The last 2D fighter I
played was Marvel vs Capcom 3 back in 2011 and I enjoyed that a whole lot but
never really got into anything since as the genre always struck me as pick a
character, spam the combos, dodge fireball, use finisher, win, rinse and
repeat, well that combined with almost developing Carpal tunnel syndrome trying
to string loads of moves together. I was intrigued when offered this as a review, I’ve never played any of
the Guilty Gear series in the past so I wasn’t sure what to expect from it, but
when I started it up I was blown away in seconds noticing how detailed and smooth
the animé-style artwork was, along with the character animations and high frame
rate giving it a very slick and flowing combat.
The story mode of the game plays like a movie, it gives you reasons for
the game unlike a lot of fighters that have come before. The story moves from
chapter to chapter explaining how a life form has declared war on the world and
its inhabitants and the world is fighting back.
The heavy rock and orchestral music you get whilst playing the game really pumps you up and the sound effects are decidedly meaty from the kicks and punches, even down to sliding on a banana skin seem to make this game feel even more alive than any other title of this genre.
Controlling your character feels very fluid whereas some fighting games can make it seem like you are just inputting code to perform a move, Guilty Gear has a really free-flowing play style, making it easy to pull off specials and instant kills though I would recommend purchasing a controller rather than playing with a keyboard, knocking out so many combos and activating characters Overdrives started to hurt after a small amount of time.
I’d go so far to say this is up as one of my favourite fighting games alongside Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Dead or Alive 3, and it’s got me thinking I'm going to have to hunt down the other Guilty Gear titles to give them a crack. As I said earlier though you would be wise invest in a control pad for this game as it’ll make your life a bit easier and your wrists appreciate it.
Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- is out now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, & PC