Sifu is a brutal 3D brawler that dissects revenge itself

Sloclap put itself on the map with martial arts-themed activeness RPG Absolver back in 2022. Four years later, the company has delivered Sifu, a 3D brawler that'due south cut from the same textile, merely boasts an entirely unlike pattern. Sifu is a much tighter, more linear experience that's focused on mastering your craft: the game'south kung fu fighting style. It's incredibly gratifying to play, as every encounter is a fast-paced, dynamic fight for survival.

Equally thrilling every bit Sifu tin can be, it can too be quite frustrating. The game does not pull whatsoever punches; information technology has a dauntingly hard difficulty that, unfortunately, will almost certainly ostracize some players just looking to whoop some virtual barrel worry-free. That said, if you can curlicue with the punches the game volition (figuratively and literally) throw at you lot, you'll find a visually stunning, mechanically-sound brawler that delivers a wonderfully poignant message almost revenge.

Fun combat, questionable inspirations

Sifu's biggest depict is its focus on hand-to-mitt combat. The main character'due south fighting style draws heavily from kung fu — specifically the Pak Mei style. On the topic of the game's influences, Sifu is apparently inspired past the big-scale fight scenes popularized by Chinese cinema. Additionally, its story regularly ponders on Wude (an ethical system present in Chinese martial arts) and also features various mystical elements and artifacts commonly associated with Chinese culture, such as resurrection, magical talismans, and dragons.

The game has a very credible fascination with Chinese civilisation, or at least the parts commonly exhibited in mainstream western media, just I'm not entirely convinced it necessarily respects the culture it'due south drawing from. The game was developed by a studio comprised of mostly white people; it's been reported that not a single person of Chinese descent worked on this game. Keeping this in heed while considering the studio's decision to ship out press kits filled with generic items you'd detect at an American-owned gift shop in your local Chinatown, along with the game'due south Twitter account actively promoting the Lunar New Year, it certainly feels like Sifu is more meant to appeal to western sensibilities of Chinese civilization — the large-scale fights, mystical elements, "fancy" tourist souvenirs — rather than evangelize an authentic production made with input from those who are an actual function of the culture, which means that the game will almost certainly rub many people looking for that kind of feel the wrong way.

Information technology's truly a shame, because devoid of its stereotypical stylings, Sifu's core gameplay is pretty solid. Like any real-earth martial art, it requires a good amount of both practise and patience. Y'all can't just button-mash your way to success. This makes every combat encounter feels like a dynamic puzzle with several constantly changing variables. Does my opponent accept a weapon? Are they situated near a ledge? Is at that place a bottle around I can throw at them? Answering these questions in existent-time feels rewarding, and the game gives yous and then many offensive options to work with that any 1 come across could have a near-limitless number of solutions.

The depth of Sifu's gainsay simply increases as you lot earn XP and unlock new skills, all of which feel similar substantial additions to your moveset. These skills can range from hard-hitting special attacks to defensive maneuvers, such every bit counters. Most of them are fairly like shooting fish in a barrel to use, and they tin can be worked seamlessly into your existing combos, allowing you to experiment with them without having to deviate from your preferred playstyle besides much.

The game truly comes alive during its boss fights, which are all fell, albeit off-white, skill checks. What'south more, they each phone call for a dissimilar kind of strategy. The run across with the hardhearted Sean requires y'all to employ evasive maneuvers, while the fight against The Leader calls for constant counterattacks and generally more aggressive play. I felt pretty frustrated upon my first encounter with each boss, as these enemies are amidst the hardest in the game. Merely once I eventually came out on top, I felt a genuine sense of reward, similar I had just passed some sort of milestone.

Yet, while I was motivated to keep retrying dominate battles until I won, I can hands see a lot of people bouncing off of Sifu because of these devilishly difficult encounters. The game doesn't have any selectable difficulty levels or modifiers, meaning that the only way to progress through it is to "git gud" enough to defeat each boss. Every bit someone who gets a kick out of hard games like Dark Souls and Ninja Gaiden, I had a lot of fun gradually getting ameliorate, merely I take to admit that Sifu doesn't exactly seem interested in servicing those who just want to feel information technology for its story or stunning visuals.

While Sifu is quite hard, it does grant i primal concession: its controls are pretty simple. You won't accept to worry as well much about messing up combos here, given how uncomplicated they are. None require more than five total inputs. Even if yous mess one up, all of the game's attacks yet work pretty well with one another. In my experience, I plant that my mis-inputs would sometimes result in the accidental discovery of a highly effective combo that I would so try to replicate going forward. If yous find any of the controls confusing, the game likewise features full button remapping as well, allowing you to fine-tune your controls.

Fighting for your lives

1 of Sifu'due south defining traits is that its protagonist can resurrect themself upon death at the cost of their youth. This mechanic is a double-edged sword. The about immediate bear on it has on gameplay is that it gets yous right back in the action, as yous'll respawn exactly where yous died with total health. You can even exercise this during boss fights, which partially alleviates the aforementioned concerns over these difficult encounters. From an aesthetic standpoint, your character volition get notably more gray and wrinkled the older they get, which too factors into gameplay.

As you go older, you'll deal more damage, only your full corporeality of wellness will besides decrease. This created an interesting dilemma for me equally I played. Equally in whatever other game, it's preferable to avoid dying in Sifu. Still, provided you could avert/parry about incoming attacks, getting older could potentially brand you a more capable fighter. By and large, I opted to preserve my youth whenever possible, merely knowing that I would receive damage buffs as I aged helped to soften the blow of expiry only a little bit.

That said, you don't want to get too old in Sifu; your resurrective power runs out at age 70, and dying afterwards this causes a game over. You'll and so lose whatever XP earned, as well as whatsoever skills unlocked — unless you've permanently unlocked them. Crumbling is yet another variable in Sifu'southward dynamic gameplay that yous have to account for. Information technology makes the game a tad more forgiving, but non necessarily less tense. The age mechanic also adds a great deal of replayability, as you lot can challenge yourself to replay the game'south story while staying equally immature every bit possible.

A cute revenge story

Sifu casts you every bit a one time-orphaned private on a journey to kill those that murdered your father. At get-go glance, the game presents itself equally a run-of-the-mill revenge quest, but what actually surprised me was how the game handles the concept of revenge. Different other revenge-driven games, such as The Last of Us Role Two, Sifu opts to tell a more optimistic story about escaping the nighttime shadow of revenge, rather than succumbing to information technology, which I found pretty refreshing. At the same fourth dimension, it puts forward that revenge is a complex desire, and doesn't fault its characters for their natural, vengeful feelings.

The game also uses stunning visuals to assist tell its story. The entire game boasts a vibrant color pallet that makes it await just equally practiced as it plays. Every level feels similar a visual representation of its boss' psyche, riddled with hidden details and lore entries that assistance flesh them out a footling more than. If you're really interested in the characters, every level also has its own set of collectibles, all of which give even more insight into each of Sifu's major players.

The verdict

Sifu is a complex, albeit rewarding action game that packs one mean punch. It'southward a niggling too hard for its own good at times, just taking the time to overcome its challenges can exist pretty fulfilling. That said, the game is grossly drenched in exoticism, which kind of puts a damper on things.

If you're in the market for a tough-every bit-nails 3D brawler that will truly test your game-playing abilities, it's hard not to recommend Sifu. Just know that the game volition not go easy on yous. Just like real-life martial arts, you lot'll need time and dedication to get through information technology, and then make sure you have both of those resource handy before jumping in.

+	Gainsay is deep, rewarding, and looks great in activity
+	Aging mechanic makes the game somewhat forgiving
+	Highly replayable, beautiful-looking levels
+	An engaging story that asks you lot to think critically well-nigh its premise
–	Steep level of difficulty that not only requires players to master its mechanics, just besides won't accommodate those who are unable to do and then
–	Fascination with Chinese civilization reeks of exoticism and inauthenticity