Overall opinion: Very good; Better than SoR3, tho still not as enjoyable as SoR2 or SoRRv5

Things that are good:
+Music; Not as memorable as SoR2, but still very good.
+Graphics and cutscenes are beautifully drawn and animated, movement and attacks feel good and solid. Love the little callbacks/easter eggs scattered everywhere
+Love the mix of old and new enemies, with new enemies that fit in with the old in terms of aesthetics and behaviour
+4 Player Local Co-op!!! Can't wait for this coronavirus thing to sod off so I can get my friends to join in!
+Although the listed requirements are stupidly high and had me a bit worried, it does run at 60fps on a Thinkpad X230 (i5-3320, Intel HD4000). Which makes sense since it's 2D!!
+Punch to restore the health cost of specials! A clever mechanic that encourages you to get stuck in instead of managing health or waiting for a special bar to recharge!
+Unlockable playable characters! (I didn't know about this so it's a nice surprise!)

Things I want them to change:
- Some of the sounds lack impact, esp. punches and hitting things with the pipe. More 'pop' than *POW!*. Literally same problem as SoR3 vs SoR2, if you compare even just the punch sounds between those two. This is only a minor gripe tho as all the sound is much better than SoR3 and some of the stronger attacks are satisfyingly solid sonically
- Game balance - This is my main downer; Is like SoR3/SoRRv5 v1 but I want it to be more like SoR2/SoRRv5 v1.2 - Main gripes are lack of I-Frames and attack priority for player attacks and excessive I-Frames and attack priority for enemies!



So far I quite like SoR4 but I don't love it.
I'd say it's worth buying and I've enjoyed it for the most part, but I've found this game a LOT harder than SoR2 or SoRRv5. If you wanted more of an SoR2 experience and not an SoR3 one, then be warned as it straddles the two, leaning more towards SoR3 in combat.
While it is more frustrating to play than SoR2 at times, it's a lot more fun than SoR3 and the overall feel of it is spot on. I had some reservations about the art style but aside from Axel's new hobo look it's all turned out really well and just works and feels right.

Sound-wise the music is not the same memorable pounding music from SoR2 and stays more in the background, but is still decent and contributes to the feeling that this is all done right.
The basic SFX have the SoR3 problem in that the basic punches and weapon impacts lack some... impact, but it's still much better than SoR3 and the stronger attacks, esp. Cherry's, have that sonic impact that makes them feel good.

Overall, a good solid game and I'd give it top marks aside from one thing...

(Unexpectedly Long Gripe)

My feeling is the whole balance of the game has been reversed more in favour of the enemies compared to previous SoRs (excluding 3) - Previously you tended to have generous I-Frames and attack priority, but in this it seems the player has nearly no I-Frames and very low attack priority, while the enemies always seem to have higher attack priority and lots of I-Frames. This means that almost all your attacks are interruptible, and specials do NOT interrupt enemy attacks so you can't use it to break out of combos or stunlocks any more!

This changes the way the game needs to be played a lot - You have to spend a lot more time orbiting enemies because if you play like you would in SoR2 you just get beaten up.

The way everything's balanced is easily my biggest gripe with this game - The need for constant evasion makes it a lot less satisfying to play compared to SoR2, which had a perfect balance between being able to overpower your opponents and crowd management.
SoR4 is a lot like SoR3 in that you have to prioritise crowd management and pre-attack setup almost constantly as just trying to attack will usually get you punched in the face mid-attack.


The boss-level enemies are particularly obnoxious, with them having huge amounts of I-Frames and even counters if you attack them. I don't think you don't even do chip-damage when they're invincible, and they have priority over even your special or blitz moves and will knock you out of them! Some of them even will grab you mid-attack and do a combo attack on you which is incredibly annoying, esp. if you've just used a star move or special on them.

Even when they do connect, the star moves and specials seem to do far less damage than I'd expect for such a flashy attack, while basic boss attacks often interrupt, stun and take off a good chunk of health.

So far, my experience of Boss fights are more like dances than the head-on fights they were in SoR2, and I have to resort to stupid cheesy tactics to kill them. I think so far every boss battle I've won with normal attacks only because any attempt to do a special or blitz just gets my character interrupted and counter-combo'd to death.



It's a shame as the frustration of the frequent "I hit you first how the hell did you hit me instead! GRAAA RAEG!!" that I seem to be getting hit by a lot in this game spoils what would otherwise be probably the most fun new game I've played in ages.

I'd say if you liked Fight'n Rage (Another very good side scrolling beat-em-up, highly recommend!), or got through SoR3 without getting really annoyed, you will probably like this too.

For the more SoR2/SoRRv5-leaning people, it is still a damned good game, but I'm playing it on Normal and it's giving me SoRRv5 Mania-levels of grrr argh! so be aware of that.

I very much want to play this with friends as I think it will be infinitely more enjoyable - Alas the GOG version doesn't seem to have any internet-enabled play modes, but were it not for the current virus pandemic I wouldn't even have cared about that in favour of the FOUR PLAYER COUCH CO-OP!!!

FOUR PLAYER COUCH CO-OP!!!

!!!!

Hmm, I'm going to need more USB ports...


Also, I don't know if it's just because I've played Axel in SoR2 and SoRRv5 so much or what, but for some reason the 'timing' of the game really doesn't seem to favour Axel - Everything he does is just 'slightly' too slow or short which leaves him open to attack more often than not - The delay between some of his attacks, his jump and flying kick distance, the speed of his movement just all seem tuned to leave an opening for him to get hit. I can't really explain it well but I think if you play through all the characters you'll know what I mean.

I think it's this that has made Axel probably the weakest character in SoR4 - In SoR2 his high technique rating meant he had a lot of I-Frames in his moves; He was slow but his attacks tended to have the highest priority and many of his non-special moves had generous I-Frames, with the signature Grand Uppah and flying kick being particularly strong, but in this it's pretty bad and if anyone is near him they can always hit him before he recovers. Even his new charged attack doesn't work well - I tried to test it on a Galsia, and the delay between letting go of attack button and Axel actually kicking was enough for Galsia to interrupt it with a punch!


Funnily, at the other end of the 'timing' spectrum is one of the new characters - Floyd. For some reason the timings seem to favour him much more - Partly I think its his reach, but his movement, hit recovery, move timings, all just make him far less prone to the sudden-interrupt-jab-in-the-face syndrome from enemies that Axel seems really prone to. It's really weird given that Lloyd is supposed to be the slow character, but he's just so much more effective to progress with vs struggling for every inch with Axel.
So far I've found him the easiest character to make progress with and the only one I've been able to get through the obnoxious boss battles with.
He's slow, but like Max he hits hard and has good reach so can usually get rid of enemies quick enough to not get overwhelmed, which is a big problem for the other characters.
He's also doesn't throw enemies OVER other enemies, like the other characters and that really helps with crowd control.


I haven't played Blaze much, but from what little I have she feels much more effective than Axel; I think she has slightly longer reach, and also seems less prone to having her attacks interrupted than he does, but I find she gets overwhelmed if you don't crowd manage a lot, which means lots of walking and jumping around and not a lot of attacking.


Cherry is fun to play - She is the only character of the 4 who can run so her mobility is excellent. Like Blaze I find she gets overwhelmed easily but the ability to run makes this more survivable. Additionally she has some attacks which contain forward movement which also helps keep her alive for longer since she doesn't have to stop so much.
Alas I can't quite use her as a grab-n-throw attacker like I loved doing with Sammy/Skate as, again, the enemy-favoured priority and timing rears its ugly head and I find usually she just runs into a punch instead of grabbing them.
The only big problems I've had with her is against enemies with obnoxious I-Frames, which I have real trouble with when playing her.