Mastering a martial art takes years – if not a lifetime. Students have to hone their bodies to the point where they execute every attack, every counterattack, every movement with great precision. A skilled warrior must move without thinking. Likewise, mastering Sifu’s combat system requires a lot of dedication and practice. Like a true martial artist, you must overcome training difficulties before reaping any rewards.
In 2017, Sloclap released the martial arts-themed action/role-playing game title, allowing players to design their own battle system as they battle other online players in a world of epic battles. unique fantasy world. Absolver suffers from barren environments and tedious mission designs, but its core combat is solid. Slotlap’s next game clarifies the combat system around a more focused single-player adventure. The premise is promising, although the execution is flawed.
Basically, Sifu is a simple revenge story. Eight years ago, a mysterious group of thugs brutally murdered your master, and you’ve spent your life hunting them down and doing justice. Unfortunately, the ringleaders of this attack hide behind dozens of bodyguards, and the odds are not in your favor. But when your opponent has the number, you have the respawn gift. A magical talisman on your hip that revives you when you fall in battle. It is imperative that every time you die, you grow old. Each death adds a digit to the death count that shows how old you are during the rebirth process. For example, after your first death you are only a year older, but after a few kills you can lose five or six years in a matter of seconds. This aging system is a neat way to track your progress throughout the game, and I loved watching my character’s pose change as gray hair and wrinkles appeared.
Sloclap designs its fighting system around the movements of Pak Mei kung fu, a centuries-old martial art filled with versatility and often explosive attacks. These stylized characters and fluid animations allow for stunning combats like they’ve been ripped from the best Kung-Fu movies. In an instant, I smashed an enemy into the table, shattering the glass and table legs in all directions. The next second, I kicked a basket in the room, sending one attacker to the floor before slamming a bottle in the face of another nearby enemy. When things hit all cylinders, Sifu’s battles are well-choreographed broken-bone ballets. And standing atop a pile of defeated enemies was an incredible rush that I chased through the entire experience.
Unfortunately, Sifu’s flawless navigation of battles with incredible precision with strict timing requirements slows down the game’s pacing. Skillful use of barricades, dodges, and counters is required to survive on these treacherous streets, and a simple slip will put you under attack from your opponents. These enemies also hit hard, taking away a large portion of your health bar, which makes you feel punished. You gain a small amount of health back by doing advanced kills, but that amount of healing is meager compared to what you lose in an enemy combo. Fighting enemies in packs increases the challenge, and you must maintain situational awareness and balance any threats while dealing with pain. I like this added tactical element to combat, but I don’t appreciate having to fight simultaneously with the camera; Enemies sometimes appear from outside the screen to break your combination and those attacks are like cheap hits.
Completing any level of Sifu is a huge but rewarding challenge. Unfortunately, the game’s structure exacerbates that challenge. When you reach the ripe 70s, your amulet is completely broken, and game over. When this happens, you have to completely restart the level. A few unlockable shortcuts make each run with a boss a little more manageable, but I still get tired of running through the same areas over and over again until I perfect the approach. mine. To make matters worse, you start each level at whatever age you finished the previous one. This makes sense, but from a game perspective it forces me to constantly revisit previous levels to complete them at a younger age, so I have years to play with later. .
As you earn your mass, you also gain experience, which you can use to buy new abilities. Some of these skills seem essential, such as the ability to kick objects in the environment at enemies. Temples are scattered throughout the environment that provide additional perks like upgraded weapon damage or increased health you get back with each takedown. Sadly, some abilities and perks will be locked as you age, which forces me to go back to the original levels to gain enough experience to unlock those skills before I get older. forever. This whole process is a bit tiring.
Like a 20-year-old warrior, Sifu stepped out of the gate forcefully. Its combat at its core feels great, and the moment-to-moment action looks better than most Hollywood blockbusters. Sadly, as you progress, the action starts to show and eventually becomes a weariness. Sifu deserves props for its incredible style and tone, but it’s also a great example of why growing older isn’t always fun.
