The performances are also decent, even if the script is straightforward. Andy Serkis is heavily involved, lending motion capture expertise as well as playing the playable character Monkey, in this case a grouchy shirtless New Yorker thug. Basically Wolverine, but with a staff and “cloud” (the hoverdisc). He also plays the game’s villain, only revealed properly in the rushed epilogue, via live-action footage.

There’s only two other characters apart from the hosts of robotic enemies. Trip (Tripitaka) is the driving force of the plot, enslaving (title drop) Monkey with a gold headband, another element of the original tale. Her role in game was inspired by the dynamic in Ico with Yorda, although she’s more active and helpful here, and their tense relationship develops well, with Lindsey Shaw giving a sympathetic performance. Pigsy rounds out the cast as an eccentric, lecherous, and boorish mechanic, played ably by Richard Ridings no doubt drawing on his experience as Peppa Pig’s dad. He’s unlikable but I guess that’s the point?

As an adaptation of JttW, it’s very loose despite incorporating some of the main characters and important objects. It’s also worth noting that the cast is completely whitewashed. Ho hum. The setting is a lot of fun though, the ruined New York crawling with mechs providing some great setpieces at times. And the Wild Wild West-style climax in and around a giant mech crawling across the desert is cheesy as.

I wish the game’s technical performance could stand up to its art direction though. The frame rate is frankly garbo, frequently dropping low enough to be distracting. The twitchy and uncooperative camera doesn’t help either. It also doesn’t avoid overly detailed visuals and bloom lighting… in the sequences involving Monkey’s acrobatics, it can sometimes be hard to spot the next handhold as a result.

I also wasn’t able to access the DLC chapter, although since it revolves around Pigsy I wasn’t that interested. The in-game PSN link just failed on me, shrug. Without it the game feels fairly brief, at least in scope. I don’t mind a focused game though if it’s done well. This was done… OK. I think my favourite bit is the freeze-frames of Monkey’s snarling face when he deals the finishing blow to a robot baddy. Very dramatic.