The invisible walls and lack of map are deliberate choices to align with the design philosophy. The creator wanted to deliver a cinematic experience. That requires large natural looking set and as little on screen display as possible. The map design and consistency of invisible wall placement could be improved but largely won't solve this problem. With current technologies and resources that's something we have to live with.
Appreciate you sharing that. That’s an interesting take from the developer, but honestly not one I buy. For example, a game like Resident Evil 4, God of War or even the Last of us are still “on rails” in the sense an objective exists in x location and usually there is only one way to get there. The fact you can go through maybe an open house or through a small side alley etc is part of the immersion of thinking it’s a bigger world. That’s just great game design, but it’s still on rails none the less (think the village section in Resident evil 4 as an example). My issue with Black Myth is that that are purposefully designing space in a way that is inviting or open to the player knowing they will place that invisible wall there. For example the cave bit in my video which you can’t traverse, I wish they just let that a thick stone wall. What they are doing is breaking immersion at every turn. If they wanted a fully open world they should have designed it that way of vice versa. In this scenario though I think they made the call wrong and it just leaves the player feeling frustrated, even if artistically they were going for something different. Great call out though mate, love discussing stuff like this with viewers!
@@cockneygamer to be clear I'm not one of the developers or in anyway associated with them. What I said was my speculation, based on some interviews I watched and some speculation from others, which I feel reasonable. I also enjoy RE4 a lot but I don't think BMW and RE4 has meaningful comparison. In case of RE4 you have mostly glorified corridors and in some occassions like the lake, movement is extremely limited. Whereas in BLM you often have huge landscape even boss the size of a mountain like in Mt Huaguo. Yes you can put stone walls but then the size and volume of the stages will soon make it too unnatural or consume large amount of labour. The studio only had some 100 Devs and their original goal was to deliver 12 chapters instead of 6. Also consider they switched to UE5 unplanned I would say the stone wall option never existed for them. Indeed stage design is not a strong suit of the studio and one comment I heard the other day said it very well that the studio "smartly tilted the bucket in the right direction so that water did not leak from its shortest plank". Also from an interview with Feng Ji the founder he said what's most likely to turn you back is not how far the mountain you're trying to reach look, but rather the sand in your shoes. He surely figured it out and delivered. Also enjoy discussion with you. Cheers :)
Why argue about the score, it’s something a small group of influencer is telling you, when it’s sold 10mil copies in a few days, who care about what you say.
Now some of you will hate the score here, thinking it's too low. I get it, Black Myth is an AWESOME game and one that should be in your collection either now or later down the line. Fact is though, a 10/10 score means it can't be improved, and seeing how many 10/10 reviews I saw for this game, I was surprised given some of the obvious improvements that could still be had. Either way, one of my favorite games of the year. Love Reggie xxx
Completely concur, Reggie. In fact, as I'm not much interested at all in that Eastern style/mythical/cultural thing, it having invisible walls all over the shop (so not being fully 'open world' - somewhat on rails, even) that's pretty much a deal breaker for me. At least full release price anyway - might pick up on a sale in future, maybe. Great vid. Thanks again, mate
10/10 doesn't mean it cannot be improved. In fact, there is nothing that is perfect, there is always room for improvement for anything. If we go by that logic there will never be a 10/10. If i think the game is 10/10 for what we have right now, i'd still give it a 10. Regardless there is no right or wrong, its just how you measure things. More importantly is to score all games consistently so it's fair. This is why independent reviews like yours is much better than those from IGN that are incredibly inconsistent and politically motivated. Personally i'd give it, 7/10 - story 10/10 - visuals 8/10 - gameplay 9/10 - overall
@@stevenutuber8347 probably a 9/10 for native players or players well versed in JTTW story. It's a 7/10 for me cause it's hard to follow, that is despite me already knowing the basics of JTTW. 7/10 is a good story already, that 3 more points are room for improving the pacing and exposition of the story.
If the game wasnt invisible walls it would be ridiculous. Haha. Perfect game for me and it is absolutely beautiful on maxed graphics with ray tracing on.
It’s a superb game mate. I will say, I consider myself a pretty harsh critic too… I think in two years I’ve maybe give out two, possibly three games a 10/10 score. I personally see those games as seminal moments in gaming, where they do something so different or move gaming forward in some way that you can’t deny its importance. So an 8 score for me is still pretty much a “must buy”, even if it means down the line when it’s cheaper or on sale.
Love the take Reg. Mirrored my thoughts exactly. It’s a weird feeling when you like so much about a game and think it does so much so well, however you’re always seemed to be pulled out of the world because of a poor design choice. There’s plenty of people out there who would laugh at this take at first glance. Thinking they wouldn’t be bothered by invisible walls, and I can see why. It seems so trivial and nit picky. But Black Myth just seems to have you running into them all the time. On top of the fact you have no map or environment indication. And it ends up making you feel like a blind man feeling out with your hands around the edges of the map to try and find where the map ends and the illusion begins.
I feel the game does deserve and 8 or 8.5 as the exploration can feel a bit limiting and there is a lot to be desired in its performance especially in chapter 4 but I feel that adding a map would ruin the immersion and make my experience worse ps. getting lost is a skill issue
I don't mind it when it's over some edges and it won't let you fall down, but then in other places you can fall down so that's weird ... but yes, there are many places where you could swear you should be able to go but can't and that feels weird too when one opening is a semi hidden path, and another opening is ... a wall. But you get used to it rather quickly and it's not too big of an issue ... some maps would have to be completely redesigned if that wasn't the case and you'd lose a lot of the openness of some landscapes, or have to get even more lost than you might currently. SO in a way the "walls" are a good thing perhaps.
Its a very pretty game with a wildly inconsistent fighting system. Honeslty, it feels like it was developed as a God of War type game, then they decided to add souls-like stuff without modifying the combat. Add in poor optimization and strangley laggy controls on PC, and i really regret buying the game. Maybe future patches will improve things, but for now i deleted it.
Very fair rebuttal mate. I must say, I think I got lucky with the optimization as my machine is brute forcing a lot of the issues which I know so many people are facing. Good point on fighting too - I feel you can absolutely decimate mob after mob and then BAM… you’ll suddenly hit a wall that seems wildly harder than what you just did. So back to grinding you go. Would be better if this was a bit more blended in that sense.
journey to the west is a metaphor for one's life journey, there are no road maps and one needs to be determine to overcome all the obstacles to achieve your life's mission
The invisible walls and lack of map are deliberate choices to align with the design philosophy. The creator wanted to deliver a cinematic experience. That requires large natural looking set and as little on screen display as possible. The map design and consistency of invisible wall placement could be improved but largely won't solve this problem. With current technologies and resources that's something we have to live with.
Appreciate you sharing that. That’s an interesting take from the developer, but honestly not one I buy. For example, a game like Resident Evil 4, God of War or even the Last of us are still “on rails” in the sense an objective exists in x location and usually there is only one way to get there. The fact you can go through maybe an open house or through a small side alley etc is part of the immersion of thinking it’s a bigger world. That’s just great game design, but it’s still on rails none the less (think the village section in Resident evil 4 as an example).
My issue with Black Myth is that that are purposefully designing space in a way that is inviting or open to the player knowing they will place that invisible wall there. For example the cave bit in my video which you can’t traverse, I wish they just let that a thick stone wall. What they are doing is breaking immersion at every turn. If they wanted a fully open world they should have designed it that way of vice versa. In this scenario though I think they made the call wrong and it just leaves the player feeling frustrated, even if artistically they were going for something different.
Great call out though mate, love discussing stuff like this with viewers!
@@cockneygamer to be clear I'm not one of the developers or in anyway associated with them. What I said was my speculation, based on some interviews I watched and some speculation from others, which I feel reasonable.
I also enjoy RE4 a lot but I don't think BMW and RE4 has meaningful comparison. In case of RE4 you have mostly glorified corridors and in some occassions like the lake, movement is extremely limited. Whereas in BLM you often have huge landscape even boss the size of a mountain like in Mt Huaguo. Yes you can put stone walls but then the size and volume of the stages will soon make it too unnatural or consume large amount of labour. The studio only had some 100 Devs and their original goal was to deliver 12 chapters instead of 6. Also consider they switched to UE5 unplanned I would say the stone wall option never existed for them.
Indeed stage design is not a strong suit of the studio and one comment I heard the other day said it very well that the studio "smartly tilted the bucket in the right direction so that water did not leak from its shortest plank". Also from an interview with Feng Ji the founder he said what's most likely to turn you back is not how far the mountain you're trying to reach look, but rather the sand in your shoes. He surely figured it out and delivered.
Also enjoy discussion with you. Cheers :)
Why argue about the score, it’s something a small group of influencer is telling you, when it’s sold 10mil copies in a few days, who care about what you say.
Best soulslike thats not FromSoft since Nioh 2. The more i play the more i love it. Nearing the end of chapter 4 and im giving it 8.8 so far.
This based masterpiece is my GOTY. No doubt about it.
Now some of you will hate the score here, thinking it's too low. I get it, Black Myth is an AWESOME game and one that should be in your collection either now or later down the line. Fact is though, a 10/10 score means it can't be improved, and seeing how many 10/10 reviews I saw for this game, I was surprised given some of the obvious improvements that could still be had. Either way, one of my favorite games of the year. Love Reggie xxx
Completely concur, Reggie. In fact, as I'm not much interested at all in that Eastern style/mythical/cultural thing, it having invisible walls all over the shop (so not being fully 'open world' - somewhat on rails, even) that's pretty much a deal breaker for me. At least full release price anyway - might pick up on a sale in future, maybe.
Great vid. Thanks again, mate
10/10 doesn't mean it cannot be improved. In fact, there is nothing that is perfect, there is always room for improvement for anything. If we go by that logic there will never be a 10/10. If i think the game is 10/10 for what we have right now, i'd still give it a 10. Regardless there is no right or wrong, its just how you measure things. More importantly is to score all games consistently so it's fair. This is why independent reviews like yours is much better than those from IGN that are incredibly inconsistent and politically motivated.
Personally i'd give it,
7/10 - story
10/10 - visuals
8/10 - gameplay
9/10 - overall
@skychaos87 very fair points and thank you for the kind words too! Much appreciated mate
@@skychaos87 if this story 7/10, never been a game story over 7.5 in the video game history
@@stevenutuber8347 probably a 9/10 for native players or players well versed in JTTW story. It's a 7/10 for me cause it's hard to follow, that is despite me already knowing the basics of JTTW. 7/10 is a good story already, that 3 more points are room for improving the pacing and exposition of the story.
a must-play in 2024, can't agree more
This game is so refreshing in many ways
If the game wasnt invisible walls it would be ridiculous. Haha. Perfect game for me and it is absolutely beautiful on maxed graphics with ray tracing on.
Definitely going to give this one a go, when i upgrade my hardware. Great Sage, Equal of Heaven!
Game is a 9/10 easy, fantastic experience.
8/10 is honestly not a bad rating for a game that I was really expecting to be vapourware 😶
It’s a superb game mate. I will say, I consider myself a pretty harsh critic too… I think in two years I’ve maybe give out two, possibly three games a 10/10 score. I personally see those games as seminal moments in gaming, where they do something so different or move gaming forward in some way that you can’t deny its importance. So an 8 score for me is still pretty much a “must buy”, even if it means down the line when it’s cheaper or on sale.
@@cockneygamer if BMW is 8, then only bd3 and it2 could be over 8 in two years.
Love the take Reg. Mirrored my thoughts exactly. It’s a weird feeling when you like so much about a game and think it does so much so well, however you’re always seemed to be pulled out of the world because of a poor design choice.
There’s plenty of people out there who would laugh at this take at first glance. Thinking they wouldn’t be bothered by invisible walls, and I can see why. It seems so trivial and nit picky.
But Black Myth just seems to have you running into them all the time. On top of the fact you have no map or environment indication. And it ends up making you feel like a blind man feeling out with your hands around the edges of the map to try and find where the map ends and the illusion begins.
Great points mate, and thank you for the support!
I feel the game does deserve and 8 or 8.5 as the exploration can feel a bit limiting and there is a lot to be desired in its performance especially in chapter 4 but I feel that adding a map would ruin the immersion and make my experience worse ps. getting lost is a skill issue
ouch, those invisible walls are a big no for me. good review
@@collapsiblechair9112 appreciate it mate, thank you!
I don't mind it when it's over some edges and it won't let you fall down, but then in other places you can fall down so that's weird ... but yes, there are many places where you could swear you should be able to go but can't and that feels weird too when one opening is a semi hidden path, and another opening is ... a wall.
But you get used to it rather quickly and it's not too big of an issue ... some maps would have to be completely redesigned if that wasn't the case and you'd lose a lot of the openness of some landscapes, or have to get even more lost than you might currently. SO in a way the "walls" are a good thing perhaps.
Imo elden ring was way more flawed
Its a very pretty game with a wildly inconsistent fighting system. Honeslty, it feels like it was developed as a God of War type game, then they decided to add souls-like stuff without modifying the combat. Add in poor optimization and strangley laggy controls on PC, and i really regret buying the game. Maybe future patches will improve things, but for now i deleted it.
Very fair rebuttal mate. I must say, I think I got lucky with the optimization as my machine is brute forcing a lot of the issues which I know so many people are facing. Good point on fighting too - I feel you can absolutely decimate mob after mob and then BAM… you’ll suddenly hit a wall that seems wildly harder than what you just did. So back to grinding you go. Would be better if this was a bit more blended in that sense.
journey to the west is a metaphor for one's life journey, there are no road maps and one needs to be determine to overcome all the obstacles to achieve your life's mission