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When it comes to the graphics, they don’t really look very good. I mean, they resemble that of a late PS2 game and I honestly think I have fighting games on my Dreamcast that look better. Yes, the graphics are crisp but they are poor. Even though the game seems to run on a 60fps rate, constantly, it still looks out of touch with my TV. The characters don’t look shocking but the backgrounds really are poor. There doesn’t seem to be any interaction and they are very static. Despite all this, I didn’t really feel that it impacted the game much. I mean, you don’t really play beat-em-ups for their graphics. Saying that, I will still say this is a bad point to the game as you would just expect better.
Okay, you have 50 characters in this game. 50. That has to be a good point. There are so many different characters that even after hours and hours of playing this game, you still won’t have mastered half of their moves. They offer a range of different styles as well, sectioned into a number of different teams such as: Fatal Fury team, China Team and the Villains team. I fell in love with the character Zarina, from the South America team. She showed a capoeira style and looked great (not visually but… well you know what I mean). I also really liked Alice, from the Women Fighters team, as she used a cool ‘ice block and attack’ which added something different to the fights. Overall, I loved exploring all the different characters, however, I did mean that I never got to master any of the fighters. For a completionist (and this is a word) this will be an absolute pain as it will take them No Man’s Sky-like hours to master all the characters.
Another good point is the sound. Like most PS4 games now your character will, at times, speak out through your controller.
Although I am getting used to this, I still love it. Yes, all the speech is in Japanese but that is what you would expect from a Japanese beat-em-up. The voices are good and all have a slightly different sound to them, and the music in the build-ups have that rocky style you would expect from this type of game. It gets you pumped and ready to fight.
Talking about fighting – the fighting style (gameplay) is one of the areas which I can recognise is probably quite good, but wasn’t for me. As I have mentioned in previous reviews, I am not a fighting game master. However, what I disliked about this one was that I couldn’t really get away with button-bashing. Well I won a few matches, but I wasn’t performing the kind of combinations that I hoped could. This made my experience of the game to be quite stop-starty – a bit of a killer blow for a fighter, as you normally hope that they are fast and furious. However, after working through the tutorials I didn’t become better, so I decided that it was clearly because I am not that good at fighting games. What I then did, was watch a video of someone playing and it instantly made me understand that if you are a good fighter then you will have a really smooth experience of this game. If you aren’t too great – and quite honestly don’t have the time to become that great – then this may not be the game for you. It’s complicated and there are three different ways to jump as well as a number of different ways to block and perform combinations. Some people will love this… some will hate it.
I must admit that the story mode was one of the most boring modes I have ever played. I mean, the fighting was what you expected it to be and I liked having to choose the order of my three fighters, especially as one of them was rubbish, so I kept putting him last and hoping no-one took me that far. For the more technically-minded, I am sure they will choose certain orders for their trio depending on abilities etc. However, the story mode literally didn’t have any story. The fighting was cool, but there’s nothing enticing me to get involved and be fully immersed in the experience.
Now the biggest downer about this game has to be the online play. I have read about a lot of people having experiences full of lag. However, I couldn’t even have those experiences! I couldn’t get online to play as it kept telling me that there were no lobbies. I tried over the span of two days at a range of different times and then decided that enough was enough. I watched videos on the online play and it didn’t look great, but potentially it is better in Japan where the majority of the players are.
So, as my review draws to a close I would like to say this: apart from the graphics and the online play, this title is very solid. It has a lot of things that people would love, and those same things will be aspects which other people don’t like. So, if you are an experienced fighter who loves the technical side of games, then this is for you, but if you prefer to bash the buttons and make your thumbs bleed, then go and get a different fighter, as this really doesn’t allow you to do that. Saying this, this game wasn’t for me but it definitely doesn’t mean it is a bad game. I would have to say that I enjoyed this game but there clearly are a number of flaws.
The King of Fighters XIV is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and click on the packshot for the full-size version.
Important info:
- Publisher: Deep Silver
- Players: single player, multiplayer
- HDTV options: up to 1080p
- Sound: DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
Cast:
Yuri Sakazaki: Ai Kakuma
Kyo Kusanagi: Tomoaki Maeno
Nakoruru: Mai Nakahara
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GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY ENJOYMENT |
6 8 7 7 |
| OVERALL | 7 |
I have been a video game player since 1993 and a music fan since I can remember. I studied Film and Journalism at university and ended up becoming a Primary School teacher. Video games changed my life and sent me on the right track and have stayed with me ever since.