One of the most iconic fighting series of video games is back! Developed by Capcom, “Street Fighter V” comes with classic characters and unpublished, new in the gameplay mechanics that will appeal to all audiences and online disputes that only the most determined players will survive.
But is that the game is a worthy result of the franchise? Below you can see the analysis of “Street Fighter V”, based on the version for Playstation 4. The title is also available for PC (Steam).
History
“Street Fighter V” is one of the few fighting games that strive to have a story to justify the clashes between its cast, something that does not get to be a must in the genre since the focus is right on the mechanics of beatings. In the timeline of the saga, the game takes place between the events of “Street Fighter III” and “Street Fighter IV” in which the player closer to know the motivations and accompanying the personal evolution of each character.
The plot is developed in short static dialogue before, during and after each match. Overall, the narrative lines are interesting enough not to encourage the player to press the cut button and go right to the fights. No doubt who else will enjoy the novelty is longtime fans of the franchise, especially those who identify with the philosophy of life of legendary figures such as Ryu and Ken. But who do not have this type of connection with the characters, will clearly not have the same involvement.
And although it seems cool at first, Story Mode brings with it a serious problem. It is quite incomplete: its final version will be released only in June .Until then, players will have to settle for a maximum of 4 fights per fighter with one round each and almost no challenge, it is also not possible to choose the difficulty you play. In addition, there is an Arcade Mode itself that complements the experience, which creates a clear impression of lack of content associated with a certain indifference to launch something incomplete.
Gameplay
The gameplay is the best of “Street Fighter V”. The controls are extremely pleasant and absurdly responsive, just as you expect from a fighting game. The player control over each of the characters is so precise and well executed it is common to feel fully inserted in the dynamics of struggle and forget that there is a reality out of the screen. So if the player failed to carry out an attack or simply failed to splice a combo sequence, it’s his fault alone and there is no excuse for the banks.
Like any other game in the series, “Street Fighter V” is demanding with anyone play nice. It takes many hours of training, dedication and patience to learn all possibilities of attack, defense, the right time for each frame to fit combos and the exact commands of each special technique. Taking into account just one character, only here you can already easily spend hundreds of hours of play. Knowing the strengths, the weaknesses, the scope of all strokes, the speed of change in animation and how all these points influence in gambling as a whole to become something scary when you think of the 16 characters available .
The classics are back: Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Zangief, Dhalsim, Cammy, Vega and M. Bison. It also has other not so popular as well, but the players immediately recognize Nash, R. Mika, Karin and Birdie. The new features in the cast are Laura, the Brazilian playmaker in Jiu-Jitsu, the hairy beast Necalli, the tamer winds Rashid and FANG, the bizarre second commander of Shadoloo. Each brings particular movements that combine with different styles of players, who prefer projectile launchers, those who identify with blows melee. Everything is a matter of adjustment and determination to know the advantages and disadvantages of each type of stroke and the speed of execution that need to be applied.
The main news in the mechanics of “Street Fighter V” is the bars V-Gauge, V-Trigger and V-Skill. The first is the classic special (Critical Arts), born in three to levels during the fighting. Setting these scams is guaranteed to cause much damage that the game can provide in short time. It is essential to know how to use V-Gauge in the most propitious time not to waste the opportunity of the attack, which clearly serves for great advantage compared to the energy bar of the opponent, or to escape difficult situations and need immediate solutions. Of course, all at risk of either fact happen options. The penalty is almost always defeating in these cases.
The V-Trigger happens when you press the buttons hard punch and shot simultaneously, which gives the fighter some temporary feature that can be the difference between victory and defeat. All characters have unique abilities, leaving the player to know the advantages and disadvantages before opponents. But the V-Skill, activated at any time of departure happens when you press the punch button and medium kick, activating one too specific attack for each fighter, which can pass the advocacy of special or perform a surprise move that allows the execution some combo destroyer. Knowing and understanding these variations is essential to do well. There’s no other way.
Reading, it seems that the news in the mechanics is geared only to the most experienced. The path is the opposite: one of the great triumphs of “Street Fighter V” is to be accessible to all types of audiences. Some of the most basic commands, largely dominated by the most fanatical, have been simplified and are easier to perform. An immediate example is a blow whatever needed preloading and is now released with the same command of the classic HADOUKEN. This means that many players never played those who had great difficulty in applying simple techniques for timing inaccurate; they are being encouraged not only to learn the specialties of the series but also to participate in the community, including the duels online.
This means that the game became easier? Definitely not “Street Fighter V” still favors the player who has more knowledge about the potential of each fighter over another. It does not help to know the command of a coup and apply it on the battlefield at any time if there is a deep familiarity as to what types of reactions and responses the opponent may have in front of each technique applied. Therefore, only those who master these variants, taking into account the differences in V-Gauge, V-Skill, V-Trigger, the scope and the speed of the characters, is to be considered the best-prepared players for any kind of confrontation.
Online multiplayer
One of the coolest attractions in “Street Fighter V” is the online experience. As in any genre or title game of the franchise from Capcom, are fighting on the internet that the player proves its true value. The formula for success is no secret: it takes a lot of determination, training and dedication to meet the deeper details of the game’s gameplay, taking into account the nuances of each character to survive in an environment dominated by so many skilled players around the world.
There is no more satisfying feeling in the game than to face and beat somebody stranger who has a unique way of playing and not based on truisms of offline artificial intelligence. You have to quickly adapt to the style of each opponent, come up with strategies for fighting and get used to quickly consider alternatives to getting rid of the tensest situations. It is common even feel helpless in the face of someone who has knowledge of the techniques and capabilities of both characters in battle, which clearly shows the lack of study, training and time of play of a player relative to each other in a match.
Everything would be exactly this way if the online part of “Street Fighter V” could, at least, meet the basic to what is proposed. But unfortunately, it is not so. The game suffers from serious problems of connection, it is common not only be disconnected during the games, but also play with constant delays in almost all the struggles, including those initiated by players from the same country. The difficulty of maintaining an online combat fluid is such that it is impossible not to feel stressed or completely unmotivated to continue trying or playing. The situation worsens a bit more when you think that the title still had 3 beta testing before release.
Moreover, it is also common to lose data saved or not account for the bonus gains in ranked matches, either by wins, losses or even Fight Money, creating moments of frustration because all his effort was in vain. In online multiplayer, there is never 100% sure that you will be able to start a fight, finish it and receive all that conquered, regardless of the region where your opponent is and your internet speed, no matter how good. Out that often the initial login failure sequentially and matchmaking insists not find players. There is an urgent need for corrections and adjustments as quickly as possible.
Content offered
Taking all the whim and concern from Capcom in the development of the mechanics of gameplay, “Street Fighter V” skids on another important point: the content offered. There are only four main game modes: Story, Versus, Survival and Online (RANKED or Casual). The first is available only as a prolog, and as stated earlier, will be released in full in a few months. Even if this additional is free, it is currently incomplete, is poorly structured and cannot compensate for the absence of the classic Arcade mode, which usually has several fights, allows customization of difficulty and always culminates with a final boss to confront charismatic. None of that exists here, unfortunately.
The Versus puts two local friends to face as many times as they wish, it’s really nice, a lot of fun and suits perfectly well for the typical weekend meetings, creating moments of great laughter and teasing. The Survival puts the player in a sequence of up to 100 matches to test its longevity with a single energy bar, but it does not allow customizations and game variations, although it has a great bonus system for each match won. Already online, as stated in the previous section, it is virtually disqualified as a playable content due to a serious problem in the communication structure between players, causing more frustration than excitement.
In addition, 16 characters and 10 scenes are just a satisfactory amount of content offered for a new installment of the franchise. Other titles in the series had proportionately similar numbers in their first versions, but also offered a complete contents as diverse game modes (Trials, Time Attack, among others), unpublished characters with greater appeal and an entire online part that worked within the expected. Other than that, winning Fight Money (the game currency) by simply progress in any of the modes in “Street Fighter V” does not serve for much at this point because the virtual game store with more clothing options and characters only they arrive from March. If it’s any consolation, at least, there will only be a single edition of the game.
Graphics
“Street Fighter V” also likes quite the charts. And responsible for this is the Unreal Engine 4. The scenarios and characters are very colorful and combine well with the proposal, but without leaving the very childish result or exaggerated to cause discomfort or confusion of objects by excessive colors.
The balance of tones is accurate and the main point of the game, the fights is never affected by the amount of information shown on the screen. Animations, light effects and special each fighter are drives, occupying the entire battlefield with devastating combos and attack positions of the impossible types.
The graphic evolution of the “Street Fighter IV” is quite evident in all points: lighting, shadows and textures are much more accurate and better used than before. Everything runs on fluid 60 frames per second, which makes them stable fighting and makes the player feel confident that will not be hampered by failures in optimization.
But not everything looks good in the eyes. Animations of supporting the scenarios are slow relative to game speed, which causes a strange feeling of delay that finds no justification to actually happen. It is common; for example, be fighting frantically and all movement in the background does not track the overall performance, through a rather robotic impression almost entirely out of the context of the fighting.
Audio
“Street Fighter V” makes beautiful audio. The soundtrack takes the classic themes of the main characters, which creates a great feeling of nostalgia for those who are a long-time fan. The remixes are well balanced, have precise cuts and are exciting, collaborating enough in the immersion. The pounding effects are also well consistent with what is shown on the screen, highlighting the grandeur of the fighting during the execution of some monstrous destructive combo or special that dominates the four corners of the screen.
Conclusion
The way is in the release, “Street Fighter V” is just a good fighting game. The evolution from the previous title is quite evident, bringing relevant graphics and new gameplay that left him accessible to an audience of new players and equally demanding with those who want to continue lavishing skill.
But much of the provided content is not yet available and there are several connection chronic problems online which greatly compromise the experience and consequently the fun.
PROS
- Gameplay extremely pleasant, responsive and accurate
- Accessibility: fanatics and beginners can also enjoy
- Great graphic evolution: textures, lighting effects and drives
- Classical themes of the characters on the soundtrack
- Cross-play between PS4 and PC
CONS
- Few game modes, characters and scenarios
- Very serious problems nullify the online experience