In this era of first person shooters getting all the attention comes an innovative take on the genre with a first person brawler, Spartan Fist. The demo was addicting because the dungeon map was a random map, reloading from the beginning everytime you died. This game expects you to learn from your mistakes and get better and learn so you can make it further and further the more times you play.
The tutorial before the main game was simplistic as well, you couldn’t help but want to keep going and kick some enemy butt. During gameplay there are three fighting styles, each with different ways to throw punches and this adds to the strategy of the game. Some punches do more damage to the enemies so you will have to practice to see which punches are best for each situation. As you proceed in the dungeons, you’ll be able to upgrade your fists, but only one hand at a time.
Different fists do different things so whenever you find one you really like, you might not want to change it. Combo attacks will be key in Spartan Fist as well as charge attacks. Different fists do different things so you’ll have to master the combo attack as well as charge attack early in the lifespan of the game. Some fists allow you to attack faster than normal and some are much stronger than others. You will have to discover which fists are better for your style of play for that playthrough and go from there because when you get a game over, you lose the new fists that you’ve found during the playthrough.
The charged attacks can be good and bad for you during gameplay. They can be good for you if need to do large amounts of damage quickly and possibly move an enemy but they also throw you backwards. That could be an issue if there are enemies in the area or if there are environmental hazards in the level, otherwise known as traps. Traps range from fire to giant holes in the demo so be on guard in the later levels for non-fire related traps! On the plus side, enemies can be hurt by the environmental hazards too so use them to your advantage and kill some enemies with them!
As I mentioned before, the dungeon is random so you might be playing much longer the first few playthroughs and then get to the boss battle quickly in the next few, it’s all random. The boss battles appear to be giant versions of enemy forces in the levels like in the demo, the boss was a giant cat monster and you fought cat forces in the dungeon.
It will be interesting to see what other animal forces you have to knock out for victory! Keep an eye out for health capsules in the stages as those will heal you and you will need to keep an eye on your health gage. There were minor control issues during gameplay in the demo such as some of my punches weren’t being received by the controller. There was slight lag during gameplay too. Spartan Fist is an interesting take on the first person genre and I look forward seeing where it goes in the future!