Recent reviews by QuietFires

I can't recommend this game ENOUGH! Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm dmc style combat game with jetset radio graphics. What more could someone from the early 2000's want. With triple A games constantly making 30-40 hour open world games Hi-Fi makes a nice 12 hour experience if you just want to do 1 playthrough. It's linear but has just enough little secrets for you to find that it almost never gets boring. The story doesn't take it self that seriously and the dialogue can be a tad cringy but not to the point it ruins the game. I played this with polish VA myself but the acting was quite nice, none of the characters felt rushed but they all feel well written and the game had nice pacing.
However the real star is the combat and how it ties with the music (which is A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ BANGER for both licensed music and original ost). The moment you get control everything is synced with the rhythm to the song being played. Every enemy and ui even your walking animation is synced no matter when you start your walk/run. The combat while simple to understand it will take time to master but by the end of the first boss I have effectively learned the combat well enough to beat the game without issue (I was playing on hard). The game rewards you for staying on beat such as dodging and attacking with each swing doing extra damage if you can swing to the beat and if you dodge to the beat you can dodge 3 times in a row. However as I mentioned the enemy is also synced to the music meaning enemies have to attack in rhythm. All enemies have windup attacks with each beat progressing the windup by a single beat. This makes combat much more engaging and encourages you even more to stay in rhythm.
Hi-Fi Rush does have flaws as every games does. For one the beginning is quite tutorial heavy but that is more a personal preference besides in a game like this it doesn't hurt to give the player lots of tips to explain the mechanics. One boss toward the mid to late game didn't seem to have a rhythm toward the start making the fight a tad confusing but ultimately still enjoyable fight. Some mechanical issues with button presses just not registering on my end during specific events (though might just be me being stupid and pressing wrong button so take that with some salt). Most of these are nit pics however.
Overall Hi-Fi Rush is a fantastic start to 2023 and with how bad forspoken was released this game feels like a godsend. If you loved games back in the early 2000's and enjoy rhythm games plus played some dmc then I implore you to play this game.
10/10

Edit: Microsoft shut down the devs that made this game. I want to bring a quote by head of xbox games "We want small games that give us prestige and awards" that's exactly what this game delivered. A small game that gave them prestige and awards but I guess even that didn't matter for microsoft.. ♥♥♥♥ off microsoft

Disclamer: I dislike the Arkham games but if I had to choose which I dislike the least it would have to be Arkham asylum. Now that we got that out of the way lets talk about this game.

Gotham knights is a game created by WB Games Montreal the same devs who created Batman: Origins a game I haven't played. Why did I take an interest into this game? Because of the coop, I love the idea of vigilantes roaming the streets solving crimes and kicking teeth in and for the most part that works very well for this game. The combat while being just a tad clunky is pretty decent with having to time your attacks and dodges and think about your next move rather than just button mashing your way through. As well as the weaknesses each faction has toward elemental weaponry yes you heard that right elemental. Think of this game more of an rpg rather than a beat em up. You must make your own build to combat either various situations or in my case jack of all trade but a master of none. This does however get into the movement and when I first played the game it felt so jank but over time I did get use to it. Plus it doesn't help that this game is poorly optimized with minor frame rate issues and in my case minor controller delay if it really got bad with the frames. This can most likely be solved by playing in 30fps but I was to lazy to do that :). Story is pretty good with the characters having their own personalities for every cutscene. Each character also plays different having strengths and weaknesses plus their own skill trees. All in all the game is pretty good just needs some touch ups in performance and maybe end game as it does get stupid with how much health end game enemies have on hard difficulty.

Ok so I finished this early access build and first thing off the bat 20 bucks is just a tad bit much for a 2-3 hour introduction in my opinion. However the atmosphere in Gloomwood and the thief inspired gameplay and the system shock grid inventory system is so up my alley I can't say no to this game after playing. I've played the demo plus this version and I have to say I am impressed. So many mysteries at the start of the game enough to keep me going trying to figure out why I was put into this world to begin with why was I captured and so on. This game has potential to be better than most triple A titles and I want to see it achieve that. As an added plus... the voice actor for shodan (Terri Brosius) is in this game and anything with them is a must buy.

Better be prepared to buy 5 new mouses and your jaw prepped for the dropping. This game has everything the original had and tons more. It’s easy to learn but my god is it hard to master.