The Fight: Lights Out First Impressions- STFU, this Game is Great
November 12th, 2010
By: Anthony Accinelli
The Fight: Lights Out is one of the first games we were able to play at the Seattle Move Conference. Even at a little over 5 frames of lag/second, the game was still incredible. It's now been released for purchase and is getting it's ass kicked by reviews. I have one thing to say about this:
STFU
The Fight: Lights Out is about as one to one real motion as you're going to find in a motion game. Movements are recorded so precise that rocking your shoulders back and forth, ducking, turning your wrists, leaning in, leaning out, and of course throwing punches tracks almost exactly as you do it. It's so realistic in fact, that during the game's first 10 minutes or so of tutorials, I was a little freaked out.
I'll admit that the first 20 minutes of this game I was less than impressed. It seemed like my punches weren't landing, my strength was down, my character's stamina lowered far too quickly, and overall it just didn't seem to work. That's when I found the "Training" tab in the Menu, and like a trainer rubbing my busted eye with Vaseline, my eyes were opened.
Sitting in front of me was a Heavy Bag, a Speed Bag, Endurance Sparring, Sparring, and Tutorials. I immediately hopped into the Heavy Bag and 4:32 seconds later I was about to throw up. I gained 32 points for my fighter, went into the Attributes tab, added some Strength, Speed, and Technique on, went back into the ring and beat the sh** out of my opponent. What's amazing about the Training section is that you can't just beat on the bag for an infinite amount of time. There's a gauge that tracks how hard you are trying. If you start to slack, the training session ends and you are left with a measly half dozen points or so. In other words, the harder you work, the better your fighter becomes.
This is where I can see all the horrible reviews have come from. These reviewers aren't giving the game enough time to become great. They are playing it through the tutorial, most likely losing their first few fights, then saying it's a piece of crap. It's important to remember that while this is a one to one motion fighter, it's also a video game. If building your stats to grow your fighter wasn't a part of the game, then scrawny, no muscled nerd gamers would never be able to win a fight... right? It's essential to a fighting game, and I LOVE how the harder you work, the better your fighter becomes. It's phenomenal.
I'm not quite ready to write the full review, being that I'm only about 40 fights in, but I can tell you right now it's not going to be lower than a 7/10. Look for the full review to be posted no later than Monday, November 15th.
