Black Myth: Wukong Review - A Flawed But Decent AAA ARPG (7/10)

Posted at # Video Game # Review # ARPG # UE5 # Game Design
  • Warning: This review contains spoilers for Black Myth: Wukong.
  • Rating: Based on my personal evaluation system, I rate Black Myth: Wukong 7/10 after completing the first playthrough.

Ignoring external controversies, I found Black Myth: Wukong to be a decent AAA Action RPG, but one held back by notable flaws. While many have highlighted its strengths, this review focuses primarily on the areas where I felt the game fell short.

Severe Performance Issues

The most immediate problem I encountered was performance. Playing on a PC (Ryzen 7 7800X3D, RTX 3090), I experienced frequent frametime spikes (minor stutters) even in contained areas. These became more severe in sections requiring loading transitions disguised as cutscenes.

  • Shader Compilation: The game requires a lengthy shader compilation process on startup, which frustratingly needs repeating after GPU driver updates.
  • Optimization: Reports, like Digital Foundry’s PS5 analysis, confirm widespread performance issues. While UE5 is still relatively new, the level of stuttering suggests inadequate optimization efforts by the development team. This needs significant improvement.

Mediocre Storyline and Weak Protagonist

While adaptations can deviate from source material if handled well, I found Black Myth’s main plot mediocre. Characters often lacked clear motivations, and the central narrative—collecting Sun Wukong’s remnants to become the new Great Sage—felt underdeveloped.

It’s puzzling how the detailed monster compendium and side stories show depth, while the main plot remains bland. Fragmented storytelling shouldn’t come at the cost of a weak core narrative.

The protagonist, “The Destined One,” suffered from particularly weak characterization. By the game’s end, I knew very little about them. While this might aim for player self-insertion, I dislike protagonists who feel like mere tools to advance a dull plot. Ironically, the companion character Zhu Bajie felt more vividly portrayed.

Flawed Map Design Sacrifices Gameplay for Art

The map design prioritizes artistic expression over clear visual guidance, leading to significant issues.

  • Navigation: While I adapted to the invisible walls and “natural” map layouts, less experienced players will likely struggle with finding their way due to a lack of distinct landmarks or intuitive paths. The realistic visuals often make different areas look too similar.
  • Exploration Experience: Item placement often felt random and unrewarding, negatively impacting the desire to explore thoroughly.
  • Pacing: The placement of bosses relative to exploration sections felt inconsistent, sometimes clustering bosses too closely or spacing them too far apart, disrupting gameplay flow.

Graphical Issues Despite UE5 Detail

While leveraging UE5’s Nanite for detailed models, the game’s graphics aren’t flawless.

  • Vegetation LOD: Texture popping on vegetation was noticeable and immersion-breaking, even with Level of Detail (LOD) set to cinematic. It seems traditional techniques were used here, contrasting poorly with Nanite-rendered assets.
  • Artifacts: Temporal artifacts were prominent, especially in particle effects, hair, character edges, and water surfaces. This created a noisy, blurry look in these elements, detracting from the overall visual fidelity.

Passable Combat System with Core Conflicts

The combat system is functional but lacks depth and suffers from internal conflicts.

  • Boss Interaction: Many boss fights involve periods where dealing damage is difficult, sometimes feeling dependent on the boss AI deciding to enter attack range (e.g., Kang-Jin Loong). The lack of a reliable, universal ranged attack option exacerbates this.
  • Monotonous Stances: The three weapon stances primarily change heavy attacks, leaving the normal attack moveset feeling repetitive.
  • Resource Conflict: The game encourages aggressive, close-quarters combat (emphasized by dodge-only defense), yet the core loop revolves around managing stamina (for light attacks) and building resources for heavy attacks. This creates a disjointed feeling, as the desire to press the attack conflicts directly with system limitations.

Concluding Thoughts on Hype and Reception

Setting aside external controversies, the hype surrounding Black Myth: Wukong feels disproportionate to the final product. Much of its commercial success seems driven by the Chinese market, potentially influenced by:

  • Halo Effect: Affection for the Journey to the West theme and national pride in a domestic AAA title might lead to higher ratings than the game objectively merits based on global AAA standards.
  • Primacy Effect: For players new to AAA games, the initial positive buzz could lead to an overestimation of its quality.

The polarized reception (ratings tending towards extremes) is concerning. My worry is that the market dynamics that amplified Black Myth’s hype might become a template, potentially overshadowing objective game quality assessment in the future. While perhaps unintentional by Game Science, the market learns quickly.