Sifu Review - I Know Kung Fu

Sifu ponders the question: "Is one life enough to know kung fu?" Based on my own battered and bruised experience, the answer is a resounding "no." Death is ingrained into every aspect of developer Slocap's latest brawler, as you'll die, die, and die again before licking your wounds and returning to the fray for another seemingly misguided attempt at emerging from a fight unscathed. Sifu is a punishingly difficult game that won't appeal to everyone. Reaching its conclusion requires a mastery of its combat mechanics, so those looking for a challenging game that demands skill and improvement from the player will find exactly that in Sifu. It's an excellent modern beat-'em-up with deep combat mechanics and a fascinating aging system that sets it apart from its contemporaries by altering the way you progress from one chapter to the next.

Before delving into Sifu's unique hook, it's worth noting that its combat provides the basis for everything else that comes after. Sifu is primarily a game where your sole focus revolves around not getting hit. You have a variety of defensive techniques at your disposal, with each one proving pivotal depending on the situation. Holding the block button for sustained defence is the simplest way to avoid taking a crack to the skull, but this only works for a matter of seconds. Both you and your enemies have a meter for "structure," which functions a lot like Sekiro's posture system. You can block attacks as long as your structure remains intact, but taking too many hits will eventually break it and leave you wide open for enemies to capitalize on your mistake.

You can parry attacks to prevent your structure from breaking by tapping the block button before a blow connects, but you need to be aware of when your assailant's combo ends to have any success of halting their momentum. Parrying the first attack they launch your way won't leave them open to a counter-attack if they're going to follow that up with a couple more, so you might have to parry three attacks in a row before you can retaliate with a rapid-fire counter. Being able to recognize and learn the types of combos each enemy type uses is the only way parrying multiple strikes in succession is feasible, which makes it difficult to achieve when you're first learning the ropes.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

source https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/sifu-review-i-know-kung-fu/1900-6417823/?ftag=CAD-01-10abi2f

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Godfall Review

Godfall makes a good first impression. Even if you're playing on a moderately powerful PC, as I did, it's clear from the opening moments that developer Counterplay Games has endeavored to show off advancements in visual fidelity, no doubt in light of new hardware such as the PlayStation 5. From the way sparks fly to the myriad particles that coat every inch of its action and the reflectiveness of its gaudy gold and marble halls, Godfall wants you to know that next gen is here. Beyond the visual spectacle, however, lies a game that's immediately familiar and over-reliant on an amalgamation of loot-driven games from the past eight years or so. Godfall's mixture of loot progression and third-person melee combat has been described by Counterplay Games as a new type of genre: the looter-slasher. The name holds up insofar as you loot and slash things, but there's nothing about Godfall that feels intrinsically new. Diablo, Monster Hunter, and Warframe make up a portion o...
Read more

Days Gone Review - Farewell, Oregon

Image
Editor's Note: In May 2021, Sony ported Days Gone to PC. In addition to compiling two years' worth of updates since the 2019 game's initial launch, the Windows version offers opportunities for enhanced graphics and performance with more powerful gaming PCs. Mike Epstein delivers his impressions on the game's technical improvements and how they may change your experience playing the PC version of Days Gone. GameSpot's original review for Days Gone is below in full and the assessment for the PC version is integrated at the end. This review contains minor spoilers about mission structure and overall story direction. There are no spoilers for major narrative moments. Around 10 hours into Days Gone , you're thrown into a hunting tutorial apropos of nothing. The over-the-top libertarian character takes you out with a rifle and shows you how to track a deer, although you've already had a tracking tutorial. You're then tasked with getting more meat for you an...
Read more

Nioh 2 Review - Get Good And Die Trying

Nioh 2 is not to be trifled with. Building on the original's tough-as-nails reputation, Team Ninja's second samurai action-RPG brings back the original's penchant for punishing and highly nuanced combat. The sequel hones the original's distinctive take on the Souls-like without completely reinventing itself. The result is a long, tough slog that will push even the most challenge-hungry players to their breaking points as they fight for every inch of ground and become master samurai. Despite the title, Nioh 2 is a prequel, revealing the secret history of a decades-long period of war in medieval Japan. As the silent, customizable hero Hide, you fight to uncover the secret nature of "spirit stones," which grant supernatural power, and defeat hordes of Yokai across the country. The plot, which you mostly hear through cutscenes and exposition between missions, has an interesting historical bent, but it is really just glue to hold the levels together. Historically...
Read more