Punch Club, developed by a Russian studio Lazy Bear Games, was released in 2016 and immediately became a hit thanks to the combination of non-trivial gameplay and numerous references to games and films of the 80s and 90s. It was only a matter of time before the sequel was announced. The wait has been long, but the time has finally come. Does Punch Club 2: Fast Forward live up to expectations? ?
Movie about a street fighter
Punch Club we missed it in vain at one time, so let me remind you that in this street fighter manager the player goes from a beginner to a legend, winning all tournaments, including underground ones. To do this, you need to constantly train – at home (you need to buy expensive simulators) or in a paid gym, where sparring with a trainer is also available.
In addition, we regularly work part-time (for example, delivering pizza) in order to save money for food – you can’t train or fight with an empty stomach. And just as regularly you need to sleep or otherwise restore energy, without which you can’t cook porridge either.
That is, there is a lot of routine, but it’s worth it. The fights themselves are interesting – you need to choose various attacking and defensive techniques, as well as techniques based on strength, endurance or speed. And new strikes and schools open in an extensive pumping system. It’s important to properly develop and train your character in order to find your path to success.
Moreover, this is not a pure simulator/manager, but a twisted cinematic story. The main character is looking for the killer of his father, and the plot is non-linear – depending on our decisions, the character may end up in Russia and become a professional fighter, or end up in prison and turn into a kind of Leon the killer. There is only one finale, but you can get to it in different ways. Pathos and intrigue in this story are combined with irony and numerous cross-cultural references – including, of course, to "Fight Club". There is also a real surreal feeling associated with cats – those who played understand what I mean.
Brave New World with Slugs
Punch Club 2: Fast Forward made according to the same patterns, and the plot continues the story of the original. It’s just starting to get even more comical and weird. We play as the son of the main character of the first part. The father mysteriously disappeared, and the son lived with his mother for all 20 years and, it seems, never left the house. And at some point he begins to have strange visions (there are cats there, and his mother turns into a huge… slug), in which he sees his father.
Leaving home to find his father, the hero discovers that he is in a bizarre cyberpunk. There are holographic cops, food from vending machines based on the “juice” of the same slugs, neurotrainers where you plunge into a pressure chamber (however, you can also train using the old-fashioned method). A massage that restores health is performed by a robot, and a trainer in the gym conducts sparring sessions in an exosuit.
Gradually moving through the plot, we learn details about our father and meet people who knew him. One of these acquaintances is a talking head, and the other actually… died. And at some point we need to help a mad scientist and his funny robot, who seem to be able to resurrect the dead.
Initially, a social chip is implanted into our hero, which tracks the rating of, let’s say, a decent citizen. With our successful actions we increase it – you need to score enough points to get a pass to the upper city.
Game, I know you!
However, many things remain the same even in this world. It’s still full of references to games and action films of the 80s and 90s. Moreover, we can buy old videotapes and watch them together with one of the characters, then sprinkle quotes from old films and sing songs from them (of course, not without Eye of the Tiger).
We do this not only for fun and nostalgia – this way you can increase points of a kind of coolness rating, for which global upgrades are purchased such as increasing inventory, speed of movement around the city, or training efficiency.
Naturally, we still need to constantly train and fight in order to advance both in the current fighting leagues and in the story. Training still increases strength, speed or endurance, and we learn new techniques in various techniques and schools. Some of them are based on one of these characteristics, others are more complex and unique, such as the receiving VIP technique, which allows you to almost instantly restore the energy expended when performing techniques and receiving damage.
We are still monitoring our hunger levels. Plus there is a rage and mood parameter that increases the effectiveness of training. Rage especially boils up after battles and decreases during work, and you can also accumulate it by watching TV at home – a very subtle irony. There, at home, there are good old exercise equipment, a folding bed where you can sleep and restore energy, and a refrigerator for food that is healthier than fast food and takes time to prepare.
Rage also makes the side jobs we still take on to save money for food, energy drinks, and the same old cassettes more effective. All these jobs in the sequel are connected with local criminal groups – you can collect robots for the Russian mafia in a landfill, cook noodles for the Yakuza, or extract juice from slugs for bandits.
To increase work efficiency, you need to https://playnowcasino.co.uk/withdrawal/ complete special tasks and get a promotion. In the process, you have to fight especially strong enemies, robots, and even psychos from the “resistance” wrapped in foil. On-site and non-linear – you can work for the police, solving crimes.
Is it about fighting or grinding??
In general, in Punch Club 2: Fast Forward enough humor, irony, unexpected situations and strange characters. But there is also more grinding with routine. As I already said, two ratings appeared at once – law-abiding and cool, which need to be constantly increased. And there is also the hero’s mother, who, if she doesn’t sleep, then swears and won’t let us go to the refrigerator – we have to buy her lollipops with sleeping pills.
In addition, all establishments and points now work strictly according to schedule – for example, the robot dump, where the Russian mafia sits, is available from 22:00 to 08:00, and you can cook noodles for the yakuza from 19:00. Only the grocery store and your home can be accessed around the clock. At the same time, there is constantly not enough food and money for it, and energy is quickly consumed.
As a result, every day we do the same thing – rushing between the store, home, gym and part-time jobs, wondering when to visit this or that place, how long it will take, how much energy we will spend on part-time jobs (but we need to leave it for training)… All this makes grinding more confusing.
Yes, you can install useful software, buy a gym membership or a bus pass (a trip on public transport costs money, but does not waste time). There is an option to use the services of a hacker to get more social rating for victories in battles.
And at a certain level of reputation with a particular faction, you can buy consumables from them and install programs that increase the efficiency of part-time jobs and allow you to simultaneously upgrade your profile characteristics. All this makes life easier, but not so much that the problem of debilitating grind disappears. In addition, many such services cost money (which is always in short supply!), and you won’t be able to install all the faction software at the same time – you will be persistently asked to first remove your competitors’ program.
That is, there are more mechanics and details, and they, in theory, should make the gameplay more varied and interesting (to some extent this is true), but in reality all this strengthens micromanagement and makes routine activities more tedious. In the first part it was easier, besides, several leagues and tournaments were available almost immediately, including underground battles, but in the sequel we are locked in the starting league for a long time.
Fights without rules
The situation is partly saved by the plot, humor, characters, old action films and the fights themselves, which are still great and generally follow the old pattern.
Before the fight, we choose which school to use, insert learned strikes and defensive techniques into the slots (can be from different schools), and also decide where to take a breath in order to restore some of the energy. Plus, modifiers have appeared that reduce the opponent’s energy or reduce his chance of evasion. And then we just see what comes out of it, and in between rounds we adjust our tactics depending on the situation.
To win, this very tactic needs to be varied often – adapt to the enemy and give your character a rest. All active actions spend more or less energy, and its absence leads to knockout and serious damage.
But even here there was a fly in the ointment. It’s like the battles were artificially complicated. Here you increase the main characteristics much faster than in the first part (because there is more grind!), but many overpowered opponents have appeared, and some also use the VIP cheating technique mentioned above. What does this lead to?? That’s right, to more grinding.
Does this mean Punch Club 2 is a bad game?? Of course not. It’s really addictive, it has a great plot (although the ending let us down!) and exciting battles. New mechanics have appeared and the graphics have become better. And grind and routine can be perceived as an inevitable evil for such projects, which you just need to endure – there is something for it. And yet I can’t shake the feeling that some game design decisions here are unnecessary or not entirely correct. So we are waiting for the third part and hope that everything will be even better there.
Pros: interesting setting and plot; exciting fights; many opportunities for leveling up; signature humor, irony, surreal and cross-cultural references; nice graphics; great music.
Cons: there is more grind and routine; Difficulty is artificially high in places.
Punch Club 2: Fast Forward
Best comments
I liked the mini-storyline about a guy for whom the developers didn’t draw a walking animation)
Grind is a studio problem in general. They know how to make games, but they don’t know how to “finish” them
The entire gameplay is an endless grind and strict time management. Gets boring very quickly. Moreover, the game does not give any tangible reward to the player for his work. Does not open up any new opportunities, deepening the gameplay.
For me personally it’s a passerby.
I haven’t visited the site for 10 years. I wrote a huge comment and wanted to send it. But a login was required, and after that the comment was not saved..
Believe me, it was cool and informative, but I’m too lazy to write it again.
In short: There is more routine if you level up neuro and play a dodger, less – old school, strongman. The difference is about 10 hours. Stamina + neuro is also stuffy, but not as much as a dodger. This means that the problem is not in the strength of VIP-type opponents, but in the weakness of the schools of agility and endurance, the strongman grinds him into light.
I saw a review on Steam: One guy didn’t understand the gag and really thought that they forgot to draw the animation)
No matter how much they lick this craft, I have exclusively negative emotions with it. The first part was still played for fun, but even then it all came down to jerking off stats, you just spend hours watching the pixels sway like a stupid zombie… In this part, everything got even worse, this is no longer time management – it’s jerking off (money) for the sake of jerking off (stats) in order to go through another jerking off (fights)… The game is addictive like a drug, references, graphics, jokes, you want to play and study it. But for any little action and advancement you just have to grind stats, money, etc.d. I couldn’t stand it, in the middle of the second chapter, when a homeless person with 20 stamina is against you and can stand it in 2 rounds, although you are already in the top 5 leaders in the second pro division, you have all your stats already pumped up to 21, you have a ton of moves, you have drunk boosters, your tone is at maximum, your build bent everyone! Nope, that’s a drunk, in a round he eats up all the action points, all the stamina, and also manages to poke him in the face with his stinking foot and knock him out. It’s not funny, it blows my mind when the game just puts fences in front of you, one higher than the other and you only have to spend HALF A DAY to pump up your stats by another ten, you know how it sounds? I freaked out, couldn’t stand it, well, this shit is back in the sick fucking head of the stupid developer for this stub of stupid shit!
Otherwise, I agree with the author, the humor and plot are excellent. I liked the toy, it’s not for nothing that I played it 3 times, 1 for each school.
Which school ended up being more effective??
At the same time, he has a fight animation)_
Strongman top. Of the styles, all are good except berserk, berserk useless. Through endurance, the top tormentor, but before it it is worth taking other styles, they are situational, but very useful against some opponents. And a trickster means suffering and pain (especially when there is something to compare with). And the crystal cobra style is completely suicidal, it has not found any use at all.
It is not necessary to fight all opponents. Starting from the second league it is quite possible to jump over one.
