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Beat down fists of vengeance
Beat down fists of
vengeance is the latest fighter/adventure game from THQ that
takes place on the fictional city of Las Sombras that no one wants to
live in. This ravaged city (loosely based on Los Angeles) is run by the
order of street gangs and when your leader Zanetti asks you to jump, you
politely say how high. Unfortunately for Zanetti, the rival gangs are
becoming far too powerful and he sends his best fighters to knock them
down a peg or two but when something goes terribly wrong, you’re
unfortunately on your own.
Although Beat down
fists of vengeance may seem like your traditional Vice City game from
the screenshots, the game is actually a fighter with more attention paid
to the fights then the problem solving. However with that said, the more
you walk around and talk to people, the more recognized you become.
Drawing attention to yourself as you try to build a gang empire under
the nose of Zanetti, other bad guys and the police are bad, so you'll
have to spend money on different clothes and even plastic surgery to
hide out.
Over time, the
cycle repeats itself and the whole process of staying hidden while you
grow in power gets incredibly cumbersome. Ultimately, the system
discourages you from talking to people or exploring areas unless you
have to, which actually helps the gamer in completing certain tasks.
The five original
characters in your group all have different styles – some quick movers,
some brutes. You have buttons for punch, kick, grapple and block.
Tapping a strike quickly results in different combos, and other buttons
can be used to throw or disarm. The weapons do a lot of damage when you
get one, and as you progress you'll learn new combos.
In random fights,
you'll fight alone and can choose to slap people around for information
or just take their stuff. But most of them have no information worth
getting. The fights that move the story along are also one-on-one, while
random street battles involve groups – your people against theirs. Your
cronies are about as intelligent as you'd expect – not very – but they
take up enough space to let you do most of the work without getting
piled on. For the planned battles, you'll have a particular goal, like
getting information from the person or just beating them down.
Graphically, the
colour palette of Beat down fists of vengeance is extremely dark which
ironically fits the genre of the title. With that said, the character
models are rather well detailed which feature different tattoos, body
shapes and hairstyle to help give the game that real street fighter
feel. The game also maintains a respectable frame fate and match that
with a few special effects and lighting effects and you have a fairly
decent looking game. As with the graphics, the soundtrack of the title
features a traditional ghetto sound to it and match that with all the
sounds of the streets and you have one kick *** sounding game.
In conclusion, Beat
down fists of vengeance tries valiantly to take itself as a serious
adventure game (similar to the Vice City series) but unfortunately it
lacks many of the aspects of the adventure genre but if you’re looking
for an interesting fighter, than you might want to check this game out
because it’s almost a blast from the past that is extremely reminiscent
of the double dragon series.
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