If you’re looking for a reason to finally pick up a PS5 and Xbox Series X (or upgrade your gaming PC), Game Science Studio has got you covered.
The small Chinese team just took the wraps off of their breathtaking action-adventure gaming Black Myth: Wukong, which has become an overnight viral sensation and may still be one of the best showpieces for the new consoles, as well as high-end gaming desktops.
Why should you care? Now, if you’ve a fan of so-called ‘Souls’ games – challenging third-person fighting games with deep, intricately constructed worlds to explore – then Black Myth: Wukong is in that vein.
The game is based on the journey to Western mythology, which follows the story of a Buddhist monk who traveled from his home in southern China to India to bring a sacred text back to his country while he was protected by the Monkey King – a mix of a human, monkey and trickster god. Black Myth: Wukong seems to revolve around the fantastic elements of that story, as we see the player character transform into an insect, use other magical abilities, and fight werewolf-like enemies, like a giant wolf-like creature that would not do not appear in Place In Blood’s Bloodborne.
Saw the 13 minute trailer was in Chinese, a language we are not really into in fact with, it’s hard to get a lot of narrative detail from the video. But what we could see is it looks seriously beautiful.
Next-gen gaming in motion
There is beautiful detail in the wooded area where the trailer takes you into the palace, with leaves, kisses of grass, and with moss-covered rock that looks good enough to ask you to reach out and touch it . The combat in Black Myth: Wu Kong also looks pretty smooth, with smooth movements and animations, as well as a variety of graphic effects that strike every screen on the screen.
Lighting also looks pretty incredible, although we did not detect a beam while playing. Considering the rendering technology will be supported by the PS5 and Xbox Series X, as well as boosting the upcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, that’s a bit surprising. Although black myth: Wukong looks beautifully all the same.
We’ve seen impressive graphics in many games of today’s generation, with Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Last of Us 2 standout examples. But it’s the extra level of detail, enhanced effects, and fluidity of movement and animation that makes the likes of Black Myth: Wu Kong seem promising for next-generation games on both upcoming consoles and powerful PCs.
Interesting is Black Myth: Wukong uses the Unreal Engine 4 instead of the new fifth-generation engine. So if a game can look good on an engine that has been running for a while, it’s a promising sign for the type of graphics we can expect from the Unreal Engine 5 outside of technical demos.
There’s probably no Black Myth: Wukong in the Chinese indie studio Game Science for at least a year or so. The game is “still far from complete” despite how polished it looks in the trailer.
In short, the next generation of gaming consoles means a new generation of visually stunning titles, which you can tackle, even if you turn down the PS5 and Xbox Series X in favor of one of our picks for the best gaming PCs.