Black Myth: Wukong has taken the world by storm and a lot of fans have been gushing over it. It has reached 2nd most concurrent players on Steam and most believe it is largely due to the Chinese playerbase. Honestly, who cares? The game is a blast and I am having fun with it.
With that said, however, there are things that I do not like about this monkey game. Do not worry, it won’t be performance issues as mine has been running fairly fine. Anyway, let us get right into it.
5 Things I don’t Like in Black Myth: Wukong
Here are the 5 things in Black Myth: Wukong I do not like!
SO MANY INVISIBLE WALLS!
There is just so many invsible walls bro. Cliff? Can’t fall off it. A half wall? Can’t jump over it. A rubble? Can’t jump over it. A side of the mountain that is clearly not scalable and mister Wukong would simply slide off of? There is an invisible wall on it.
I can give a pass for some of the slopes and rubbles having invisible walls but half walls and cliffs? Dear god please just let me collide with the object in place. It is not just a texture map, I am sure of it. It is an object. Therefore, it, most likely, probably has collision embedded in it. Just let me bang my head on it.
The worst case of these invisible walls are probably small cliffs where you can drop off at one side and then suddenly an invisible stops you from jumping off of it by moving 2 inches to the left or right.
Cliffs? Just let me “die”and “respawn” at the nearest ledge or where I last stood off of with reduced health like in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
This may sound petty but I think it is kind of a big deal. They put so much thought into the level design but it seems like they were not confident in it enough to hold as a closed level. Immersion breaks from falling off a cliff and whatnot is not an issue at all—we are playing as a freaking Monkey King.
Thankfully, this is one of the serious “problems” I have with the game. Just let me die off of cliffs or hit the actual obstacles and objects you placed.
No Double jumps
For a Monkey King who does exemplary acrobatic movements, why can I not do double jumps? Oh, it’s not realistic? Wow, I think a talking mythical furries are much more believable than a Monkey being capable of large leaps or double jumping.
It’s not like it would break the game too. You already have invisible walls to stop the players from going to areas they should not be going to, just give me a little bit more freedom with movement by giving mister Wukong the Monkey King here a double jump. Just a little tiny second hop after the initial jump, you feel me?
Oh, it breaks combat? So? I do not think it breaks combat at all as you are already agile enough. It might give certain scenarios advantages as you have one more movement ability or longer air-time but players do not use those mechanics properly anyway. The enemies also have attacks that both move vertically and horizontally.
More than anything, it is a little bit of quality-of-life feature that I would like to be added.
Shimmering Lights (Global Illumination and Screen Resolution Sampling)
This might just be a 1080p screen resolution issue but global illumination kinda sucks. Well, maybe not purely because of global illumination but also because of the forced Screen Resolution Sampling graphics setting the game has.
Whenever I walk around areas with grass and lights shining above it, I can see shimmering effects that should not be there. Preferably, I would like the sunlight on the leaves of the grass to simply hit it and shadows appear accordingly on the ground.
It happens a lot in the game and they should really fix it. At first I did not notice it as Chapter 1’s area is covered by large trees and their leaves so the grass do not really get that much sunlight. In Chapter 2, however, you will see it more often and it can be very annoying.
This is the second serious problem that I have with the game. Please fix Global Illumination’s interaction with the grass or let me turn off Screen Resolution Sampling.
The reason why I talk about Screen Resolution Sampling is because I think part of the shimmering effect is caused by the graphical magic Screen Resolution Sampling does to the game. If everything just acted accordingly, I feel like there is a possibility that the shimmering lights would disappear.
I found this theory plausible since I tested out all the different Screen Resolution Sampling options (XeSS, FSR, and TSR) and they all showed different kinds of shimmering effect.
No Photo Mode
As an avid fan of photography in video gaming, I demand—yes, demand—that all games in the future have Photo Mode!
Please, if any developer sees this, put in Photo Mode in your games. Let me pause the game and take a photo of what is on the screen. I also suggest letting the player turn off the HUD during photo mode so we can capture the raw visuals of the game without any obstruction of what the player sees.
Do we need free camera? Sometimes, but I’ll still take it if there’s none. Do we need different POVs (First Person and Third Person POV)? Not really.
Please, any developer who are reading this, put in Photo Mode.
This isn’t really a Black Myth: Wukong problem per se but a problem I have with any games that are as good looking as this but has no Photo Mode.
NEVERMIND, THERE’S ACTUALLY A PHOTO MODE.
No turning off or adjusting Volumetric Fog
This is a bit in conjunction with my previous problem but I hate Volumetric Fog.
I understand, Volumetric Fog can make visuals look extremely cinematic as it gives texture to the light passing through the space in the air. However, it can be disruptive if the object or area behind the fog or whatever air particles are also interesting to look at. Being able to adjust Volumetric Fog (as well as Clouds and Fog, let’s just put them all together) helps with that a lot.
Why is this a Black Myth: Wukong problem? Well it is not. I just have a free camera tool that lets me take photos of the game in weird angles and the Volumetric Fog messes up shots that are taken from a distance (particularly ones that are overhead or far from the sky).
Anything Else that you might want to talk about Black Myth: Wukong?
That is it, honestly. Black Myth: Wukong is exceptionally fun and I can see the reason for its popularity. I will write about it some time soon so there’s that. I hope you enjoy the game as well.
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