When I was younger, I dreamed of a video game world that could put me in Street Fighter II or Final Fight. Having a first-person brawl inside those classics would have been an amazing experience. I was young. Stupid even. Energetic and flexible.
Well, I’m 49 years old now. I’ve got arthritis about everywhere imaginable (thanks to genetics and an unhealthy obsession with basketball). I’m just not the same spring chicken with an over-enthusiastic set of standards as I used to be.
Guess what? That young idiot got his wish with Leonard Menchiari’s Path of Fury – Episode I: Tetsuo’s Tower. It’s a virtual reality game that puts you in the shoes of a young fighter who must punch his way through a series of levels with a dastardly boss waiting at the end of each. It takes a lot of arm strength to get through this game and I’m thrilled the industry finally made it to the point where you can get into a brawl and make your body work for it. Why couldn’t they have done this 30 years ago????
Anyway, let’s get right into this exhausting but entertaining game.
Final Fight storytelling with sweaty gameplay
The story of Path of Fury – Episode I: Tetsuo’s Tower is a simple one. You’re there to kick someone’s ass and you must go through a bevy of levels full of people wanting to stop you. It’s the most arcade purpose for a large-scale brawl that I have seen in a while.
It’s an easy story that belongs in the same room with 80s action flicks when you just need a small reason to beat up many villains. And you know what? I’m cool with that narrative delivery. In my experience with VR, I would prefer the stories to be short and to the point, as my ability to physically last long in a VR environment is the same preference. This type of game fits that bill.
So, story-wise? Path of Fury – Episode I: Tetsuo’s Tower does enough to give you purpose and send you on your merry way to beat the sh*t out of everyone that stands in front of you. Love it. Cool.
Now, while I enjoy the story, the gameplay regretfully matches the narrative. You, the gamer, must get those fists up, then block and punch your way through a bevy of bad guys. It sounds cool and feels cool for about five minutes, then a slow realization sets in that you have to punch, block, and punch more. You become a boxer. If you’re a boxer, then you’re going to love the amount of effort you must put into this game. If you’re not a boxer, then you’re going to break a sweat with a VR headset on. Not the most comfortable way to play a game, but damn is the action addictive to make up for the muscular exhaustion. It does put you in fights and asks you to make an effort.
Young me wanted a game that had me punching my way through Final Fight-like environments. Leonard Menchiari and Abonico Game Works delivered just that simulation. Unlike the efforts of the Kinect’s punching and kicking brawler that I can’t remember the name of and am too lazy to Google, Path of Fury – Episode I: Tetsuo’s Tower does a great job of following the player’s movement and accurate contact in body areas. And that is how the gameplay works.
When you get into a fight in the game, several things are going on. First, the villain has areas of their body that light up and are punchable. The areas can be in the sides of the body (ribs), the kidneys, the sides of the head, or straight in the face. The contact that the game reads with each punch is nearly 1:1, as it calculates distance and angle. The game also calculates and encourages speed. The latter of which is brilliant as it is painful.
Generally, a VR game will nail down a set speed of delivery and response on screen, but this game pushes those boundaries. It wants you to use someone’s face like a speed bag. The hand-to-hit response is amazingly accurate at high-speed movement levels. The Meta Quest does a bang-up job of putting you in the punching moment and running said calculations to put you into the experience. It’s perfect gameplay for a VR brawler experience.
When you’re not trying to punch set targets, the game has you blocking ridiculous punches and kicks. Timing those can be tricky and tough, as I never fully became comfortable with defense. It certainly has its measurement, and I think it needs to be a bit more flexible when it comes to blocking. Granted, the offense needs that accuracy, but the defense should be a bit flexible with it. I’m certain I blocked about 50% of enemy swings and kicks. It’s not great and I tried to get to the point where I could find that sweet spot but never could.
Outside of my woeful defense, the game’s bigger issue is the repetitive nature of the enemies. While I love getting a good workout with a game, as Boxing VR is one of my favorite torturous titles, there are a lot of enemies thrown at you before you get to a boss room. The good is that the enemies vary in strength, which means some go down quickly while others are tricky and take effort to bring down. While the variety of fighter types is nice, it just begins to feel limited and repetitive somewhere in the middle of the experience.
Now, the good news is that the devs did their best to liven up the repetitive fights with different immersive environments and brutal boss levels. You’ll see this on the first stage when you enter a nightclub full of loud music and strobes (be careful with that). When you get through the enemies and environments, you’ll be thrown into a unique boss fight that requires you to do more than be simple with your fighting strategies. You’ll find that out quickly by the second boss who brings kicking into the mix. Bosses change the pace of the game and the challenge, all in a good way.
All this said, is the repetitive feeling forgivable? I think so because I won’t be spending more than 40-60 minutes at a time playing a game like this, which means the game is more of a slow burn for me. And with the loss of each fight, you get to start over and get those fists ready to go again on each stage. Again, this is a slow burn rather than a big gulp.
Overall, the gameplay is fun, and tough, and will give you a wonderful, yet nasty workout. I think what the devs were shooting for was delivering a solid VR brawler experience, and they accomplished it. Path of Fury – Episode I: Tetsuo’s Tower is a wild first-person brawler that hits the right marks on accuracy, and effort, and delivers a true immersive experience. Whatever faults it hits with defense and repetitive enemies certainly don’t outweigh what it accomplishes.
The look and sound
If you compared this with a game like Batman: Arkham Shadow, then you see graphically there is no comparison. Batman wins hands-down. If you compare it to Trek to Yomi, then you can see the ambiguous lack of details on models and styles that seem to be an artistic choice. Visually, outside of the environment, it certainly won’t win any “pushing the graphical envelope” awards, but it does enough to hook you.
Now, that hook is helped by the solid writing, wonderful acting, and the intensity of each dialogue moment in the game. You’ll see this right out of the gate when the game throws you into the mix by having you start it by interrogating a man tied up in an empty building. The dialogue is powerful, it’s brutally action-oriented, and has a nice touch of Fight Club there. The sights may not be groundbreaking, but the sounds and environments will certainly put you into the moment and mood for fighting.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Path of Fury – Episode I: Tetsuo’s Tower from developer Leonard Menchiari is a wonderful and beautifully brutal VR experience. It delivers accuracy, a good brawling environment, and makes use of Meta Quest’s tech well. The only hiccups are repetitive enemies and sometimes visuals. Both can be forgiven with its brawling gameplay that comes straight from the best 90s fighting games.
