Author:snowyang
I have been in this industry for more than 20 years and have written countless game reviews. The review of Black Myth: Wukong is the one that I feel is the most important.
Before starting this review, I would like to reiterate a basic situation: Game Science is a game development company that has just been established for ten years. In these ten years, they have only developed two mobile games, and the team members have only developed one online game before. “Black Myth: Wukong” is their first stand-alone game project. At the beginning of this project, the team had only more than 30 people. After these years of growth, there are only more than 140 people now, and most of them have no experience in developing stand-alone game projects before.
The purpose of saying this is not to “stack up” Game Science, but before officially entering the game, I kept reminding myself that I should have a reasonable expectation for “Black Myth: Wukong”. Although the volume of this game before its release is no less than any internationally renowned 3A masterpiece in recent years, it is a bit harsh to compare this first stand-alone game of Game Science with industry-leading works such as “God of War”, “Elden Ring” or “Uncharted” that were born under mature industrial pipelines.
However, the final performance of “Black Myth: Wukong” exceeded my expectations in every dimension.
Proud of quality
Since Black Myth: Wukong switched its development engine to Unreal Engine 5 more than two years ago, almost every trailer has shown the game’s stunning graphics. And I can tell you that in the official game, you will see even more high-precision and realistic images than those shown in the trailer. Whether it is the details of vegetation and trees in the mountains, or the scenes covered with yellow sand or snow, or the exquisite sculptures and buildings in the temples, almost every scene and shot is photo-level. Game Science has undoubtedly stood at the top of the industry in terms of image quality.
We used a computer with “Intel 14th generation i9-14900KS + NVIDIA RTX4090” as the main configuration to run “Black Myth: Wukong”. The game was set to film-level picture quality, with ray tracing turned off, DLSS and frame generation turned on, and it can basically run stably at 120 frames per second at 4K resolution. With ray tracing turned on, it can also maintain around 100 frames per second. DLSS 3 played an indispensable role in improving the frame rate.
In addition to the setting, Black Myth: Wukong also makes no compromises in the multi-faceted enemy design. Each level in the game has monsters designed to fit the current level’s atmosphere. Except for a very small number of so-called “skin-changing monsters”, most of the monsters have unique appearances and action designs, with a total of nearly a hundred types of monsters alone.
The number of bosses and monster kings you fight will never disappoint you. There are more than 50 bosses and more than 30 monster kings in each level, not to mention the many NPCs. These are basically reproduced in the game according to the settings in “Journey to the West”, with humans, beasts, monsters and insects, so that you will never have the same experience in each level.
Another unforgettable thing about the game is the music of each level. Because each level has a clear visual theme, the music adds a lot of immersion. Many instruments and tunes have a distinct Chinese classical cultural color, making the whole game process a kind of enjoyment. Especially when the familiar music “Cloud Palace Swift Sound” sounded in the game, I couldn’t resist the overwhelming emotional resonance.
In general, Black Myth: Wukong uses a story-driven, chapter-structured level, but the level advancement route is by no means a simple one-track path from beginning to end. There are many hidden branch routes in the level, and even multi-level, complex maze-like exploration areas, as well as huge box-style levels. Many side stories outside the main storyline need to be carefully searched to be triggered, and you may inadvertently miss the treasures hidden in the corners. For players who like to “lick the map”, it is definitely a “painful and happy” gaming experience. Between each chapter, the game uses a special way to connect, which I will not spoil for now, and the surprises are left for the players to experience for themselves.
Regarding the length of the game, for a normal player, if you only complete the main quest and some side quests, it is estimated that the game time will be at least 30 to 50 hours. If you want to complete the entire content including the hidden elements, the first round may take nearly 100 hours. If you want to complete the game 100%, considering the multi-round design of the game and the existence of random drops, this time will only be longer. In terms of the richness of content and the length of the game, “Black Myth: Wukong” is definitely worth the money.
How to play the independent sect
In addition to achieving top-tier quality, Black Myth: Wukong is also more unique. In many domestic games in the past, we have seen more imitation and following the trend. This is not a criticism. From a business perspective, it is understandable to reduce risks and seek stable returns. No innovation is achieved overnight simply by a flash of inspiration. Learning and reference are also a process of quantitative change to qualitative change.
Black Myth: Wukong is no exception. As an ARPG game, it does not deviate from the basic framework of this game type, such as the stamina bar, combo skills, etc. But apart from these basic points, this game can be said to have created its own world among many similar games.
First of all, from the perspective of weapon settings, there are very few games that use sticks as the main weapon. Compared with cold weapons with sharp blades such as swords, spears, and halberds, sticks have many variations in the way they are held, and the fighting style can be changed according to the situation. A stick can be used to swing, sweep, poke, and stab, and it is pleasing to the eye.
The game has designed three different stick techniques, namely chopping stick, standing stick and poking stick. Each stick technique has its own unique features, whether it is for different players or for different bosses. Although there is only one type of weapon, sticks, it does not mean that only one type of stick can be used. There are more than ten sticks with different attributes designed in the game, each with special effects and appearances, and each with its own attack power and special damage, and the effects of using them are naturally different.
In addition to the stick techniques themselves, the game also designed a corresponding auxiliary system for the Tianming people. We will roughly divide it into two categories: spells and transformations. Spells include magic, body techniques and hair techniques, such as the immobilization technique, copper head and iron arm, and body techniques that everyone saw in the trailer. Transformations include incarnation and transformation. The former is to temporarily transform into the enemy’s form in battle and use its strongest moves, while the latter is to transform into the enemy’s appearance and perform movement operations and attack combinations, just like the “Seventy-two Transformations” of Sun Wukong in the original novel. There are dozens of these two together, which can be said to be endless.
In addition, the game also has an elixir system with unique Chinese mythology characteristics. By collecting different raw materials in the game, you can refine various elixirs in the alchemy furnace. These elixirs can be used to eliminate abnormal states in battle, or enhance certain attributes and skills. They can also rescue people from danger in battle. It is one of the important aids in the game.
Black Myth: Wukong has the concept of levels like other ARPG games, but the experience points gained from killing enemies do not directly increase the numerical value of the Destiny. Each level-up will gain a spiritual point, and only by investing the spiritual points in various skill trees can the corresponding numerical value be increased. As the level increases, the more spiritual points are obtained, the higher the skills and numerical values of the Destiny will be, and the more handy it will be to fight, so to some extent, “brushing levels” is also a “shortcut” to reduce the difficulty of the game.
In addition, the Destiny Man has his own basic skill tree, and there are multiple sets of equipment with different attributes and upgrades in the game, as well as various elixirs, plus two very helpful systems in combat that I cannot disclose due to confidentiality agreements. These designs combined naturally form the “Build System” that is often used in ARPG games. Players can combine a set of the most handy Build according to their preferences, and different attribute bosses should also make good use of targeted Builds to make the combat process more efficient.
In summary, Black Myth: Wukong has unique weapons and skills, changes and spells from the novel, and a supporting auxiliary system, which makes this game completely in line with the “Journey to the West” system and different from other similar games. This is the most gratifying point. Although the game does not have a career system, it still achieves diversity through different builds. The depth and breadth of the game system are enough to allow players to experience different combat fun. This game is not only surprising in quality, but also unique in core gameplay.
Our Journey to the West
Black Myth: Wukong is adapted from the world view of the ancient Chinese myth novel Journey to the West, which is a unique advantage for Chinese players. We don’t need to understand Greek mythology or Japanese history. The story of Sun Wukong escorting Tang Monk to obtain Buddhist scriptures is almost engraved in the DNA of every Chinese player. This makes us feel a throbbing in our blood when we see those familiar names in the game.
Due to the confidentiality agreement and the need to avoid spoilers, I will not discuss the plot of the game here. But as a story that takes place after the Journey to the West, there is a very wonderful development in the game about the mission and journey of the man of destiny. In the game, we will see a lot of familiar places and characters, and I believe that only Chinese players will have completely different feelings from European and American players when seeing these childhood memories. This is a passionate moment unique to Chinese players.
Because of the inseparable relationship with the original novel “Journey to the West”, Chinese players are equivalent to getting the “official guide” before playing the game. Although the story of the game itself takes place after the plot of the original novel, some key settings still follow the original settings in the novel, including but not limited to character personalities, weapons and equipment, props and skills, etc., so it will feel particularly familiar to use in the game. When you encounter a problem in the game, you might as well think about the relevant plot in the original novel, which may make you suddenly enlightened.
But it is necessary to remind everyone that it is not comprehensive to understand the whole story only by relying on the plot and lines in the game. Although the game has a very clear main storyline, it also has many relatively obscure side stories. The hidden clues behind the main storyline require players to read the small stories in the Shadow God Map in the game to discover clues. As one of the collection contents of the game, the Shadow God Map includes every monster, boss, monster king and character you encounter in the game. Behind these small stories may be the truth behind the destiny man.
Summarize
Back to the beginning of this article, “Black Myth: Wukong” is the first stand-alone work of Game Science. Although it has many excellent highlights as mentioned above, some immaturity can also be seen in the game.
For example, there are some very hidden side quests and scenes in the game. If you don’t read the walkthrough or there is no prompt, I believe you may not be able to find them even after playing through the game several times. There are also some relatively empty scene designs, which seem to be prepared for some richer content, but in the end they are only mentioned briefly in the game. As of the finalization of this article, there are still some minor problems in the game, such as a small number of missing icons, and there are also some display defects in the image quality. I hope they will be repaired and optimized before the official launch.
After I finished the official version of the game, I went back to watch the actual game trailers released in previous years and found that a lot of the content that appeared in the trailers either did not appear in the final version of the game, or was significantly adjusted and modified. This situation is relatively rare in the promotion cycle of a mature commercial game. I am certainly not criticizing the game for being “cheated in trailers”, but I can see from it the repetitions and transformations that Game Science has experienced during the development process over the years. This may be the necessary growth path for an excellent game developer.
Black Myth: Wukong is certainly not perfect, but compared with games of the same size in the world, Game Science was able to produce such a large-scale first stand-alone game with a team size of about one-third and a development cycle that is not significantly longer than that of a normal 3A game. It is no exaggeration to say that this is an industrial miracle. Black Myth: Wukong can definitely be said to be a milestone in the Chinese game industry. The excellent quality it presents is worthy of all the expectations it has carried in the past four years. This is a domestically produced game that is also highly competitive in the global market. I believe it will become a strong competitor for this year’s game of the year, and Game Science will undoubtedly become one of the world’s top ARPG game developers after this battle.
advantage
· Exquisite and highly ornamental art settings· Numerous monsters and boss designs with very low repetition· Core action gameplay design with both depth and breadth· Wonderful main storyline and rich side content
shortcoming
· Some designs and flaws show a lack of experience