I have been playing Sifu for a few days and I think I love it. For the first hour I thought it was just a button mashing game, and it is exactly that but there is a real pattern to it which is really satisfying once you get a bit of rhythm going. It is hugely satisfying to go from a defensive stance to parrying an enemy and following up with a lightning fast combo which takes them down. It is so cool how you can instantly flick up poles or bottles with your feet to use as weapons, and adding skills where you can kick objects at enemies to stun them.
The game is set out in a way that makes me feel like I'm in my own kung fu film. Dialogue is minimal but effective, one cool bit was walking into an underground bookies to be told "All bets are off" but when I tried to continue into the arena the vendors suddenly come at me and I have to take them out. It reminds me a bit of Hotline Miami with the pacing and how you go in as a lone solider and take out entire floors of enemies. The gameplay is very different to Hotline Miami but it still has the same vibe.
The game got 'good but not great' reviews as far as I'm aware. I gave it a quick spin when it arrived on PS+ about a year ago but I wasn't sold. I gave it another chance this week and I'm glad I did.
I also played Robocop: Rogue City recently. Really enjoyed that too but it definitely had some limitations. On the plus side it was great fun playing as Robocop, the game follows it's own story but it is set in the same universe as the film trilogy so you see the same locations and characters and it has the same music and sound effects. The game mixes shooting sequences, detective work and has very basis RPG elements. The RPG benefits didn't add much but the balance between the genres felt quite good.
On the negative side, it's a bit slower than your typical shooter although I guess Robocop is no ninja. The idea is you are heavily armoured and can take a lot of fire, you just need to take out the others before they wear you down. The RPG system was mostly pointless, some skills were good but most were useless so I stopped even spending my points in the end. You can level up your pistol quickly which makes the game easily. And perhaps worse of all I had a couple of moments where a story event bugged out meaning I couldn't trigger the next stage and had to restart the level, losing 30 mins of gameplay on one occasion. Looking online suggests this is a common bug with no fix other than to restart.
