Summary
It is a rare thing when a game ends up looking as good as the initial trailers promised, butBlack Myth: Wukonghas delivered where many games have not. The graphical fidelity and visuals of the title cannot be overstated, and the scale of its intro alone shows players the kind of work and detail that went into the title, presenting Wukong as the divinely powerful being that he is in theJourney to the Westnovel. It’s all impressive work, but this level of graphical fidelity and scale comes at a cost.
Journey to the Westwas published in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty in China, and is regarded as one of the greatest ever Chinese novels with 100 chapters.
Black Myth: Wukongis part of a new age of gamesthat aredeveloped in the impressively powerful Unreal Engine 5, and the title makes full use of the engine’s new features. The lighting is some of the best that can be found, the models make use of the greater polygon counts available in UE5, and the particle effects with every strike of Wukong’s staff look amazing, yet something needs to be sacrificed in order to make all this possible. Yes, a high-end PC is required to run the game, but so is 130GB of space.
Is Black Myth: Wukong On Xbox Game Pass?
Black Myth: Wukong feels like the perfect game for Xbox Game Pass thanks to its action-packed gameplay, but will it ever grace the service?
Black Myth: Wukong’s Amazing Visuals Come At A Price
130GB Of Space Is A Lot To Ask
Beefy file sizes seem to be commonplace in the video game industry now, outside of small, stylized indie titles that go for a largely 2D aesthetic.Black Myth: Wukongis certainly not one of these games, and its realistic style and grand vistas require a lot of space to work. With most games released recently, this space also has to be stored in an SSD, which is, fortunately, more common now, butBlack Myth: Wukong’s requirement of 130GB (according to itsSteampage) is a lot to ask for a relatively linear game.
Goku fromDragon Ballis famously inspired by Son Wukong.
Thankfully,the PS5 version of the game is a little smaller, requiring 104GB, but having a file size larger than 100GB poses a problem for players since the standard PS5 has 825GB of SSD storage, meaning thatBlack Myth: Wukongtakes up practically an eighth of the console’s storage alone. This could well be worth the sacrifice for those who love hack-and-slash action games andJourney to the West, but it could mean that some players will have to fork out extra cash for more storage.
Many gaming PCs tend to come with 1TB SSD drives now, but for those with the cash to burn, commercially, these can go up to 4TB. Looking at the more standard 1TB, if players already have games installed that are relatively the same size asBlack Myth: Wukongand want to play the game, that is well over a tenth of their SSD’s space that they need to sacrifice, and other games will likely need to be uninstalled. Not to mention that those without fast internet will be waiting for hours on end just to download and install the title.
Black Myth: Wukong Isn’t The Only Game With This Issue
It Does Better With The Space Than Some
Black Myth: Wukong’s size of 130GB (or 128.68 GB to be precise) on Steam and 104GB on PS5 may be beefy, but it is hardly uncommon now. Two massive releases from last year are comparable in size:Starfield,at an impressive 125GB on Steam, andBaldur’s Gate 3, at a hefty 150GB on Steam, but these two titles are open-world adventures that can take over one hundred hours.Black Myth: Wukongis more linear,taking anywhere from 30–35 hours to beat, showing how much extra room the incredible graphics and massive scale of visuals require.
If players are unsure if their PC will runBlack Myth: Wukong, they can download Benchmark Tool.
Still, comparingBlack Myth: Wukongto two of the biggest titles ever made (in terms of world size and how long they take to beat) isn’t the fairest comparison, especially becauseit is considerably more efficient than other titles over 100GB in size. For instance,Call of Duty: Warzonesis terribly inefficient with its file size, considering that it is 125GB on Steam.EA Sports FC 25is another title that asks too much for its file size, coming in at 100GB when the title used to be 50GB in 2022.
These are but a few examples of games asking for over a tenth of a 1TB SSD, which should be a lot of storage, but with the way that gaming is going,file sizes are only going to increase. This seems to be a sacrifice needed for the new era of gaming engines and the graphical fidelity that they now come with. Players are getting spoiled with path tracing, high-poly models, and 4K textures, but will have to spend most of the day hogging the internet to download this new era of games, especially if their internet isn’t spectacular.
Is Black Myth: Wukong A Soulslike?
Black Myth: Wukong borrows a lot of elements from the souls series, but is it as difficult and can it be truly classed as a souslike game?
Video Game File Size Seems To Only Get Bigger
But They Could Try To Be More Efficient
With large SSD hard drives being cheaper than ever, it isn’t the worst time for game file sizes to be beefier than a cow, butif every AAA game coming out is over 100GB in size, it will be difficult to have much of a library of downloaded gamesif players aren’t into the indie scene. A 1TB SSD might not even get players ten downloaded games now, especially on a PC where file sizes tend to be larger for extra graphics settings, and that’s ignoring the later updates that come with many titles.
Efficiency could be the issue here, with game developers doing everything to make their games look as good as possible without trying to get more out of smaller file sizes. Yes,the graphical fidelity that developers can produce will require more hard drive space, but games always tend to have bits of unused content left behind. This cut content is usually found when scouring the game files and can give many players an idea of how a title could have turned out, but they also can take up valuable storage space depending on the game.
At least, withBlack Myth: Wukong, it is obvious why there is extra storage required, unlike titles likeCall of Duty: WarzonesandEA Sports FC 24&25. The game looks amazing, just like the original trailer a few years ago that blew everyone’s mind. No matter what is said about the game, it is nice to see a title that delivers on its intended promises and doesn’t falsely lead players into thinking it will look better than it actually does. Ultimately, the 130GB is a steep but worthwhile sacrifice.
