There are many things good with Black Myth: Wukong. But there might be just one single thing holding the game back from perfection: invisible walls. Many players seem to think so, and they’re expressing their one gripe with the title on places like Reddit.
An Aug. 22 Reddit thread contained a video showcasing the game’s liberal and heavy use of invisible walls. While this design choice has been in video games since time immemorial, the way they are utilized in Black Myth: Wukong leaves a lot to be desired—quite literally. There might be a strange patch of land resembling a path you want to take, only to be met with a metaphysical barrier preventing any and all passage that could, and often does, break immersion altogether.
Players discussing the issue in the thread generally seem to agree with the notion that invisible walls are the only thing keeping Black Myth: Wukong from being a perfect game. After all, it has seen millions of players flocking in to experience this strange Journey to the West, though I seldom feel they expected to faceplant against nonexistent walls planted across the maps. “This is my biggest issue with the game,” one user said, while another hoped developers take the feedback and avoid such design choices in their next game. “I don’t even mind the linearity,” they wrote, “but the invisible walls are annoying.”
Many others either said they didn’t get why the devs opted for this limitation, or that they simply do not like how it was implemented.
In my wanderings across the mysterious Western and New Western lands of Black Myth: Wukong, I’ve come across so many of these barriers that it threw me off and left me disappointed. I’ve always wondered “what’s over there” in games, so hitting the invisible walls of Black Myth really hurt its vibes, which are otherwise unmatched.
