But as reluctant as you might feel, there’s joy in seeing natural progression - learning the ins and outs of the game - properly materialize before you. How Sifu rationalizes having to repeat former levels isn’t the most convincing or eloquent. Satisfaction soon felt in how one goes from dying five or six times in the first level, to only once hours later - knowing full well you can do even better and go a full level, unscathed let alone without ever respawning at all. To finally conquer the grueling gauntlet of mobs and punishing boss fights alike is one players will be willing to refine to some extent. The multiplayer component may be gone, but the idea of one getting back up after being downed (over and over again), simple in concept, has its potential in a solely single-player, story-led campaign. Fans of Absolver will of course feel the most benefit in what the French studio are going for here. By no means is this an early signal of disaster, or even that grand a disappointment in what Sloclap’s latest has conjured. A reminder that that turn-around can also go in the opposite direction. Then there are, sadly, instances like Sifu. There are instances where one can come away from first impressions feeling uncertain only to then be surprised that the final release has managed to pull it off against all odds. Its universal challenge, aging premise (a consequence of player-death) and more so, the notion that players have only a set number of attempts to nail things down, while accurate to what the game provides, not entirely reflective of how well the experience generally plays out. Last December’s first impressions stemming from so deliberate a self-contained, cut-off vertical slice that, for obvious reason, wasn’t giving us the whole picture.Ī vertical slice that was, as it turns out, divorced far more from the broader, game-spanning mechanics and rule-sets than previously assumed. A revelation maybe not as unforeseen as Guardians was, but one with a striking resemblance. Playing through Sifu - another kung-fu styled entrant from the studio that brought us Absolver - I’m reminded of this same turn-around in fortunes. Fast-forward a few months to October and the end result couldn’t be any further from those former perceptions in all the right ways. A game that, when revealed, didn’t exactly set the world on fire - in no way aided by gameplay footage that was serviceable albeit appeared to lack the polish one would expect from AAA-level production. But haven’t we not been in this exact position only recently? You needn’t have to think far back to conjure any more relevant an example than that of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy last year. Not for the first time has the importance of “first impressions” been so vital to the conclusion of a game upon release.
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