![]() Quite a few seem directly tied to weapons as well, and some simple pickups like a baseball bat appear in “The Club,” with a machete and bo staff open for use in the hub's training mode. There are various moves and upgrades which can be unlocked with accrued points at dragon statues or after the player dies - we've previously explored Sifu’s signature aging/death mechanic in greater depth - and the move list may appear gated for this preview, but hardly exciting on its own. That being said, it’s harder to gauge whether other aspects of the game have considerable legs at this stage. They wield stronger and more unpredictable fighting styles as well as a massive health bar, and essentially increase the tension in a room whenever they appear. For one, certain enemies always run the risk of “upgrading” into a mini-boss, which can occur mid-finisher and seems to happen more frequently if the player is performing well perhaps this adaptive challenge is one reason why Sifu will not have difficulty options at launch? One-on-one, these encounters are tough enough, but nothing prevents them from emerging in the middle of a larger brawl. ![]() The lesser fighters encountered tend to attack quickly and are therefore generally easy to deflect, while tougher enemies extend their attack windows and seem to mix up their move-set.Ī few adaptive elements add further evidence to Sifu's potential replayability. The timing here is quite different, though there’s no obvious button prompt for when to parry or dodge, and players will learn to press it exactly when a hit is about to land. The parry is key to Sifu’s combat, which often feels somewhat reminiscent of the parry/counter mechanics in the Arkham games. Soften up an enemy’s structure/poise and a prompt appears for a quick, brutal-looking finisher, which also adapts to the environment for instance, finishing a combatant near a wall or bar top may lead to a face-crunching slam into the surface or a tumble over the edge. Combat mostly amounts to a quick and heavy attack, a button to snatch highlighted objects from the environment to use as weapons, and an all-important parry/block which defaults to the L1 bumper. Sifu takes numerous visual cues from martial arts film, which is evident in the slightly grainy filter laid over the view, conjuring the highly stylized presentation of a gritty animated feature. Each partitioned section features an array of different fighters in various outfits, with most drawing from different combat tendencies and behaviors. A lone bodyguard protects the door, which leads to a dive bar, a discotheque, an underground fighting arena, and a gym. The playable preview takes place in “The Club,” and sees the main character breaching a seedy nightclub at dusk. A 15-minute preview of most any other title might hardly be worth writing about, but we’ve beaten this section roughly 30 times by now, and it serves as a strong sell for the game’s concept at scale. ![]() It’s worth noting that SloClap’s present preview build is arguably minimal, amounting to 15 minutes’ worth of gameplay plucked from the game’s second level. ![]() Related: Synthetik 2 Preview: A Shiny Sci-Fi Action-Roguelite with Room to GrowĪfter a lengthy pre-release buildup spanning trailers for Sifu and guided presentations, Screen Rant was finally able to spent some quality time breaking faces on a quest for vengeance. We’ve learned that timing and positioning is paramount, much more so than memorizing complicated combos or scrolling through long menus of stats. Our preview time spent with Sifu separates the game even further from its predecessor for the accessible third-person brawler it is. Sifu is Sloclap’s follow-up to 2017’s Absolver, a highly customizable brawler with deep PVP gameplay and some SoulsBourne leanings.
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