On a local FG level, this really does seem like an absolute treat. A lovely remastering of a fighting game that feels like it has an absurd level of technical depth, great art design (with some particularly amazing animation work) and great gamefeel.
But as an "Esports" reinvigoration of the game, it sadly falls at the first hurdle. For all it's cute bells and whistles, tournament modes, and events coming down the line, the game just feels bad to play online. In a game with such very tight timing windows, having so much delay is basically unacceptable, even playing against others with what the game presents as the best possible connection. Going from training and local play to online and watching what feels like a 300ms delay between the offline and online play just makes it feel unworkable and its extremely hard to adjust between the two. Even by the standards of delay based netcode, it's bad.
If you gave me 100 hours, maybe I could adjust to it. And maybe in 2010 I would have, it seems like a supremely good game in local play. But it's 2021 and the middle of a Pandemic - at this point, I have plenty of options for games which are both supremely good and don't feel like shite to play online - which, considering that's the emphasis of this title, basically defeats the point.
What a shame. If the online was good i'd probably be going into discords trying to build up a lobby for the next little while, trying dumb shit and having a great time with friends. And maybe I would anyways, but it's at least going to be squeezing a much harder fruit for the same amount of juice - and I don't have patience for that in my online games anymore.
But as an "Esports" reinvigoration of the game, it sadly falls at the first hurdle. For all it's cute bells and whistles, tournament modes, and events coming down the line, the game just feels bad to play online. In a game with such very tight timing windows, having so much delay is basically unacceptable, even playing against others with what the game presents as the best possible connection. Going from training and local play to online and watching what feels like a 300ms delay between the offline and online play just makes it feel unworkable and its extremely hard to adjust between the two. Even by the standards of delay based netcode, it's bad.
If you gave me 100 hours, maybe I could adjust to it. And maybe in 2010 I would have, it seems like a supremely good game in local play. But it's 2021 and the middle of a Pandemic - at this point, I have plenty of options for games which are both supremely good and don't feel like shite to play online - which, considering that's the emphasis of this title, basically defeats the point.
What a shame. If the online was good i'd probably be going into discords trying to build up a lobby for the next little while, trying dumb shit and having a great time with friends. And maybe I would anyways, but it's at least going to be squeezing a much harder fruit for the same amount of juice - and I don't have patience for that in my online games anymore.
KB0
2 years ago