Chinese game developer Game Science on Tuesday released Black Myth: Wukong, an action RPG (role-playing game) inspired by China’s classic novel Journey to the West, for Steam, PlayStation 5, Wegame, and Epic. As the very first AAA game developed in China, Black Myth: Wukong has sparked widespread excitement and discussions within the country’s gaming industry and among Chinese players.

Released at 10 a.m. Beijing time, the new action game surpassed 2.2 million concurrent Steam players in the evening, and currently ranks second in the all-time peak concurrent players on the Steam platform. The gaming blogger Best-Selling Chinese Games disclosed that Black Myth: Wukong has already generated over RMB 1.5 billion ($210 million) in revenue by selling around 4.5 million copies across various gaming platforms.

Why it matters: Chinese game developers tend to develop low-investment, quick-profit mobile games (which include in-game purchase options), but Game Science has taken the opposite approach by focusing on a PC-end game with a one-off charge. Its success in sales and player engagement may have a positive influence on the domestic gaming industry. Chinese players have described it as the great hope of Chinese gaming.

Details: Black Myth: Wukong aims to create an East Asian fantasy world for international players. In the adventure game, players take on the role of the Wukong to battle a variety of monsters inspired by Journey to the West. After spending six hours playing the game, here is this writer’s short review of its strengths and weaknesses.

• The game’s impressive modeling and visual quality are highlighted in the 10 minute cinematic-style opening, which features a memorable battle between Wukong and the Heavenly Army, including Erlang Shen, the Four Heavenly Kings, Giant Spirit Divine, and the Hundred Thousand Heavenly Soldiers. Erlang Shen is a classical Chinese deity known for his martial prowess, supernatural abilities, and distinctive third eye that allows him to see through illusions and detect evil. The use of Unreal Engine 5 makes the characters’ movements and appearance incredibly lifelike, with detailed handling of elements such as facial expressions and clothing textures.
• The combat scenes combined with the professional Chinese voice-acting dialogue create an immersive experience for Chinese players, although there is still room for improvement in certain aspects of the action hitting impact, such as the sync between the audio and visuals when Wukong hits his enemies with a weapon, which at present feels unnatural. Each monster has its own unique attack patterns, meaning that players need to constantly observe the skills of their enemies to adopt appropriate tactics and strategies. While the game presents a certain level of challenge, the difficulty becomes manageable as the character levels up through repeated battles.
• The game lacks a map and includes invisible walls, which can lead to confusion when navigating and can also cause slight 3D disorientation at the beginning. Even with high-end graphics cards such as the NVIDIA RTX 4090 and NVIDIA RTX 4060, the game experiences occasional crashes due to compatibility optimization issues. Additionally, the game lacks difficulty options – players who are impatient or not fond of action games may therefore not enjoy the title as fully as others.
• The game currently has a 95% positive rating on Steam; the standard edition is priced at RMB 268 ($38). Today, NVIDIA teamed up with Black Myth: Wukong to participate in the world’s largest annual gaming event Gamescom 2024, showcasing the game’s performance at the highest graphical settings.

Context: Black Myth: Wukong has been in development for four years, with an estimated budget of around RMB 300 million ($42 million) and an average gameplay length of more than 15 hours, according to Game Science. The hashtag #Black Myth Employees Get Headhunted went viral on Weibo yesterday. The game’s team is reportedly being bombarded by HR recruiters from other companies on major Chinese recruitment platforms, with some Game Science employees changing their status to make it clear that they are not seeking new opportunities.