As I read in many reviews: You grind a lot in that game. So you just don't have the time or the mood for all the cool things, that are so typical of that 80s and 90s era about fighting movies. There are so many references, there is an A-Team van in the garage, you fight a combination of Bebop and Rocksteady, have a second life as crime fighter, deliver Pizza, etc.
After 3 hours a very promising game turned out to be just no fun at all. I don't like games, that feel like work. This is one of them. And since TINY BUILD does not support their game on GOG (update 1.3 won't be released, where a super easy mode without the stats decay is contained), I won't support them anymore. One star for the cool atmosphere, the art and the humor. Minus 4 stars for all the above mentioned...
I feel a little bad for saying this because there’s a lot of love poured into Punch Club and its countless 80s and 90s fighting references, but the passion far outstrips the execution. The key selling point of the game, managing fights, requires virtually no player involvement. Looking at the skill trees it seemed like things might open up later, but the truth is even by the end game you might as well not even be there for the fight’s duration aside from clicking the ‘next round’ button. The result is basically predetermined by attributes trained beforehand, and you will not be called upon to swap out skills or adapt to your opponent.
By the second half the game completely breaks down and abandons the one thing it had going for it – questing and map travel. All daily requirements are relocated to a single area (hope you didn’t take the walking skill bonus) and there are no more of the fun zany quests that littered the first half. The way the plot is executed lacks a basic understanding of storytelling, jumping into the middle or end of a character arc without starting it first. It’s difficult to say anything more without venturing into spoiler territory. Rest assured, the ending is likely to leave you baffled.
Punch Club plays as an entertaining grind-fest with the trappings of a puzzle game.
You have 'skills' which are more beneficial against some foes than others, and can only go into a fight with a certain number activated. Skills are permanently unlocked with experience from actual fights, whereas training events up your three stats, which decrease daily. That decrease makes it an interesting time-management experiment in the early game, with many small choices effecting your overall proficiency. (Buy expensive, healthy food but lose time walking everywhere because you can't afford the bus? Spend a few days at work, losing stat points but getting enough money to work out at the gym instead of at home? Buy an expensive protein bar for an energy boost at the gym, or eat a steak at home and have to pay admittance fees again?)
There's also a good number of new locations, sub-quests, and the like to unlock as events progress, offering the joy of exploration. The game has solid 'bones'. Having said that :
- The humor is of the 'call out' variety with very few actual jokes. The love interest's name is Adrian, which is a reference to Rocky. That's par for the stabs as humor - if it made you smile, you'll be fine. Otherwise, expect a little flailing about in nostalgia.
- The carefully balanced economy of the game is thrown to the wind towards the end of the second act.
- You'll spend a LOT of time watching the protagonist work out, gradually getting to the point where they can win that next big fight, but game-changing events strike through white-on-black single lines of text or five, ten second cutscenes.
- You can't lose, and there's not enough variety to justify replaying. There's no sense of risk, just gradual steady progression rarely interrupted by off the wall set pieces.
- It ends in a hard cut, after a nonsensical 'reveal' during what should be the climax, with a "To Be Continued" slapped on.
Okay, this is a grinding game, and doesn't pretend to be anything else, you need to grind for your three stats as they lessen each day you don't work on them (like in real life) and you need to balance your training with work and sleeping (like in real life). And you won't get far if you try to eat your cake and have it too.
The game is not without a few tiny bugs here and there, but thankfully nothing that make it unplayable or is too distracting.
The game's pixel art is beautiful. It knows who its audience is and has some nice parody moments. And the game's plot twists are strange, but aren't self contradicting. This game takes a good WHILE to beat!
... And that's the problem. After hours and hours and hours of grinding, building up your character, after through so many plot twists and surprises... being knocked down and grinding again and refusing to give up... what you think is the penultimate boss turns out to be the final boss, and after one final classic twist with the main villain... that's it. The entire story, the ENTIRE GAME, ends on that plot twist. It just goes straight to the credits. And that's it. That by itself would be forgivable since it ends with 'to be continued'.
EXCEPT!!!... All that hard work you put into your character? ... Goodbye. Poof. That's it. You CAN'T play with your character AFTER the final boss! AGAIN, this wouldn't be TOO BAD, except you AUTOMATICALLY face the final boss as soon as you meet the criteria instead of being asked 'are you ready?'
Basically, this game is about hard work and the mindless routine we must endure for success... but the ends on a sudden twist that explains the opening, and we aren't even allowed to play our character afterwards. If you open up your save file, the characters just stand there doing nothing and not responding to the controls. So yeah, long hard adventure, cheap ending.
