Sifu Reviews
A potential GOTY contender already, Sifu is martial arts excellence that'll challenge and delight in equal measure.
Sifu is definitely the 2022 current-gen spiritual successor to Karateka in plot and design, but with kung-fu, naturally. If you jive with that concept and its unrelenting challenges, go all out with this showdown.
Sifu can often be satisfying when things come together and the action unfolds like a martial arts film but the difficulty will divide players.
Sifu is a must-have game for anyone who enjoys martial arts. It has a solid combat system, but its main disadvantage is a steep learning curve.
If you're able to practice your martial arts, breathe in and have patience and persistence, you'll find a deep combat system, rewarding fights, and moments that make you feel like a flawless kung fu master.
Sifu is a complex, albeit rewarding action game that packs one mean punch. It’s a little too hard for its own good at times, but taking the time to overcome its challenges can be pretty fulfilling. That said, the game is grossly drenched in exoticism, which kind of puts a damper on things.
Excelling in tone, aesthetic, and creative vision, Sloclap delivered an experience I want to love unconditionally with no caveats. But with its punishing complexity atop the core systems and gameplay loop, as well as the lack of accessibility options, my relationship with Sifu is a complicated one at best.
With a high barrier to entry and not much of a story to tell, Sifu is going to have a limited audience. That audience will love it, but a lot of curious onlookers will be turned away at the door.
Fans of Absolver will adore Sifu’s mechanics and style, but don’t expect the kind of stance-based combat Absolver did so well. Sifu is a strictly combo and skill based affair. You won’t fail for using the wrong move, you’ll fail for not observing your opponent and striking at the right time. Sifu is a game I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a whole new approach to the staling rogue-like genre.
Despite some frustrating design choices around progression and a camera which isn’t as consistent as I’d like, I had more fun with Sifu than the vast majority of action games on the market. At the end of the day, it just feels too good to play for me to deny. Even as I replayed levels dozens of times when I really wanted to see what was ahead, I couldn’t put the controller down. That’s the sign of a master right there.