Onikirimaru
Saikyo Soulja
 Gender: Male
Location: Dirty South, United States |
It got bad reviews? I havnt read them, which i guess was a good thing because if a game gets alot of bad reviews from alot of different sources I usually pass on it or rent it. In this case I actually love the game.
I guess I can run down and do a mini review to why I like it. Or, knowing my tendancy for longwindedness, it wont be so mini.
The fighting stuff. Like I said, I grew up on double dragon and final fights, back when it was pretty simple. But it seems that ever sense gaming went 3d, the fighting beat'em up genre has went south, with the player having to control camera angles, lock on buttons, as well as trying to do the new fancy moves that companies put in the games. This game has really caught the old school feel for me. There are two types of battles, group battles which are more like final fight types, with many enemies in the area, and 1 on 1, more like a true fighting game. The controls are simple, punch, kick, guard, grapple. All character have a good selection of moves as well, and the move are easy to pull off, they have stock combos of PPPP or KK or >PPP etc. Most of the moves can be pulled off by pressing forward or back, with the most complicated being those that press back forward, to do. Another good innovation is that most of those moves commands are reversable (So a <>P move can be done by pressing ><P as well) At first I was like "Why the heck they do that" but I figured out they did it because when your in the mist of a group battle and your next to multiple enemies, the game would get confused if you want to do your >P on one guy, but the game things your looking and someone else, so you end up doing your <P move. Also, the characters have some moves involving the up and down motions, those moves are removed from group battles, and are listed as such on the move list, saving you and the game the headache of figuring out which way is up when your facing away from the camera. Anyway, point being the moves are simple to perform, and there is a good selection of them. The vs battles are more akin to normal fighting games. Now, the fighting system isnt exactly virtue fighter or tekken, but Ill admit it has a bit more depth than I was expecting. It uses a high/med/low level attack/guard system, for attacks and defense, and the item system gives it a tiny bit of stratagy to the fight, (should you take two weapons, or two health items, or one of each, which weapon would be best for your play style) one gripe I have, is I heard that in the demo, you can tag out in vs battles. It was removed in the final game, I dunno why. But it makes the battles more KOF style, were if you get KOed your pal jumps in, and if everyone gets KOed its "You lose" This means that you wont really get to play with your gang members quite as much as Id like to, although they do come in handy in group battles (I always gotta laugh when Anna busts out her frying pan) And now that I turned the difficulty up to normal, I am using them alot more, since my main guy gets his ass whipped sometimes (there are only 3 difficulty levels, but it seems there is a remarkable spike in difficulty between them, easy that mostly just stand there, occasionally putting up a good fight, normal Im getting whipped hit constantly. Maybe I spent too much time on easy diff, lost my edge, anyway) Some people may gripe about its complete time, where you can beat the game quite quickly if you just run through it (I did this with Lola, I ended up not liking her fighting style so I just beat it quick to get an ending) It will take you a lot longer if you go slowly, doing all missions, getting all you can out of the other people (interrogating or robbing before recruiting or beating down) I also like how your choice to recruit lots of people, just rob them and buying lots of clothes (which is my gf's favorite past time) or beating them down and killing them so they will stay out of your way, affects the ending. The customization, (Lots of clothes, hairstyles, accseorries, tattos, and plastic surgery to change your face shape and style) actually is a part of the game, since everything you change puts you in "disguise" and cops and the mafia wont attack you constantly. Which you dont want because you dont get enough xp and cash from fighting the mafia when they see you, and fighting with cops is dangerous because they can grapple you and cuff you, then you gotta either bribe them, or badassing your way out of jail (kicking your cell door off with kung fu skills and fighting your way out the front door, or just juggernaught your way out by repeatly smashing a cracked wall in your cell)
Now, Im not gonna say its for everyone, no game really is, but I think if you like old school stuff like this, at least rent it, you'll have some fun.
Oh, camera take a bit getting used to. It helps if you just run forward, and use the camera to steer yourself. In the group battles the camera is Ok, if you dont see an enemy on your screen hold guard and the camera and your character will turn to them. In big battle against characters with guns, the fight gets a bit hairy because if your close to another enemy, youll look at them and lock on, which means youll move slower, so if your trying to run to the dude with the shotgun and grab it out of their hands, you may look at an enemy as you run by. But those battles are towards the end and by then your bad ass enough to be able to deal with it, its just a minor nuisance.
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"Dunno what your crying for, what did you expect? Im DAN HIBIKI!"
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KMC Community Forums
Sep 29th, 2005 02:21 PM
