Slave Zero X Reviews
Slave Zero X is an incredibly frustrating release, because it could have so easily been a slam dunk. It's a great game - it really is - with stylish combat mechanics, beautiful 2D sprites combined with 3D environments, and an awesome, cyberpunk-esque storyline. Unfortunately, though patches may eventually turn this lump of coal into a diamond, the game as it stands is a hot mess on Switch, with a wildly inconsistent frame rate that makes the complex, methodical gameplay feel like a chore to play.
I said this on the podcast, Slave Zero X is a weird game. On the surface it appears to have little to do with the original, but the story does reveal some threads The bad thing is the combat and levels just feel so frustrating and difficult that most players will never even get to see any of it. This game didn’t make me feel like a “killing machine” with its clunky combat and constant difficulty spikes. I don’t know who this one is for, I just know it isn’t me.
If you really like your punishing hack and slash platformers, then Slave Zero X might be for you, but it doesn't feel as rewarding as it should when progress is made. You hardly feel like the killing machine you are as you run into difficulty spikes, and the near constant swarms of enemies just gets a bit dull when you are not learning any new techniques to fight them.
Slave Zero X is an interesting-looking action beat 'em up title with a few bugs and feels a bit repetitive, but if you just want to kill tonnes of enemies, you will enjoy this.
In the end, though, the repetitiveness makes it difficult to fully recommend Slave Zero X, especially at its retail asking price of $24.99. Aside from just enjoying the story, replay value is restricted to high-score hunters (who themselves will have to deal with an arguably unpredictable grading system), and anyone not completely smitten with the presentation will find themselves looking for an excuse to persevere, even with its relatively short campaign. For the right player, Slave Zero X will seem like a custom-made surprise, but it’s a little too short to box with the beat ‘em up gods.
Slave Zero X stuck between two completely different genres, and despite bringing many good qualities to the table such as an engaging atmosphere and solid story and level design, suffers from a lack of identity in its core gameplay that makes the final experience extremely inconsistent.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Slave Zero X is a game that will depend a lot on the player's taste, and that's okay. For those who want to be challenged to achieve amazing rankings and combos using everything the combat system offers, you will have a satisfying feast for the few hours of the main mode. For those who just want a no-fuss beat 'em up, it's best to look for something different.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Slave Zero X is a game where there is a great dissonance between how it looks and how it plays. It's one of the most stylish games of the year, and it looks great. It sounds very good too. It does a good job of reviving a now-forgotten brand and establishing its own distinct and unique biopunk identity. However, in many ways it feels unfinished and unbalanced. The difficulty is very unbalanced, the controls could be more responsive and the gameplay could be better handled, especially mechanically.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Slave Zero X is a beat'em up extremely focused on its combat and, consequently, the player's advantage will be directly linked to how much you like to explore combos and perfect your execution. If it doesn't fall into that dedicated group of players, it's not an easily recommended title.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Slave Zero X is a decent fast-paced action game experience with a surprisingly good story. However, its overall repetitiveness and lack of interesting boss fights drags it down quite a bit.
Slave Zero X will get frustrating, but as we have learned over the years: sometimes a tough experience can yield the greatest rewards.
While Shou can be a bit difficult to handle, Slave Zero X promises plenty of action for those willing to fight for their bloodlust. Its endless hordes can be a bit of a grind, but those willing to sharpen their swords and cut their teeth will enjoy executing this cannon fodder in style.
Slave Zero X has a few too many rough spots to make it an easy recommendation, but it isn't a terrible game. When you get into the groove of combos, cancels and bursts, it can be incredibly satisfying to leave the forces of fascism in bloody chunks on the ground, but the effort it takes to reach that point feels like too much to be worth it. If you're in the mood for a bloody, execution-intensive beat-'em-up, then Slave Zero X might be for you, but it might be tough if you're used to playing modern beat-'em-ups.
With a bit of fine-tuning and rebalancing, Slave Zero X could be magnificent. It is already an audio/visual tour de force and the gameplay mostly works. If anything, Slave Zero X presents a compelling world with vivid imagery that sticks with you. It is no wonder why people still remember the original game and have fond memories of it.
It's a shame the combat is quite so tough, because it can be discouragingly unforgiving, and there are no difficulty settings to toy with either. However, we definitely get the sense this is a game that masochistic players will love to master. From where we're sitting, Slave Zero X is slightly too hard-edged for its own good, but there's undoubtedly depth to be plumbed if you're so willing.
Slave Zero X is a solid hack-and-slash and is an easy recommendation to fans of the genre.
Slave Zero X is an old school game that is great to look at, thrilling to play at times with excellent animations and a feedback loop to the combat that makes smashing enemies into a bloody mess amazingly fun, but it's difficulty spikes and how those spikes are escalated only work to wear you down. By the end of the game those things you might've enjoyed about Slave Zero X are being crushed under a pile of frustrations as high as the body count you'll rack up across a full playthrough. When the wins no longer provide any feeling of satisfaction, it's easy to be left wondering what you continue for. But all the things that are so well executed in Slave Zero X still make it worth checking out, especially if you're already intrigued by the difficulty barrier-to-entry to cross the line into 'enjoying Slave Zero X, even if it makes you want to throw something.'
After this experience, I've re-established that love for short and simple games. Slave Zero X is the kind of video game that offers value because of what it seeks to represent and what it manages to do to differentiate itself from everything else. You don't always expect hack and slash side-scrolling games with retro touches and originality.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Slave Zero X is a fantastic character action game that's rewarding, challenging, and has clear focus. Its deep combat mechanics, paired with an excellent biopunk presentation, elevate it above many similar releases while offering a fairly replayable campaign. It's brought down by a lack of movelist section in-game or in practice, and some gameplay quirks keep it from reaching the heights of the titans in the genre.