On August 20th, the Chinese gaming industry welcomed a historic moment!

The domestic 3A game masterpiece "Black Myth: Wu Kong" went on sale with a strong start. Within an hour, 1.045 million players surged onto the Steam platform, taking first place on the Steam Hot Play Rankings. The number of active players is currently stable at 1.4 million, making it the pure single-player game with the highest peak online player count in Steam history, and ranking fourth in platform history. It has surpassed well-known games such as "Cyberpunk 2077", "Elden Ring", and "The Witcher 3".

According to an investigation by community experts, after the pre-load of "Black Myth: Wu Kong" was opened, the CDN load of Steam's download server skyrocketed. On the day of the lift, the peak was 70 Tbps, equivalent to more than 0.07 million people simultaneously downloading at full speed with 1 Gbps downstream bandwidth. "Cyberpunk 2077" back then only had 50 Tbps.

With an immersive storyline, unprecedented combat experience, and exquisite graphics, can the highly anticipated "Black Myth: Wu Kong" meet players' high expectations? Gaming media and experienced players have already been among the first to experience it, and the latest testing report is now available!

Foreign netizens: I was surprised by the introduction of "Black Myth", such a sensational opening.

The popularity of "Black Myth: Wu Kong" has also sparked heated discussions on foreign websites, and foreign players on X have had intense debates about the game.

Some netizens said, "The game's optimization and stability are fantastic!"

"The performance and balance modes look very bad. But if possible, please play on PC."

Foreign netizens: I was surprised by the introduction of "Black Myth", such a sensational opening.

The screen and art style are top-notch.

In response to doubts on the Internet, netizens used a picture to refute it visually:

"So far, I like this game. I played for about an hour and it feels great."

To fully enjoy its full ray tracing effect, a high-end graphics card is required.

According to a reviewer on Reddit, the main storyline of "Black Myth: Wu Kong" can be completed in 35-40 hours. If you include the side content and plots, the game has about 70 hours of runtime. To 100% complete the entire game, you need about 90 hours.

It is worth mentioning that "Black Myth: Wu Kong" also has 40% hidden content that requires players to explore after completing the main storyline. The reviewer spent 70 hours and still did not find some of the hidden boss tasks. If players have additional interest in the game's history, nature, and architecture, they can spend a few more hours exploring it as a "tourism simulator."

Media outlet dsogaming analyzes the technical performance of "Black Myth: Wu Kong", especially the performance of ray tracing and NVIDIA's DLSS 3 technology. It believes that in order to fully enjoy its full ray tracing effect, a high-end graphics card is required, but the performance of low-level ray tracing settings is disappointing.

Using a high-end configuration, including AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, the test results show that the game's operating load is very heavy.

In terms of ray tracing, the full ray tracing effect of the game significantly improves the picture, especially in terms of lighting, ambient occlusion, and shadows. However, in some scenes, even with ray tracing turned on, the visual improvement is not obvious. It should be noted that the shadow effect in non-ray tracing mode is poor, with low shadow resolution in the distance and serious pop-up problems. Ray tracing mode can completely solve this problem.

In terms of performance, turning on ray tracing at 4K resolution will cause a significant drop in frame rate, and even if ray tracing is set to a low level, the performance improvement is not obvious and is the same as the medium setting. In addition, the game's motion smoothness at 60-70fps is not ideal and requires a higher frame rate or the use of VRR/G-Sync monitors to achieve the best experience.

In terms of graphic performance, according to Alex Battaglia from game media Eurogamer, Black Myth: Wukong surpassed the level of the initial trailer, presenting highly-detailed environments and character animations, especially in the use of Full RT settings.

In addition, the design details of NPCs in the game are also full of details. Charles Young from IGN China stated that most of the level creatures in the game have unique designs, with different shapes and movements. Apart from a few reskinned creatures, there are nearly a hundred different creatures. Meanwhile, the number of bosses and demon kings designed as bosses in the game is absolutely not disappointing. There are more than fifty bosses in each level, and more than thirty demon kings, not to mention many NPCs. These are basically reproductions of settings in Journey to the West, with humans, beasts, monsters, and insects. Every level is an experience that is never repeated.

According to Metacritic website, some reviews expressed that "As a Chinese player who grew up watching Journey to the West animated series and TV dramas since childhood, playing Black Myth: Wukong is an experience that resonates deeply with me. I appreciate the developer's unreserved introduction to the culture of Journey to the West, and I am in awe of the game's artistic presentation. This profound cultural resonance has made up for all its shortcomings."

"Profound cultural resonance has made up for all its shortcomings."

In China, Black Myth: Wukong has made countless anchors and players crazy. For now, it tops the game live streaming rankings on Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu. As of this writing, most of the top ten game live streaming titles on Douyin are playing Black Myth, while some minor streamers are still broadcasting other games such as King of Glory.

According to research from Shenwan Hongyuan, the image of the dragon in the game was restored into a serpentine shape from Eastern culture, rather than the American lion shape depicted in Western culture, which is the first time in a 3A game.

Black Myth: Wukong is not only a game, but also a feast of traditional Chinese culture. The game cleverly combines Chinese mythology stories with non-heritage cultures such as Shaanbei storytelling, and is reproduced based on real scenes such as Yuhuang Temple in Shanxi and Dazu Rock Carvings in Chongqing, naturally capturing the hearts of countless players both domestically and abroad.

"Starting on the journey to the West is more important than reaching the Lingshan Mountain." Similar to the Ninety-One Realms on the journey to the West, game development is also full of challenges. Black Myth: Wukong fills the gap in the Chinese game market for high-quality domestic 3A games, satisfying the expectations of players for the rise of Chinese games.

In terms of number of designs as bosses and demon kings, Black Myth: Wukong is definitely not disappointing. There are more than fifty bosses in each level, more than thirty demon kings, and countless NPCs. These are basically reproductions of the settings in Journey to the West, with humans, beasts, monsters, and insects. Every level is an experience that is never repeated.

Four years ago on August 20th, a butterfly flapping its wings caused a change in the timeline of Chinese single-player games. Since then, the grand theme of the "first domestic 3A game" has been placed on these two thin cicada wings, and has been bumped towards the unknown future.

What kind of answer will Black Myth: Wukong ultimately provide us with? Let us wait and see.