“Hi-Fi Rush cracks the rhythm-action genre wide open to deliver Tango Gameworks’ most confident, stylish, and surprising project to date.”
Pros
Rebellious spirit
Fantastic musical fight
Playful makes use of of rhythm
Stylish visuals
Effective soundtrack
As I combat my method by means of waves of robots in Hi-Fi Rush, stylishly slashing them with my guitar in time with an lively music observe, I abruptly flash again to an Instagram reel.
Last 12 months, the app’s unknowable algorithm briefly determined that it ought to solely serve me reels from music lecturers (a passive-aggressive transfer, for those who ask this self-taught guitarist). For just a few weeks, all of them seemingly latched onto the identical development as they put out fast movies highlighting the distinction between beat and rhythm, two particular phrases that get mistakenly interchanged with each other. In one clip I ended to look at, the trainer begins by stating a music’s beat, steadily tapping out its tempo like a metronome. Then, she switches over to the rhythm, replicating the precise sample of notes that weave round that tempo.
While some music video games may stand to study a factor from that video, Hi-Fi Rush is a mannequin scholar. Tango Gameworks’ rhythm-action sport, which surprise-launched on PC and Xbox final week, doesn’t simply throw gamers playlist and ask them to maintain time over it. Rather, the whole lot about it’s constructed round that music, like a band naturally locking in after a drummer’s opening count-in. Steady beats function an invisible pressure that powers its vibrant cyberpunk world, however I can rarely really feel that restriction in a musical quest that performs like a artistic improv session.
Hi-Fi Rush rockets to the highest of the rhythm-action style due to a stellar fight system that goes far past easy beat-matching. It has all of the fashion of an anime, the long-lost artistic power of a GameCube sport, and the bright-eyed exuberance of a 2000s teen at their first indie rock present. It’s the uncommon main studio sport that breaks free from the monotony of a stagnating medium to ship one thing that actually, earnestly rocks.
Putting the punk in cyberpunk
Narratively, Hi-Fi Rush is a cyberpunk sport wrapped up in cartoon aesthetics. Set in a metropolis run by an oppressive megacorporation, the story focuses on a employee named Chai who’s deemed faulty after having a music participant fused to his chest. That kicks off an alt-rock-fueled journey to take down the corporate’s prime brass with the assistance of some allies and a metallic guitar blade.
Hi-Fi Rush itself looks like a rejection of the capitalistic restrictions that main studios like Tango Gameworks typically face.
Though its story generally is a bit “anti-capitalism 101” at occasions — and loaded with the identical quippy humor that plagues video games like Forspoken — a lot of its narrative choices work within the context of its mild aesthetic. Biting satire is baked into its colourful world, because it makes some heavy themes extra digestible for a variety of age teams. The dystopia is stuffed with company propaganda posters and lore logs that paint an image of the world’s exploited working class by way of loaded gags. One of my favourite textual content logs is a poem written by a upkeep robotic pressured to ceaselessly clear firm flooring that by no means get soiled. It’s a message that feels particularly related to the 12 months it’s releasing in, because the gaming trade inches nearer to mass unionization.
That theme isn’t simply mirrored in its story. Hi-Fi Rush itself looks like a rejection of the capitalistic restrictions that main studios like Tango Gameworks typically face. It’s not a run-of-the-mill AAA sport that includes an expansive open world and obsessive hooks meant to maintain customers logging in (one may argue that Tango’s personal Ghostwire: Tokyo fell sufferer to a few of these trappings). It’s a wholly distinctive fusion of rhythm and hack-and-slash motion, turning Devil May Cry right into a music sport. Even its artwork fashion rebels towards fashionable instincts, choosing vibrant colours and an illustrative fashion relatively than chasing “next-gen” realism.
During my playthrough, I ceaselessly flashed again to the golden days of the Nintendo GameCube — a console that was loaded with the sort of eclectic video games that you simply’ll solely discover within the indie scene nowadays. I’m transported to enjoying Capcom’s Viewtiful Joe as a child, nonetheless impressed by how video games may supply such a various vary of play kinds and visuals that I’d by no means skilled earlier than. That’s slipped away from the large funds scene within the final decade as I’ve felt the largest releases homogenized across the identical basic concepts. Rather than chasing bankable tendencies, Hi-Fi Rush prioritizes invention above all.
When you’re making a AAA online game that’s going to be positioned as a significant console unique for a corporation like Microsoft, that’s maybe essentially the most punk factor you might do.
Playing with music
Hi-Fi Rush excels in quite a lot of areas, however its musical fight is its standout accomplishment. On paper, it’s your commonplace hack-and-slash the place gamers construct up huge combos (see: Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, and so on). The twist, although, is that gamers do extra harm if their assaults line up with the beat of the background music. Many video games have tried this lately to various levels of success. Metal: Hellsinger, as an example, makes an attempt to show Doom right into a rhythmic shooter, however its restrictive beat-matching system leaves little room to experiment with the music.
That’s not the case right here as Tango Gameworks lays out a blueprint for others to comply with. Here are the fundamentals of battle: gamers can execute a light-weight assault that lasts one beat or a heavy assault that lasts two. Through the sport, Chai learns a protracted record of combos that blend the 2 up, discouraging gamers from merely urgent X on each single beat. A profitable combo triggers a particular transfer which is executed by nailing a fast button timing occasion. If I wished to get higher rankings in battles, I’d should study the rhythmic nuances of every combo string and make use of them in battle like a guitarist pulling from their bag of tips.
In my greatest battles, I really feel simply as very like a conductor as I do an motion hero.
I’ve by no means been a man who memorizes combo lists and fights with precision in video games like this; I simply grew to become that man in Hi-Fi Rush. That’s the brilliance of the music system right here. I’m not left making an attempt to recall complicated button strings on the fly. I do know what each one among my assaults sounds and looks like. The timing of every one leaves extra of an impression on me than a menu displaying me the buttons. It’s so impactful that I really feel prefer it’s going to alter the best way I method the style any more, treating assault strings as riffs.
That setup could be sufficient to depart me impressed, however Hi-Fi Rush goes far past that with out ruining its magnificence. By the tip, Chai can carry out an evasive sprint, parry assaults, tether in direction of an enemy, and summon companions to pepper in particular assaults. Each one builds the soundscape as a lot because it provides complexity to battle. When gamers name in Peppermint, she’ll blast robots along with her laser pistols and break blue shields, including a novel little bit of syncopation for just a few beats. I discovered myself utilizing my tether virtually like a be aware relaxation, permitting me to rapidly refocus my consideration on an enemy earlier than firing up a brand new bar of assaults. The incontrovertible fact that I can simply juggle so many strikes by figuring out how they play into the rhythm speaks volumes concerning the system’s energy. In my greatest battles, I really feel simply as very like a conductor as I do an motion hero.
Those concepts are constructed on additional with a contact of customization, as Chai can buy and equip guitar picks to achieve passive boosts. It’s the one system I want I had extra time to mess around with. Players earn gears, the sport’s main foreign money, by exploring ranges, however bigger portions of them are earned by handing over achievements at a house base hub between missions. Since chapters are inclined to go on for near an hour and don’t all the time finish in a return to the bottom, I discovered that I solely ever had just a few alternatives to earn and money in these giant gear caches throughout my eight-hour playthrough. It’s a bit of wierd pacing for a sport that’s in any other case so fast-paced.
Though I’ve largely targeted on fight right here, rhythm is baked into each a part of Hi-Fi Rush. On-rail segments have Chai avoiding cargo crates by dodging facet to facet, bigger enemies could be completed off in a Simon Says parry minigame, and platforming between area battles requires some cautious timing. Even after I’m dashing round ranges on the lookout for well being upgrades or collectible graffiti, I discover myself naturally dashing to the music, switching up my cadence only for the enjoyable of adjusting up my sound sample. Interactions like that make Hi-Fi Rush really feel like the final word rhythm sport, one which encourages me to play with the music it doesn’t matter what I’m doing.
Style and substance
Hi-Fi Rush instantly stands out for its cartoon artwork fashion, which completely pops on Xbox Series X. Vibrant colours, daring line work, and easy efficiency make it one of many best-looking video games on current-gen consoles, buying and selling in detailed realism for illustrative perfection. Though what’s extra spectacular than visible constancy is how purposeful its aesthetic decisions are.
I’m satisfied I may mute it and nonetheless keep on beat.
For occasion, each aspect of its ranges is painstakingly animated to groove alongside the soundtrack. Pistons pump on beat after I’m zooming by means of a manufacturing unit, whereas elevators drop to their vacation spot in a staggered rhythmic sample. Everything feels as if it’s dancing — and that’s not only for present. All of that acts as a pure visible indicator that retains gamers on the beat even after they’ve misplaced the music. While a standard beat-matching immediate could be toggled on with the press of a button, I performed your complete sport with out it. I’m satisfied I may mute it and nonetheless keep on beat.
I wouldn’t dare try this although, because the soundtrack itself gives some mid-2000s delight. In addition to an unique soundtrack of energetic rock tunes, Hi-Fi Rush contains some stable licensed music that’s thoughtfully built-in into battles. In one standout combat, I’m going toe-to-toe with a boss as a canopy of The Flaming Lips’ Free Radicals performs. I’m enjoying alongside to its main verse till I whittle down one phase of the well being bar. Suddenly, the music naturally transitions to its refrain, with the boss unleashing some new assaults and patterns to study. In one part, the display locks to a 2D airplane as she tosses pipes at me, every one including an additional guitar stab to the combination.
Mileage could range relating to the soundtrack. I think about some youthful gamers may discover tunes like Zwan’s Honestly or The Black Keys’ Lonely Boy not terribly indicative of the rebellious youth tradition the sport portrays. Even so, the music decisions are undeniably purposeful. They deliver the precise model of rock and roll power whereas giving Chai some sturdy foundations to jam over throughout battle. Sure, this 33-year-old critic’s ears perked up after I heard the primary notes of Fiona Apple’s Fast As You Can open a boss combat, but it surely makes for a tremendously thrilling battle theme even for those who’re unfamiliar with it.
Those left-field music decisions reinforce what makes Hi-Fi Rush work so effectively: There aren’t any compromises right here. It looks like an earnest piece of self-expression from Tango Gameworks, relatively than a undertaking engineered for revenue. It feels just like the workforce behind it’s banking on the hope that if it means one thing to them, then there might be an viewers that connects with it too.
If that’s the case, they’re proper. I’m that viewers and I haven’t been so received over by a sport of this scale in a really very long time.
Hi-Fi Rush was reviewed on an Xbox Series X hooked as much as a TCL 6-Series R635.
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