Remember life as a modern gamer before Hi-Fi Rush? How do you have to sit at home, hype, and count down until the day a game is released, a guy in a trendy jacket, T-shirt with a big logo, and colorful sneakers announced on stage at an event a year ago, Completed with a rock solid release date. How you pre-order with trembling fingers, then follow trailers, leaked images, and obscure Twitter accounts that gradually raise your pulse to unhealthy levels, only to hit so hard before a release that you see a star. Whether the reason is a pandemic, rights disputes, or differences of creative opinion, the feeling in gamers’ chests is brutal when a long-awaited game is delayed. For many, this is the highlight of the year and something worth planning for. You might even have booked a vacation to play, told the family you won’t be available for a month, and canceled all parties.Once the game launches, it’s broken and lifeless, and the developers promise“we’ll fix it later” situation andNot uncommon.Then, when the error persists year after year, the“We hear your voice”shortly after, the server shuts down and goes directly to the next host body to suck the life out.
Microsoft and Bethesda start the new year by doing the right thing. They went back in time, to an era where hype and broken promises were completely unknown phenomena, and they had just released a game. Straightforward, no frills. They make the players the focus, not the shareholders. Last week, we experienced this again. During prime time, in the middle of the Bethesda and Microsoft Developer Direct. Of course, one time is by no means a trend, but it still shows that things don’t have to be complicated all the time. Obviously, it’s possible to launch a game the same day it’s announced, and make it even better – straight to Game Pass, so let’s hope it becomes a new trend. Of course, the fact that Hi-Fi Rush is phenomenal doesn’t make it any worse.
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It kicks off right away and the intro transports me into a world of colour, creativity and good-natured humor. To the tune of The Black Key’s rocking hit Lonely Boy, I meet my character, Chai, with whom I’ll spend about nine hours from now. We’re not going to click right away, that’s for sure. At first I thought this guy was a very annoying and complaining zoomer and he should grow up and stop living in a fantasy world where you can call yourself a rock star, but that passed quickly and soon we Just smile and love each other. Before long, the entire game world is vibrating to a sweet riff, We have a mission. Crush Vandelay, an evil syndicate led by the sympathetic Kale and his motley henchmen, all to the beat of the music (those of us who’ve been around for a while certainly know that Vandelay is a latex importer run by George Costanza) Export company Seinfeld nothing more). Anyway, one thing leads to another, and Chai suddenly has a robotic arm and an MP3 player in his belly. In his fist, is a V-shaped death guitar made of scrap metal, and beside him is a high-tech kitten, who is actually a woman named Peppermint.
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Together we set off into a vibrant world full of platformers, puzzles, and of course, combat. Meanwhile, there’s a constant beat in the background, which builds up in intensity as I deliver brutal beatings at just the right moment so that gears, batteries, and thermal paste rain down from the sky. First a simple cleaning robot, then a full blown war machine, and finally there I am. Eye-to-eye with my first boss, or rather the LED light. Nine Inch Nails push the disc pedal to the bottom, I do the same with the attack button. Light and heavy attack, the guitar solo ends, making the giant in front of me croak, I’m always moving, never standing still. I dodge, I parry, and I shoot when it feels best. It’s like a symphony of destruction, like the music never stops, I never stop. I sat in a trance with perpetual goosebumps. It all works seamlessly, and once I get into that sweet spot, it all happens in perfect symbiosis, where Peppermint and I line up for the perfect round, making me feel completely invincible, and it’s all so beautiful that the clock stopped, and the angels sang in unison.
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Finally, after a musical journey that was both euphoric and exhausting, I landed on the couch. In the hub world, it’s both an oasis, a place of rest and contemplation, and a place where I can prepare for my next mission. Using the scrap I accumulate from smashing mechanical enemies, I can upgrade my mechanical arms with new advanced attacks, meaty special abilities, and ultimately chips that provide more punch or more damage to my cavalier feline companions. Short cooldown, which will be necessary, as it should, each mission gets harder. It’s never hard as hell though, though it can be a real test in some places if you can’t find your rhythm, because that’s what it’s all about. Find the rhythm, never lose it, and you will reap a lot of benefits. But here, the focus is not on challenges but on other values. For example, like pure entertainment.
But it’s not all fun and games. Here’s another story that might seem trivial and banal at first glance, but wait. Your heart will pound, but it’ll also be so full of warmth that you’ll momentarily forget that you’re a guitar-wielding quote machine rocking out here. Because if there’s one thing Hi-Fi Rush does, it’s rock and roll. The amp was firing on all cylinders and it was firing on all cylinders. It’s wild, it’s beautiful, and we’re doing it all at a frantic pace, with no sign of a fill or live service element. No greedy business models, no empty game worlds. Plus, there isn’t a single bug. I didn’t experience even the slightest non-aggressive graphical glitch. No performance issues. Zero lag, no dropped frames. Of course, it doesn’t even need to be brought up, but it’s still worth highlighting since Bethesda is involved. The voice actors make this story thrilling on an emotional level and do a fantastic job on a lighter level, with a touch of bookish humor often just right. Visually, it’s a colorful retro dream suddenly come true. A comic book brought to life, combined with a gorgeous soundtrack, it’s like injecting the entire 80s straight into your blood.
Hi-Fi Rush is not unique. It’s a Jet-Set Radio without skates, a rhythmic Devil May Cry in the near future, it’s impossible not to think of Metal: Hellsinger, and the humor is often reminiscent of that in Borderlands, but sometimes you There’s really no need to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with picking the best features from elsewhere and crafting your own from them, something that stands out from the crowd. They’ve certainly managed to pull that off here, putting together a game that’s a lot of fun from start to finish. In fact, it’s hard to find anything to complain about. Most of it works, it’s a well-oiled machine that makes a difference, but if I were to spoil the upcoming ratings party with anything, it would be mainly two things. It’s not always clear where to go, which also has to be said, which is probably enhanced by my poor sense of location, but there’s no denying that despite the mostly linear level design, it’s a bit confusing here and there. Then comes the battle in the second half of the game.
It can sometimes become difficult to read a room when the screen is crowded with enemies, and when a missed parry or a missed perfect shot hitting the wrong target could result in my final grade for the sequence being a B instead of an A or S, that’s obviously Not the best choice. It’s one thing when it’s my own fault, but I’m less forgiving when it’s due to factors beyond my control. Now, it doesn’t have any particularly expensive costs other than Achievement hunters and finishers, and if I happen to die in the process, I just have to pick up where the music suddenly left off.
I just have to give hats off to Bethesda and Microsoft, starting with developer Tango Gameworks for a blockbuster release and a game that I might call one of the best platformers I’ve played in nearly 50 years on Earth. I know Those are big words, but how many times have I skimmed through a game without once cursing out loud about microtransactions, bugs, broken game mechanics, or boring content? The answer is very few, very few.