Road Fighter 6 made a powerful first impression throughout its State of Play gameplay unveiling. It made an equally sturdy impression after I went hands-on with its conventional 1v1 Preventing Floor expertise at Summer time Sport Fest Play Days.
Because of the technical prowess of the RE Engine, Road Fighter 6 is a fabulous sport to have a look at. Its gameplay is equally spectacular because it’s deepened with the brand new Drive Gauge and Trendy Management kind. Whereas being the subsequent grand mainline entry in a very powerful combating sport sequence of all time is a tall order, Road Fighter 6 already appears ready to tackle that problem.
A Visible Marvel
The construct of the sport I performed let me go hands-on with 4 characters: Ryu, Chun-Li, Luke, and model new character, Jamie. Ryu and Chun-Li’s redesigns look incredible, whereas Luke and Jamie have distinctive types as relative newcomers to the franchise. Generally, Road Fighter 6 is an completely attractive sport.
Powered by the RE Engine behind video games like Resident Evil Village, Road Fighter 6’s character fashions are extremely detailed and colourful. The inner-city alleyways of Metro Metropolis and the cherry-blossom-filled Genbu Temple I fought at had been vibrant and full of life, and pre-game presentation all the time received me hyped because the Road Fighter characters pumped themselves up for the upcoming combat.
Fights and particular strikes aren’t too visually busy, so that you’ll all the time clearly perceive what strikes you’re doing. Drive Impacts create attractive, paint-like streaks throughout the display, giving these disruptive strikes extra satisfying visible suggestions. Particularly on next-gen consoles, Road Fighter 6 might be one of many prettiest combating video games ever.
Road Fighter 6 masses tremendous fast-on PS5 too, with rematches loading practically immediately. These fast load instances helped guarantee I caught round for even longer than my allotted demo time, however so did Road Fighter 6’s satisfying gameplay.
A scrumptious combo meal
Road Fighter titles have all the time been very lauded and in style combating video games. As style trailblazers, the previous couple of Road Fighters primarily give attention to evolving the combo-based gameplay that units an ordinary for the remainder of the style. Road Fighter 6 isn’t any completely different.
You’ll punch and kick as your favourite characters, stringing collectively button press and stick actions to tug off wild particular strikes and combos. Most of the iconic combos and button presses return simply as you bear in mind them, so that you shouldn’t have bother pulling off a Hadoken a Ryu while you lastly get your arms on Road Fighter 6.
In Road Fighter 6, gamers draw from two completely different gauge meters. The extra conventional Tremendous Gauge lets your character pull off their particular strikes. In the meantime, the brand new Drive Gague lets gamers do as much as 5 colourful offensive and defensive strikes just like the Drive Impression counter, the Drive Parry, and extra. Gamers should handle this meter properly, as they’ll take extra harm if it absolutely depletes. It doesn’t revolutionize the combating sport expertise however provides an thrilling risk-vs-reward factor to every combat.
Although I’ve performed lower than an hour of Road Fighter 6, it already feels incredible to play and like a stable evolution for this traditional sequence. For followers which may not be as acquainted with combating video games, Road Fighter 6 isn’t leaving them within the mud.
This sport introduces the Trendy Management kind, which lets gamers execute particular strikes just like the Hadoken or the Shin Shoryuken with easy button presses. Holding R2 and mashing triangle is far simpler to know than an advanced string of button press and stick actions, so followers who wish to see every character’s flashiest strikes ought to get pleasure from this new management scheme.
Enjoying with the Trendy management kind can really feel stilted as you’re solely doing combos and lacking out on the straightforward punches and kicks that may do wonders in stringing collectively strikes. Nonetheless, I’m all for this characteristic making Road Fighter 6 extra approachable. It is going to even be helpful in serving to me see the best strikes from each character within the roster with out having to memorize and grasp a lot of sophisticated inputs.
So, whereas Road Fighter 6 doesn’t boldly rethink what combating video games could be, it’s a fantastic, pleasant, and approachable title that ought to recapture the hearts of combating sport followers, lots of whom this sequence helped create. It was the most effective AAA sport on the present flooring at Summer time Sport Fest Play Days, and I’m excited to play extra sooner or later and be taught what the World Tour mode is.
Road Fighter 6 might be launched for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Sequence X/S in 2023.
Editors’ Suggestions
