This game is brilliant on many levels. Everything pulsates to its beat: enemy attacks, the player's idle animations, environmental objects, obstacles, parries or actions in a cutscene… the combat, while demanding a steep learning curve, can feel absolutely sublime when you become in-sync with the world around you… and what a world it is. The cel-shaded art style of Hi-Fi Rush is simply gorgeous and teeming with untamed creativity. For a linear game, the environments are dense and often mesmerizing. The game will show-off the sheer polish in its animation work by cleverly playing with perspective or seamlessly transitioning in and out of 3D action to a beautiful comic-like cutscene… all without missing a beat. The combat too strives to the march of the beat, but does well to not overly punish you when you stray from perfect rhythm. Instead, the combat concerns itself more with positive reinforcement. Subtle tones and musical queues will accompany extra powerful attacks when melee strikes are executed on beat. Hi-Fi Rush constantly layers its mechanics as the game progresses and new enemy types join the battlefield. What starts as a simple rhythm combat game rapidly ramps up to a chaotic concert of Devil May Cry inspired action combat with combinations galore, partner attacks, grapple-hooking, dodges, parries, and more. This game encourages mastery of its complex combat systems, offering players a huge array of endgame content and mission replayability options after credits have rolled on this fairly tight, well-paced experience. There are upgrades to find, novel challenge encounters to play, easter eggs to uncover, high-scores to achieve and a staggering list of challenges to pursue in the post-game. The easter eggs are particularly charming, with references galore. The content of these nods include ranging inspiration from their own Evil Within games, other titles like Yakuza or Persona 5, and even Katy Perry's Super Bowl performance... the outside allusions always put a smile on my face. Of-course, this all works from a practical perspective thanks in-no-small-part to how refreshingly polished this title is at launch. My 18 hours of the game were flawless in terms of performance and stability.
Combat finds a way to remain satisfying and fresh throughout, as the game demands more finesse and coordinated use of the tools it has provided players. Scattered throughout the campaign, as a breakup from normal combat, are lavish boss fights. Often, they are a visual spectacle with masterclass animation-work. No two bosses fight the same, and each features its own musical track (often licensed) to elevate the experience. The music choices here absolutely slap. Hi-Fi Rush makes excellent use of some licensed music, featuring the likes of Nine Inch Nails, The Black Keys, and The Joy Formidable (the lattermost contributes a song overlying my favorite level, or "track," of the game). That being said, the OST for this game is similarly excellent, and I'd argue the "Streamer Mode" is on parity with the default music mode. The Glass Pyramids' contributions are absolute fire - "The Beacon" and "Synesthesia" were favorites tracks of mine. Chai, 808 and the rest of his accomplices are an absolutely lovable, goofy set of characters. Robbie Daymond, Erica Lindbeck, Roger Craig Smith and the rest of the voice artists are splendid throughout. For a game so irreverent and characterized by its witty, silly and pun-laden banter… the voice artists and writers work in tandem to deliver on some strong emotional beats when the set is right for it. The narrative does not strive for over-complexity, but instead focuses on an endearing character-driven adventure filled with more heart than you can imagine.
You can apply that last statement to Hi-Fi Rush as a whole… Kai, 808 and crew may have entered the limelight seemingly overnight, courtesy of this game's shadow-drop release, but I expect we will see them again and that they will be celebrated for years to come. Tango Gameworks outdid themselves here. This traditionally horror-focused studio just released one of the most vibrant and uplifting titles we've ever seen from a first-party AAA developer. This might be their first foray in the action-adventure or rhythm-based genre, but they've knocked it out of the park with Hi-Fi Rush. It is joyous, charismatic, and unequivocally fun. I hope that this week John Johanes and his team are celebrating like they just dropped a platinum hit on their debut album… I already eagerly look forward to seeing what they do next.
Combat finds a way to remain satisfying and fresh throughout, as the game demands more finesse and coordinated use of the tools it has provided players. Scattered throughout the campaign, as a breakup from normal combat, are lavish boss fights. Often, they are a visual spectacle with masterclass animation-work. No two bosses fight the same, and each features its own musical track (often licensed) to elevate the experience. The music choices here absolutely slap. Hi-Fi Rush makes excellent use of some licensed music, featuring the likes of Nine Inch Nails, The Black Keys, and The Joy Formidable (the lattermost contributes a song overlying my favorite level, or "track," of the game). That being said, the OST for this game is similarly excellent, and I'd argue the "Streamer Mode" is on parity with the default music mode. The Glass Pyramids' contributions are absolute fire - "The Beacon" and "Synesthesia" were favorites tracks of mine. Chai, 808 and the rest of his accomplices are an absolutely lovable, goofy set of characters. Robbie Daymond, Erica Lindbeck, Roger Craig Smith and the rest of the voice artists are splendid throughout. For a game so irreverent and characterized by its witty, silly and pun-laden banter… the voice artists and writers work in tandem to deliver on some strong emotional beats when the set is right for it. The narrative does not strive for over-complexity, but instead focuses on an endearing character-driven adventure filled with more heart than you can imagine.
You can apply that last statement to Hi-Fi Rush as a whole… Kai, 808 and crew may have entered the limelight seemingly overnight, courtesy of this game's shadow-drop release, but I expect we will see them again and that they will be celebrated for years to come. Tango Gameworks outdid themselves here. This traditionally horror-focused studio just released one of the most vibrant and uplifting titles we've ever seen from a first-party AAA developer. This might be their first foray in the action-adventure or rhythm-based genre, but they've knocked it out of the park with Hi-Fi Rush. It is joyous, charismatic, and unequivocally fun. I hope that this week John Johanes and his team are celebrating like they just dropped a platinum hit on their debut album… I already eagerly look forward to seeing what they do next.