By Guanxiong Qiao
Out of all the new game releases of 2024, one of my favorite ones is definitely Black Myth: Wukong. This is a game about the classic Chinese story Journey To The West, a book written in the Ming Dynasty, and it is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s considered as one of the greatest novels in China and also listed as one of the four great classics of Chinese literature, the other three being Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and A Dream of the Red Mansions.
The reason why Black Myth: Wukong is such a great game is because this is the first triple A quality video game that China has ever made, and it’s based on one of the most famous novels. One aspect that I like the most is that the game didn’t just copy the whole story and turn it into a game; it’s an entirely different story based on and inspired by the novel. It’s not even the original Wukong, but the main character is a random monkey in the mountain where all the monkeys were, and this re-imagining of the story is one aspect that makes the game good. It would be boring if the game was just another version of the same novel. The story line in the game is great and enriched by the elements of the original. You will meet a lot of allies and enemies that were in the classic Chinese story.
Aside from the good storyline, the game itself is also a very good video game. Black Myth: Wukong is a RPG (role playing game) with soul-like game elements in it, where there is a dark Chinese inspired fantasy setting and the story telling is not overt. They made the game kind of hard, but not too difficult. I feel like this is also a good characteristic because if a game is too easy, I would get bored fast, and if they make a game super hard, people will be stressed and likely stop playing. Black Myth Wukong has just the right amount of difficulty to keep players engaged but not frustrated. It’s challenging but not unbeatable. In fact, the game developers balanced the game difficulty to a point that it’s perfect. All the big bosses are challenging, so that when you beat it, it will make you feel accomplished, but players won’t be stuck there forever.
Another feature in the game that I like is that you can actually choose your style for your weapon while you play the game, there are two main types of weapons styles you can choose from, and within each style, you can choose different abilities to learn. The game also has good graphics, animation, and music. The graphics and animations are good because the developers used the new Unreal Engine 5 to make the game, which not a lot of the new games have used. The music in the game fits with the story and action perfectly. It uses old traditional Chinese music made with instruments from China enhanced by Western orchestras. The map in the game is also based on the real world terrain of China.
Nothing is perfect, so there are still some shortcomings in this game. One of the biggest issues to me is how they made their maps. In this game, there are way too many airwalls, areas that look like explorable space but are actually borders or walls in the game, that don’t make sense being there. They added airwalls to too many open spaces instead of just adding items that can block players, like fences and barriers. They made some places look like it’s a way to go through, but there’s just suddenly an air wall which suppresses the desire for players to explore. The map in the game does look good, but they barely have any guides that indicate the players’ road, making the air walls even more problematic, which is also a reason why they didn’t make their map well. Having issues like this will cause problems, like players missing some areas because they thought there’s an airwall or players having to search up strategies, which doesn’t make a game fun anymore.
Another problem from Black Myth: Wukong is the item drop rate; it is just not normal for a single player game to have such a low drop rate. For example, there was an item in the game that took my friend an hour to get, but I got it on the first try. This drop rate can be frustrating for many players. Settings like this should only be for games that you can trade online, so there is no reason for Black Myth: Wukong to have such a low item drop rate when it’s not an online trade game.
In the end, Black Myth: Wukong is definitely worth trying. It is a fun game that you can run even without a great PC, and there are some parts of the game that’s not perfect, but I think it’s understandable for a new game from a new company. The company did rush a little bit. They could’ve fixed a lot of issues if they released later, but I think the game does have a chance to win the The Game Award (TGA) of the year.
