Sifu Review friv game - Haven't Played the Box Yet

The highlight of the indie action game about kung fu master Sifu was the mechanics of aging - after each defeat, the hero's face is cut with wrinkles, his hair turns gray, and the counter of years lived is inexorably approaching critical numbers. I tell in the review how many times I had to die of old age during the passage of the game.

Friv2Online Games Studio has already noted the multiplayer fighting game Absolver, also sharpened for martial arts - but problems with low online still blocked the original gameplay mechanics. With Sifu, the developers decided to do it much easier, and, as you know, everything ingenious is simple.

The beginning of the game is swift - I just press the start button, and in a second I find myself behind the back of a mysterious hero. After a couple of moments, I already get acquainted with the combat system, which has become one of the main advantages of Sifu.

In general, if you played Absolver, the combat will be familiar to you - except that the fights are now not with one opponent, but with a whole crowd at once. You could still see similar games in the Batman: Arkham line and the Assassin's Creed series, but there the combat system is based on counterattacks and is not so deep.

And if you haven’t played it, then imagine a fighting game in which you were released on all four sides - Sifu has a set of different attacks, blocks, dodges and other movements, and they need to be connected in combos to avoid cuffs or give out a spectacular series.

Enemies, without hesitation, attack all together, and not only the complex combat system makes the fights spectacular, but also the interactive environment - objects scatter into chips, you can take some kind of drain in your hand, and you can slip through bar counters and other surfaces, like in an action movie.

Having pumped, the protagonist will be able to catch knives flying at him, as well as launch chairs and armchairs at opponents with a slight movement of the leg - the spectacle on the screen literally catches the eye, although it will still take time to master the combat system.

And we are still talking about the prologue, after which I understand that I am not controlling the protagonist at all, but vice versa. So Sifu smoothly presents the story - an embittered student came to take revenge on his master, and does it successfully, and in front of his son. They also tried to send him to the next world, but failed - the boy survived, trained for a long time and at one moment went to take revenge, and control of him was already leaving me.

Sifu has a utterly simple idea - there are five villains who need revenge, and, accordingly, five levels. As if Arya Stark, the main character draws their names everywhere, which can be seen thanks to the painstaking design of his lair. There you can relax, pump, admire the cool detective board and go on a “mission”.

The levels will seem deceptively simple - we gradually lay a path of stunned enemies to the boss, defeat him and go to take revenge on the next one.

In fact, everything is much more interesting - for example, various items are scattered on the levels, which, after selection, will be displayed on that detective board. These can be details that shed light on the plot, or keys to doors that hide shortcuts to the boss. These things are pretty easy to miss, so you have to scour every corner.

And the locations impress with their design - intricate slums, behind which drug addict laboratories are hidden, a stylish club, a burning village...

The answer to why short paths to the boss are needed lies in the very mechanics of aging - in Sifu, if you lose (and this is easy to do thanks to complex combat), the hero ages by one year, and the death counter increases by one. If you do not reset this counter, it will accumulate - and now the kung fu master is already aging for two years, then three... And so on until he dies of old age, which comes after 70 years.

The appearance and abilities of the protagonist also change with age - every 10 years, his strength increases, and his health decreases. Moreover, some skills are opened for pumping and others are closed.

But the most important thing is that after passing the level, the age is preserved - if the boss brought you to the gray hair of a 60-year-old man, then you will begin to complete the second task with him. Do you think you can make it to the finals with this result? I highly doubt it.

You will have to replay the levels for the best result, but with the loss of progress - in this regard, Sifu is a bit like bagels. But I liked that the friv game really teaches you how to fight better - so, on the first playthrough, I died of old age already on the first boss, and after a few such attempts (they take 15-20 minutes in total, which is quite a bit) I defeated him and small bandits. without losing a single year.

All these mechanics in Sifu are intelligently intertwined with each other, and at one moment you understand: how everything here is logical and connected. According to the demo version, users could be perplexed by what is happening on the screen and think that they have a dummy in front of them, but the release version put everything in its place.

As for the visuals, a pleasant cartoon picture evoked only pleasant emotions and made me nostalgic about the adventures of Jackie Chan (cartoon and PS1 games). The sound, unfortunately, is rather weak - the blows are not felt, which can slightly spoil the emotions from the brawls.

I consider the uncomfortable camera to be the main sin of Sifu. It sticks too close to the hero's back, and it becomes critical when he is against the wall - then the camera literally crashes into the character's model, which makes it impossible to navigate in fleeting battles, where every second counts. Because of this, I lost more than one year of my life.

But otherwise, Sifu is great - with a unique aging mechanic, a complex and deep martial arts- style combat system, a simple but entertaining storyline that progresses along the detective board, a charming level design and other virtues, for which the friv game can be safely called one of the best February games. releases, and even all of 2022.