One Finger Death Punch Review by: zanderlex - 9.8/10
Death By PunchOne Finger Death Punch is another epic video game that once you play it for the first time, there will be no reason for you to even consider playing another game. That's how good this game is. Its a very fast paced game where all you're doing is fighting various stick people but that's all you need to have fun. Like most PC games that I have played, I learned about this game through my favorite Youtuber Markiplier and I'm really glad that I had the chance to watch him play this game. I think it wad many months ago when I first saw the game when Mark was playing the demo but at the time I wasn't too fond of the game.
I didn't really like the way that the game looks when I first saw it because the style wasn't something that I was used to seeing, and I didn't really like the fact that you basically stand in the same spot and just react. I didn't have anything to do with the game up until Mark played the full game and that was when I started getting interested in it. I watched him play a few rounds and then I realized how cool looking the game was. I began to like the way that the graphics looked and eventually it started to look as if i was watching a high octane action movie while I was clicking. Still, I didn't think that this was the game for me, it looked awesome but at the time, even though I did want to play it, I didn't think spending the money on it would be worth it.
I figured that since you're pretty much doing the same thing over and over, that i would lose interest in the game after a couple of hours and end up not beating it. In the end, I was able to get the game practically for free so I jumped on the opportunity and I realized how wrong I was. I could never bring myself to turn the game off because I was having so much fun and I'm glad that I was able to get it because it turned out to be much better than I thought it would be and that's saying a lot because i originally thought it would be cool.
What it ended up being was maybe 10 times better than what I was expecting, in fact, I would go as far as to say that it has been a long time since I have played a game that was this good. The game was non stop fun and after playing for less than an hour, I was thoroughly addicted. I haven't been this into a game since the first time I played Minecraft, and its the kind of game that you never want to put down and that when you're not playing it, you wish that you were. I'll admit that's what I went through. I played for the first time in my school and as I was walking out of the school, I was like "what the heck did I just do?"
GRAPHICS 10/10
It would be really hard to give this aspect of the game a bad grade, and that's because I can't, the graphics are just too good. Normally when you are talking about a game that has good graphics, that's all it has, good graphics. There's obviously nothing wrong with having good graphics, but this game has a lot more than just good graphics. You have three different sets of graphics, first being the good graphics, then the epic graphics, and then the gruesome graphics. One might ask how stick figures can be so much fun to watch, but once they just see 10 seconds of gameplay, all of their questions will be answered. The graphics are literally so good that you could just let somebody else play the game and you could have just as much fun by watching all of the action unfold. Almost all of the animations are very fast paced so you never have a dull motion, and as you play the game longer and unlock newer skills, there's even more for you to see.
The game is full of color, and a lot of it. Sure, the stick figures might only be blue, black, and a few other colors, but everything else is amazing. The background is always cool looking. Sometimes you will have a normal background with a few props and sometimes you will have an epic looking volcano. Next you have the actual animations which are spectacular because every stick figure has an assortment of amazing moves. You can see literally every move, whether its a punch and kick, a ball of death, an arrow, you will see every little move. Heck, you can even kick somebody into the air, throw their own spear on the ground and have them fall on it, and you see everything. There's tons of blood, bones, sick moves, and everything you can think of, you even get a really cool game where the entire map of black as well as the enemies and you swing around a neon green light saber looking thing which is my favorite. Its not the most advanced graphics, but its definitely one the coolest looking graphics that I have ever seen and for that, this aspect deserves nothing lower than a perfect 10 out of 10.
Really, I would give it an even higher grade than that because everything I just mentioned is really only the beginning when it comes to the graphics because there's so much more to it. Every level has a different set of colors, some can be all gray while others can be all blue, and at some points, the background is just beyond ridiculous. There's times when a house in the background or something similar will collapse, and alone that looks cool but combined with the already fast game play makes for a really energetic animation. My favorite would have to be during the light saber round, I already mentioned how much I like that mode, but the background makes it look so much better. You already have the crisp animations of the sword and enemies, and every now and then the background will erupt into a geyser of bright red or blue which adds so much to the graphics and makes it so much better, so really, I would give this aspect a 12 or so if I could.
SOUND 10/10
Just like the graphics aspect and a few others yet to come, the sound of this game is stellar. This is the kind of sound that I like to see in a game because its upbeat and energetic and the best part is that it never gets boring. Normally you don't like all the music and sounds that has to offer, no matter how good it is. In fact, of all the movies I have seen and games I have played, I have only seen maybe 3 or so where the music and sounds have kept me hooked through the entire thing. That's because in terms of a soundtrack, we usually single out a few tracks we like and don't pay too much attention to the rest, and the same goes with regular sounds and effects. That's not true at all with this game, because both the music and effects are not only consistent and keep up the same tempo throughout the game, but it just so happens that its good. There's a difference between just being consistent and being good consistently, and this game is the latter.
The game never slows down with its energy and that's a great thing because of the fast pace of the game, meaning that you always need to be aware and on the edge of your seat ready to strike. For the sound, you have three different aspects, and all of them are really as perfect as you can get. First off you have the voice acting and personally i don't think the developers could have done a better job with this. The only voice acting in the game is that of your "mentor" and only for a handful of tutorial like aspects, but they couldn't have done any better with this. Not only does the voice make you think as if you are a real ninja and are in the game, but I feel the quality is amazing. Sure, it's only talking but in my own experience, the voices of most games sound as if you're listening to them through headphones with stuff going around you or in some cases, as if you recorded something. That's not what this is, its loud, its clear, and its one of those voices where if you were a kid you would try to imitate. You also have a few voices in the No Luca No survival mode, but that's a secret and is for you to find out.
Next up is the actual sound effects which are just as mind blowing as the voice. Every hit, and practically every move you make has it's own distinct sound, and it's all clear. Everything from hitting an enemy with a club or dagger to the ball of death bouncing away from you. Every little thing that you do resonates with a sound, crashing someone into a prop, buildings collapsing, everything, and that's what makes the game so much fun to listen to because I really amplifies what you're doing in the game because it energizes and it's a way to hear how much damage you're causing. In terms of just regular sounds, my favorite would have to be the Light Saber round, which is really called Light Sword. The level itself is amazing but the sound is just as good because it really makes you feel like you're in an actual Star Wars movie and it only makes the game so much better, and that's all thanks to some amazing effects.
Just those two aspects should be enough to make the game sound so much better but we haven't even gotten to the best part of the sound aspect yet which is the music. The music is by far my favorite aspect of sound, and ironically enough, I know absolutely nothing about the music. I really searched everywhere, but there's no set info that I saw that really tells anything about the music. The only things I could find were full soundtrack videos on YouTube which stated the music as Chinese Electronic Music, and went as far as to list all the songs in the video as #1, 2, 3, and so on, there aren't even any titles. There wasn't even any confirmation that it was actually the same music from the game so it's really a mystery. But just because very little of the music is known, it's still super awesome to listen to. I hadn't really listened to every individual song fully, you know since I have to pay attention to not dying, but I believe each different level mode gets its own song, instead of just cycling through the songs. All of the songs are good and some of them are really good. They are all really fun to listen to, they are very energetic, and they help portray the tempo of the game. The music itself is as perfect as it can get and so are the other two aspects of sound so my grade for sound is going to be another perfect 10 out of 10.
ADDICTIVENESS 10/10
Why wouldn't a game like this be addicting? You know what? Scratch that, why wouldn't this game be super addicting? This is literally the most high octane, most dramatic and thrilling game that I have ever played on PC, and only a handful of PC games have ever been able to keep me interested in it for such a long period of time. Usually when I play a really good game, I play for many many hours and then I stop playing it either because I lost interest or because I come across another game that I want to play. That's not the case with this game, sure I have played other games since I got this one, but I never stopped, I have been actively playing this since I got it.
There's no reason for you not to play this because the moment you complete the tutorial, I can pretty much assure you that you're going to be hooked forever, like me. Is that really a bad thing? Being this addicted to a game allows you to have so much more fun than if you were just playing a game that you only like a bit. This is the kind of game where you might want to play each level over and over just for fun because that's what the levels are for, fun. There was one level that I beat early on with a gold medal but gold wasn't enough for me so I played that same level another 2 or 3 times until I won the platinum medal and by the time I won that, I was addicted to that level and I ended up playing the same level yet another few times just for fun. That proves how much fun it is, if you play the same level over just for the heck of it, then congratulations, you're an addicted. There's nothing wrong with that though because that's what the game is supposed to do, it was made to keep you in the game for hours at a time, and its very successful at doing that.
But why is it so much fun? It's so fun because its simple yet very hard and at the same time gives us the same amount of epic action that any mainstream game can give us. All you are doing is pressing two buttons over and over but those two buttons lead to a whole lot of mayhem and action and it turns out looking like a cool action movie. The graphics are a huge reason as to why the game is so much fun because you don't really get to see this in many other games. You get to break and kill people in so many different ways and the game goes by in a fast paced and electric tempo that really pumps you up.
I only started the game recently but I already have it in my head that I want to perfectly beat the entire game and everything that it has to offer. That's how much I'm in love with this game, that I'm going to make myself explore every inch of what the game has, and believe me, I had a lot. There's so many gut wrenching levels, different difficulties, and so much more and even so, I'm pretty sure that if I ever fully beat the game that I would still play it more just for the fun. You can't be addicted to a game if its not fun and this game is a whole lot more than fun, so for a grade, this aspect is going to get yet another perfect 10 out of 10. However, just like the other aspects, it's not really a 10 out of 10 because it's so addicting that it deserves to get as much extra credit as it can and really needs to get at least an 11 or so.
STORY 6/10
I guess you could say that there is some sort of a story behind all of the fights. Normally, I would say that this game is something that I call a "Play Beat Play" kind of a game. What that means is that you dint really pay much attention to what goes on outside of the actual game play, you just play a level, you beat it, and then once you do, you go right away to the next fight. When you think of the core of the game, that's exactly what this is, but I would say that there's just a bit more than that by using bosses, skills, and essentially getting to the end of the map. Personally, I feel that as long as a game has some sort of a boss, then that's a good basis for a story, of course son stories might not have one, but I think if it does then its almost automatic eligibility.
The game has a ton of bosses really but they are all the same except for each one having more life than the previous one and requiring different move sets to defeat, and I personally hate boss battles, I just don't like them at all. The skills that you can obtain don't work like they do in an RPG or in another kind of game but they are a way to show how much the character progresses and going through the levels to earn them is something small but shows how you're doing something to become stronger and is a pretty decent objective. The last main point that I want to bring up would be the map because I feel that having an actual map instead of just picking levels is a huge advantage. Most fighting games that I have seen in the past just give you something that is like a list of levels that you can fight in, but this game actually shows you your progression, where you need to go, and how much you have completed all in the form of a map. By having a level
select like this, it also allows change up the tone of certain events and battles by changing the scenery to make one place look more evil than another and kind of signifies that the game is coming to an end.
There's no real plot, but the game has different aspects that would make up a plot and that's good enough. Sure, these aspects are very small but they are there and if they weren't there, then I'm assuming that the game wouldn't really be as good because it would look more like a standard fighting game and less like tho amazing masterpiece because the game would really have less to offer without these story aspects. There's isn't a lot of story and this aspect is nowhere near as good as some of the other aspects but even though there is some sort of story, the game isn't based on a story and as I mentioned earlier, its based more on the actual game play so the story wont really affect to much of the overall value and as for a grade, I'm going to give this aspect a 6 out of 10.
DEPTH 10/10
If I said that this game didn't have a lot of depth, I would be lying, so there's no way I'm going to say that. Actually, it's at the point where the games depth has it's own depth because the game has so much to offer. The main game play has many different aspects and then each individual aspect has it's own amount of depth which happens to be a lot for each one. First off you have the amount of levels which is really a crazy amount to begin with. When you pick what level you want to play, you pick it on this map that has each level mapped out on in a course that you have to follow from the tutorial all the way until the very end and this map is huge. There's just so many levels, literally hundreds, that it would take quite a long time to scroll over the entire thing. The map gets even crazier than it already is because the map is always branching out at different points and goes in different directions. To fully beat the game, you need to beat every single level, but just to get from the start to the end in one shot, there's probably dozens of different routes that you can follow.
The amount of levels and the different routes that you can follow already create a ton of depth for the game and that's just the start because after all that, you have the different types of levels that you can play through and there's a ton of them. The most common type of level you will encounter is a mob level where you just battle a certain amount of enemies, but every now and then there's a special level, and there's a ton of them. There's the defender levels where you defend air attacks and dagger levels where you can only attack with daggers, and the crash levels where you have to hit enemies into props. You have the light saber and nunchuck levels where you fight using those weapons. Retro film levels and thunderstorm levels where the map is mainly gray and blue. Boss levels and multi round levels where you fight the same level 4 times in a row which gets faster each time. You also have mob levels that reward you skills for winning, quick survival levels, and probably others that I'm forgetting.
All that is just for the arcade mode and is at the lowest difficulty level which is student, and then you get to do it all over again once you beat that in the form of master and grandmaster levels which offer even more. So all in all, by the time you beat the entire arcade mode you would have gone through hundreds upon hundreds of levels and that's more than enough for me. Guess what? That's only for the arcade mode! Beyond that you also have a few different full survival modes where you get to fight for as long as you can without dying. Full survival rounds offer massive mob fights with the occasional light saber and nunchuck thrown in there every once in a while. You have basic survival and once you get a certain number of kills, you unlock blind survival which is the same except you can't see how many hits each enemy takes or whether or not you need to change buttons or whatnot. Once you beat that you unlock No Luca No survival which is even harder and involves a cat filling up half the screen every few seconds and you need to use the mouse to push it away. All that alone is a ton of stuff and on top of that you have leaderboards to rank yourself against other players and more than 100 achievements to unlock which is a lot in my opinion. Basically, the game has a lot to offer, probably more than you can handle and for that my grade for this aspect will be yet another perfect 10 out of 10.
DIFFICULTY 6
Personally, the game is actually really easy for me, though I do run into some trouble every now and then. For some reason, I'm just naturally good at some games such as this, I remember watching videos of people playing it and everyone I saw was pretty bad so when I first played the game I was quite nervous that I wouldn't do too well based on what I saw because some of the people that I saw were getting 5 straight levels without getting a medal or only able to get a silver medal at their best with a few gold medals for some players. For me, the game was a lot easier than it had looked and of the first hundred or so games that I have played, I only scored less than a gold medal twice and they were both on purpose just so I could get the "First Silver Medal" and "First Bronze Medal" achievements. WIth this kind of a game there are two classifications, you are either good or you are bad. You will either be good like me and have the game flow perfectly or will you be bad which means you will either be good and have a lot of trouble with some rounds or it will take a while to get used to the game, though no matter how bad you are, you will still progress, you just won't get a high score and you're still going to have a lot of fun.
First off, the difficulty isn't really set and its going to change between every single round based on a variety of factors, so after you play 250 levels you would have played 250 different difficulties and by then you would have only beaten the Student Difficulty and you would still have two more to beat that vet even harder. The first way that the difficulty can change is by the type of level, and its as simple as some modes you will be good at while some you will suck at. Take me for instance, I'm great at the mob fights and the sword and nunchuck ones and I can't deal with the retro film and thunderstorm rounds as well as the bomb and dagger ones because what you are doing in it is way too hard for me though I still manage to get by. You're not going to be perfect at every single round the first time you try them because you can't really get used to one since you're constantly switching between different modes so by the time you play one mode enough to get the hang of it, you have probably beat a hundred levels already. That's the only way you can beat the mode difficulty though and its possible that there will be some modes that you just wont be able to get the hang of but all you need to do is keep doing the same mode over and over that you are having trouble with.
Unfortunately, that's not the only challenging aspect about the game because next up you have the amount of enemies in each fight. Yes, each one is doable but each level will have more and more enemies that you have to fight. You can start off the student difficulty facing off against 50 enemies and before you even finish student you can reach a point where you are battling more than 200 enemies in one fight. The number of enemies isn't really the problem here, its what the enemies cause. What's the main problem you encounter when going from 50 to 200 enemies? The answer is time, there's 4 times more enemies so doesn't that mean that a level would be 4 times longer? You need to pay attention to so much more in the later levels, you have to put in way more focus and you have to react quicker and for longer periods of time so as you play more levels, it gets harder keep your attention. There's really no secret formula on what you need to get better at this, I you are quick and can easily keep attention for extended amounts of times then the longer rounds shouldn't really be much of a problem for you, but if you can't aren't that good then its going to take some practice before you can get better at some of the longer rounds.
Lastly you have the speed of the enemies which is the most variable aspect because depending on how you play, you could probably see a few different speeds in the same level. The enemies always have a speed programmed to them that doesn't go lower than 100% and I don't really know how high it can go but I've seen it go to as high as 189% in a round for me, which is actually really fast and sometimes can be tough, even for me. If you do a level really well then the general speed which will affect every level will go up by a bit but if you do bad, then the speed will go down, so you can pretty much play almost any level at almost any speed. So in a way, the better you are, the quicker the game is going to get harder, and if you aren't too good at the game then the speed would generally tend to stay at an easier level. If you are good but you get to a point where its just too much for you, the only thing you can really do is lose a few rounds on purpose so that the speed will go down and you just keep failing at the same level over and over until you find a tolerable speed. All that is just for the arcade mode, but the survival modes are about the same, you just need to keep paying attention and watch out for when things start to get faster. For me its pretty simple but the average person is going to run into a few challenges for one of those reasons and even for me there's going to be a few scarce points where the game gets tough so my grade for difficulty is going to be a 6.
OVERALL 9.8/10
The ball of death that's in the game doesn't really exist but there is such a thing as a ball of fun and it just so happens that this game is it. I have never had this much fun playing a pure fighting game before ever. I've played bigger and better pure fighting games before and do you want to know a secret? I actually really hate games like this and I'm not exaggerating when I say that because it's true. I really just can't stand those kinds of platform like pure fighting games and I have hated them ever since playing actual arcade machines when they used to line up Laundromats and what not. There's very few games that are like this that I actually like and not only is this one of the few that I like, but I love this game. I already mentioned that I haven't been this addicted or excited for a game since the first time I played Minecraft. I'm sure that there have been plenty of days where I would play this for 2 to 3 hours straight or more because that's all that I actually wanted to do. I had other things that I could have been doing, some of which could have been just as fun as this game but this game is like a real addiction and I would play it at any chance I got because it was so much fun.
Without a doubt I can fully guarantee that the game is worth the price, heck I could probably count off a list of games that not only offer less than this game, but also costs a lot more. Just look at how many levels there are, there's so many that you should easily be able to get your monies worth just for play time alone, not even counting the actual fun it involves which would probably add a whole lot more to the realistic value. Take me for example, by the time I beat the first of 3 difficulty levels for arcade mode, I must have played for at least 10 hours. Not only was I able to get a full 10 hours in less than a 3rd of the game, but I also had fun during the entire time and that's really good for a game. If you can get a good amount of play time but also have an incredible amount of fun at the same time, then that's the perfect formula for a very successful game. If you have the money, you shouldn't even debate it, you should just go out and get the game right away because you wont be disappointed. If you do already have the game then I guess you already know what I'm talking about and that you have already experienced all of the fun that I have talked about but that doesn't mean you should stop playing it, even if you already beat the game before there's still so much fun to be have by doing some of the levels over again.
If you can afford this game, you shouldn't even have to think about it, you should just go out and get I because its really that good. Every single person who I have seen play this game or knows about it from a video also agrees that its amazing, and there's no reason not to like it. This is easily one of my 3 most favorite PC games of all the ones I have played, and probably the single most addicting game that I have ever played. I love it, it's amazing, and my overall grade for One Finger Death Punch will be nearly perfect and deserves a 9.8 out of 10.
Graphics
10 Sound
10 Addictive
10 Depth
10 Story
6 Difficulty
6
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