Developer: Silver Dollar Games
Publisher: Silver Dollar Games
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
One Finger Death Punch 2 – Review
Most fighting games require you to know a lot of button combinations, resulting in a button mash fest. It’s hard to master, making it a genre that some people tend to avoid. What if it would be possible to go nuts in a fighter game with just two buttons? Look no further as One Finger Death Punch 2 is here to save the day.
Story
By choice, the developers decided to not add a storyline. They probably wanted to keep the focus on the gameplay and the simplicity of it rather than adding story elements without much value. Although a narrative of any kind is mostly welcome in a game, it actually isn’t missed as you’re more focused on bashing in enemies rather than the reason why you’re doing it.
Graphics
Just like the game, the graphics are rather interesting. The characters are all stickmen, while the backgrounds are beautifully rich and colorful, with definitely an Asian influence. Every level has a different environment to bash around in, with even breakable objects or weapons to help you with your massacre. The setting is in a 2D style but with the use of the background and the items in the foreground it gets a bit of depth.
You can customize your own avatar together with the enemies, but just some basics elements. For example, you can give eyes to the characters, give them a colored head and forearms or even some colored attire. The weaponry is similar to the simple characters, just enough details to show what you’re holding and to see if something is flying your way. Animation wise there is a lot happening on your screen but it’s all fluently integrated. Sometimes there are small ‘cutscenes’ where you’re performing a finishing move or a special attack (which gives you a nice visualization on top of the screen), which makes it all way more dynamic.
Sound
Call it a bit stereotypical, but the voice and accent that is used in this game is amazingly well done and hilarious. It’ll crack you up the second you’ll hear it and will always bring a smile on your face. The music is well-picked and really fits the setting of the game. Fast-paced beats with rock or something slower, this title is able to blend together a lot of different genres while tackling the levels and nothing really sounds off. Sometimes there are oriental influences while at other times you might feel like you’re out clubbing. The sound effects really help to feel you breaking skulls or cracking bones, while the weapons might have some cartoonish sounds but it fits in amazingly well.
Gameplay
One Finger Death Punch 2 is a two-button fighter game where the last thing you want to do is button mash. This genius way of stopping the art of bashing buttons is really fun and addicting. Your avatar is mostly in the middle of the screen and enemies appear from left and right of you. When they get into your hitting range, you can press the corresponding button to go into that direction. This can be left or right mouse button, left or right arrow or even combinations on a controller. When you press too soon, you get a miss and it’s possible for the enemies to get closer and even hit you. Timing the attacks is really important as you only have a limited amount of lives per level and quite some opponents to tackle. Sometimes you can pick up weapons or do special attacks but even this is all done by two buttons. The same goes for enemies. Some have ranged weapons, which you can dodge, stop or deflect… All done by the same two buttons. Just wait until it’s in your area of attack and finish it off. Easy yet difficult at the same time.
Depending on how well you perform during a level, the speed of the assaults is going up or down. This means that it’s scaling depending on your skills, making it fun for everyone. Sometimes killing enemies also drop bonuses like extra health or speed boosts so be ready to be diving into some fast-paced action.
Before you can start the actual game, you have to go through some tutorial levels. This is actually a really nice feature as you get some demo levels, explaining everything you need to know before diving into the different levels or the survival mode. For example, you can experience how to tackle brawlers or opponents who dodge your assaults. There are multiple types of levels in this game. One being the mob round where you just get through hordes of enemies, sometimes there is also a boss or power weapon stage where you get extras or have to kill specific enemies.
Venturing the several levels and maps this game have to offer, you can also go into stages that will grant you revenge tokens, which are really useful when you fall in battle and don’t want to start over again. Others will give you skill points, which you can use to obtain special abilities. All of these are passive skills and are used automatically when in battle. Over time, these are filled up again.
Next to the normal levels, there are some extras for you to discover too. Survival wants to see how far you can get by keeping you under constant assault. You need to beat a certain amount of enemies before the next tier is unlocked though. If you go to the ‘more’ section, you can discover the Gauntlet, where you have to get as far as you can possibly get with 10 lives, choosing carefully which levels to pick on your route. No Luca No is a fun alternative to the survival mode as you also have to swat your cat off the screen. You can also go and tackle some levels in local co-op.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a fun game that is easy to play but hard to master and you’re a fan of fast-paced gameplay combined with raw kung-fu, then do have a look at this title. It offers a lot of content and fun gameplay, combined with great graphics and amazing music. It’s meant to be played in short bursts, so get ready by stretching your fingers when tackling this game.
One Finger Death Punch 2 - Review,
No Comments