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"Dimensional Military" is a new series of columns created by the Military Sub-Plane. Our goal is to break the "dimensional wall" and explore interesting military knowledge in the "two-dimensional" fields such as games and animation. If you are also a two-dimensional enthusiast like us, then this is definitely for you!

At 10 am on August 20, 2024, the milestone game in the history of Chinese games, Black Myth: Wukong, was finally officially released. Yesterday, Junwujun played the game live on the official account for a day. With tens of thousands of fans watching, I used dozens of lives to get through the first level and defeated the Tiger Vanguard...

Starting from the first trailer on August 20, 2020, players from all over China and even the world have waited for four years and finally got this dream game. After four years of pursuit, heated discussions, debates, and doubts, Black Myth: Wukong has finally come to fruition and delivered a satisfactory answer to the players.

01

How popular is "Black Myth: Wukong"?

It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most popular single-player game released on Steam after "Cyberpunk 2077".

Black God"Word: Wukong" caused a surge in Steam download traffic

On August 18, two days before the game was released, Black Myth: Wukong enabled the pre-download function, allowing players to download the game in advance and enter the game as soon as possible. On that day, the download traffic on the Steam platform surged to 70TBPS, and the download traffic in Asia alone reached 59TBPS, surpassing the record of 50TBPS of Cyberpunk 2077.

Behind the download traffic is the terrifying sales volume of Black Myth: Wukong - at least 4.5 million people pre-ordered the game, and the pre-sale sales alone reached 53 million US dollars, equivalent to 390 million yuan. After the official release, the sales reached an astonishing 1.5 billion yuan!

It is said that many "impatient" guys actually used their mobile phone hotspots to download "Black Myth: Wukong", but ended up shutting down their phones!

Who is the black myth using the mobile data?

However, since the game itself is so large, even if you download the game in advance, you still need to decompress it after it is released, and many "poor computers" need to decompress it for a long time. Many players with insufficient computer configurations saw the decompression time of several hours, even days or years, and they threw up their hands and fainted on the spot.

It takes 500 years to decompress. Only then can you become a real Great Sage!

By noon on the release date, the number of concurrent online users of Black Myth: Wukong had reached 1.5 million, surpassing Counter-Strike 2, which has been at the top of the charts for many years, and leaving DOTA2 and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds far behind. You know, this day is a workday for most people. By the evening of the same day, the number of concurrent online users of Black Myth: Wukong reached a terrifying 2.2 million!

Black GodThe number of concurrent online users of "Wukong" reached 2.2 million

What is the concept of 2.2 million?

In the history of Steam, only one game has ever reached this height. To this day, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds still tops the record with 3.25 million concurrent online users. The previous hit game, Paloo, only had a record of 2.1 million. You know, these are all multiplayer games that cannot be played by one person, so of course there are more players.

For single-player games, 2.2 million concurrent users are unimaginable. Cyberpunk 2077’s peak number of online users is “only” 1.04 million, and Elden Ring’s is “only” 950,000. This is already the top single-player game in the past, and Black Myth: Wukong’s peak number of online users is equivalent to more than the sum of the two!

In order to understand the game "Black God"Words: Wukong

Many foreign players have begun to study the original work of Journey to the West

Of course, it is obvious that the sales of Black Myth: Wukong are mostly contributed by Chinese players. Some people estimate that more than 90% of the players are from China or overseas Chinese. However, this does not affect Black Myth: Wukong's top sales in various regions of Steam. Among the foreign player groups, many people have already read Journey to the West, trying to understand the background story of the game in advance.

02

So, what is the quality of "Black Myth: Wukong"?

On August 20, Junwujun personally experienced this long-awaited work and also started a live broadcast on our video account, attracting tens of thousands of viewers.

To be honest, before the release, Junwujun had always kept low expectations for Black Myth: Wukong, and was dismissive of those online comments that highly praised the game. You know, the level of domestic games in the international arena is probably far inferior to that of the Chinese national football team. Over the years, how many game manufacturers have cheated people under the name of domestic games? I'm afraid they are countless.

As for the promises made by Game Science in the trailer, I don’t dare to believe a word, let alone the discussions among netizens. After all, many of the promotional videos of games these days are “promotional scams”. Even if some are not scams, they are slightly different from what players understand, such as “Fallout 76”, “Cyberpunk 2077”, “Battlefield 2042”, “Starfield”… and Junwujun is the ultimate victim who bought all these games.

Although I said so, I still held on to my last dream of domestic games and pre-ordered the deluxe version of Black Myth: Wukong, just to support the development of domestic games. If someone had told me at that time that this game could achieve the current sales and popularity, I would never have believed it.

Precisely because of such low expectations, the shock that "Black Myth: Wukong" brought to me was much greater than that of many other players.

The story of Black Myth: Wukong takes place after the journey to the West. Sun Wukong gave up his position as a Buddha and wanted to return to the Flower-Fruit Mountain to live a carefree life, but was besieged by the Heavenly Court again. The angry Sun Wukong fought against the heavenly soldiers and generals led by Erlang Shen alone, but during the fight, the golden hoop that had been taken off long ago reappeared on his head, and Erlang Shen took the opportunity to defeat him, and the Monkey King fell.

However, Sun Wukong is an immortal monkey. Although he died, his spirit did not completely dissipate. Instead, it turned into six spiritual objects and scattered around the world. It is said that as long as these six spiritual objects are collected, the Monkey King can be resurrected.

A hundred years later, the protagonist played by the player, a monkey named "Tianmingren" from Huaguo Mountain, embarked on a journey to find the relics of the Monkey King, and the story of "Black Myth: Wukong" unfolds.

The above content is just the background story of Black Myth: Wukong in the first ten minutes. It is worth noting that this part is actually a story told by an old monkey to the player, which may not be the real plot. No one can guarantee whether there will be a reversal later.

Although the protagonist is not Sun Wukong (at least not completely), at the beginning of the game, players have the opportunity to play the role of the Monkey King and fight against Erlang Shen, which is also the game's novice tutorial level. In the prologue, Sun Wukong has no restrictions on health bars, spell bars, and stamina bars, and can launch various attacks and cast different spells without limit.

Looking at the scene on the screen with a phoenix-wing purple gold crown on his head, a chainmail golden armor on his body, somersault clouds under his feet, and a golden hoop in his hand flying up and down, which Chinese person can remain indifferent? This design not only allows players to become familiar with the basic operations, but also satisfies their dreams of becoming the Monkey King - of course, it should be called the "Monkey King Experience Card".

Immediately afterwards, players will enter the first chapter of the game - "Fire Shining in the Black Clouds", which is also the content that has appeared many times in promotional videos and actual machine demonstrations.

The story of Fire Shining on Black Clouds takes place on Black Wind Mountain, and is obviously based on the 16th and 17th chapters of Journey to the West. When Tang Sanzang and his disciples arrive at Guanyin Temple, Elder Jinchi becomes greedy for Tang Sanzang's treasure, the brocade cassock, and intends to burn Tang Sanzang to death, but the fire burns down Guanyin Temple instead. The black bear demon on Black Wind Mountain comes to put out the fire, but because of his greed for the treasure, he steals the cassock and is eventually subdued by Guanyin Bodhisattva.

Elder Jinchi in the 1986 version of Journey to the West

In this chapter, players will encounter many monsters related to the original "Journey to the West" - the ghost transformed from the obsession of Elder Jin Chi, the monks Guangzhi and Guangmou who proposed a plan to kill Tang Seng and his disciples, the black bear monster and his good friend the snake monster Bai Yi Xiu Shi, and the wolf monster Ling Xuzi.

The demon king "Lingxuzi" in the game

However, in the original novel, these characters either achieved enlightenment, or were burned to death or beaten to death by Sun Wukong. Therefore, this is also explained in the game plot - the black bear spirit returned from the South China Sea and rebuilt the Guanyin Temple. Some monsters were resurrected by the black bear spirit using mysterious treasures, and some were later monsters who inherited the names of their predecessors.

Since the plot design of Black Myth: Wukong is very obscure, all the characters seem to be "riddlers" and their words are hard to understand. You know, Chinese people may feel confused when playing it, let alone foreign players who have never read Journey to the West! Just figuring out the connection between these monsters is a hassle.

Many plot stories are hidden in the corners of the game

What is certain is that Black Myth: Wukong is a game with multiple endings, and the player's behavior in the game is likely to have a significant impact on the game's ending. So far, no player has achieved the so-called "perfect ending." But based on the information revealed so far, the game's plot is not top-notch, but it is also very good.

As a veteran gamer, I am used to experiencing "other people's stories" and playing "other people's heroes" in games, but we rarely have the opportunity to see stories that belong to the Chinese people, let alone the legend of the Monkey King Sun Wukong - until the emergence of "Black Myth: Wukong".

03

In terms of game mode, Black Myth: Wukong has obviously absorbed elements from mature action games such as Dark Souls, Sekiro, God of War, and Nioh. Many designs clearly show the shadow of "Souls" games, such as the non-adjustable difficulty, powerful enemies, and the design of the land temple save point, but there are also completely different places, such as the complex skill tree, the combat skills that focus on dodging rather than blocking, etc. Overall, this system is enough to make people shine.

In the previous article, Junwujun mentioned that the difficulty of Black Myth: Wukong may not be suitable for all players. For old players of Souls series games, the battle difficulty of this game may not be high, but for ordinary gamers like Junwujun, some bosses of Black Myth: Wukong are still very challenging.

A novice player is learning how to operate Black Myth: Wukong

Although the game science has made a lot of optimizations to the combat system to take care of novice players, such as no death penalty, players can re-learn skill points at any time, etc., the learning difficulty of the game is still relatively high. In the first chapter of the game, players will encounter several powerful bosses such as ghosts, white-robed scholars, and black bear spirits.

In the second chapter, the "famous" Tiger Vanguard became a huge obstacle on the player's way forward. Junwujun was stuck in front of the Tiger Vanguard for two full hours - you know, this is based on some experience in action games. Some of Junwujun's friends couldn't even get past the first BOSS!

Moreover, Black Myth: Wukong is very brief in its guidance, and many important items in the game, and even some bosses, can be easily missed. If it is just some materials hidden, it is not a big problem, but some items will have a decisive impact on the subsequent battles. What exacerbates this problem is that the lighting design of the game scene makes some areas too dark. Even with the addition of highlight effects, sometimes players still find it difficult to see the treasures hidden in the dark.

For example, in the first chapter, players will encounter three bells on the way. If you find and ring all three bells, you can unlock a hidden level and obtain the magic weapon "fire shield" that Sun Wukong borrowed from heaven to protect Tang Monk. If you don't find this magic weapon, the difficulty of the next battle with the black bear demon will increase significantly. Similar situations also occur in subsequent levels.

Another annoying problem is the air walls that are almost everywhere in the game. The game development team obviously hopes to restore the terrain and topography of the real world as much as possible in the game, which makes many scenes look natural. But the price of doing so is that many areas that seem to be passable are blocked by "air walls" and players can't pass through them at all! This design has somewhat affected the player's exploration experience.

Real game scene

Finally, what I can't understand is that Black Myth: Wukong doesn't have an equipment transmogrification function! Although many equipment in the game look good, players still need to choose more powerful equipment due to the difficulty of the game. In particular, the super cool bonus suit I bought from the deluxe version was eliminated after playing for two hours? If the appearance and attributes of the equipment can be separated, this situation can be avoided.

Looks cool, right? It's trash in less than two hours.

Although there are some shortcomings, these problems are acceptable in front of the excellent plot design, refreshing combat experience and exquisite art design of "Black Myth: Wukong". Even world-class game works can always be found to have some flaws. Moreover, for Chinese game manufacturers who are extremely lacking in 3A game development experience, it is already very surprising that they can produce such a high-level work.