It has always been said that any attempt to make a decent game out of a movie will almost never work. For most movie games this stands true. Fight Club was a very different kind of movie and is the perfect movie to make a fighting game after. So, is Fight Club the game as good as the movie, or just another game that is plagued by the horrible movie related video games?
Gameplay
Once you start up the game the first thing almost all gamers will do is jump right into the story mode and begin playing. Once you get started the action begins right away. After a few short cinematic movies, or should we say a few changing images with voices, you are informed that since it is your first night at Fight Club you have to fight. So, you are thrown right into a fight with another guy and you have absolutely no clue how to play the game. You have no idea what the buttons are, no clue how to block attacks, just how to press buttons. At first I thought, ok cool, since it is my first night at the Fight Club, I am a newbie and don't know how to fight and the controls and fighting techniques will be explained right after I take this dude down. However I was wrong. Right after my opponent drops to the floor it goes into another "cinematic trailer" and then right into another fight. The buttons are never explained, there is no display on the screen anywhere that tells you what buttons are which or how to fight. Your only choice is to stop the story mode, go back to the main menu and then go into the options where you will find a list of the controls.
The "cinematic trailers" between each fight explain the story and how exactly you manage to get into another fight in just about sixty seconds. These movies are really just a collection of computer generated images with voice acting. Because they are set up this way the story can easily become complicated to the average gamer. It is easy to loose track of who is talking because nobody is moving at all. On top of that every other word that comes out of the characters non-moving mouth is a curse word, and 9 times out of 10 it will be the F word. Now I can understand that it shows how mean, and tough these guys actually are, but to this extent it is not needed at all.
The part that surprised me the most about the game is how short the story mode actually was. The game is beatable by almost anyone in under two hours. If the entire story mode can be beaten easily in less than two hours, it makes you wonder, is this game even really worth spending a few bucks to rent?
Once you start fighting the actual fighting is not that bad but nothing revolutionary. The two main forms of attack is kick and punch. There are also a number of combos that you can perform on another opponent. Once you start playing through the story mode you will notice that it is quite easy to beat up the other people and it does not really seem like there is much skill needed to take out the opponent. Throughout the entire game you can take out each opponent by simply punching them and no more. Although there are many cool and painful looking combos and attacks, they are hard to perform and just punching hard seems to be a much easier way to take your enemy down.
The best part of the fighting system is the bone breaking combo moves. On one of the few levels your goal is to break this guy's arm that you are fighting. How you actually perform the bone breaking moves is not clearly stated and seems to only work when the time is right for it to happen or when you counter attack your opponent's moves. When your opponent is about dead on the floor is when these moves seem to happen the most and is more than enough to put them out of the fight. There are a number of different bones you can break. Once you start the move, time will slow down and the camera will turn on X-Ray vision so you can see exactly what is going on with this guy's arm. As you pull his arm back and give it a hard blow you will actually be able to see his bone snap. This is by far the best and most exciting part of the fighting system.
Graphics
The graphics is by far the strongest point in the entire game. The environment in which you fight is very detailed and looks excellent. It gives the game more of the Fight Club feel that it needs. There are also a number of moving objects in the environment every now and then. For example, in one level you are fighting in an ally way and every now and then you will see a car pass by on the streets. Another neat thing about this same level is there is some steam rising from a near by manhole. Little details like this and the overall quality of the graphics give the game the appropriate feel.
The blood effects during the fighting are another strong point in the graphics department. If you receive a hard blow to the face you are going to see a good amount of blood leave your face. The more brutal the attack, the more blood there is, and if the attack is bad enough it will even collect on the screen and then begin to drip down and fade away. The animation and effects of blood in the game is very detailed and realistic which makes the game feel like a true fighting game. However the nice graphics just isn't enough to pick up the slack in the rest of the game.
Audio
The sound effects are another weak area in the game. There are very few sound effects while in combat, which is a big let down. Even when large combos are happening such as bone breakage, the audio is just not something that impresses the average gamer. The soundtrack of the game has some great music but it does not tend to compliment few exciting parts in the game. Even during the last fight of the game, the music could easily make this the most intense fight of the game; however when playing it does not feel much different from your first fight in the game.
Overall
Overall Fight Club is no where near the top when it comes to fighting games. The graphics, effects, use of blood, and the bone breaking moves are all well done, but it just does not make up for all the other places the game falls short in. If you absolutely have the urge to play this game, go down to the video store and rent the game. It will save you your hard earned money, and chances are you will return the game before it is due back. The length of the story mode is quite pathetic and can be completely beaten in less than two hours. If you are a die-hard fighting game fan, then by all means pick this one up, it is fun to play with some friends or even on Xbox Live, but the single player is barely worth fighting through.
| The Core Score |
Overall
4 |
| Fun |
|
5 |
| Gameplay |
|
3 |
| Graphics |
|
6 |
| Audio |
|
3 |
| Replay |
|
3 |
|
