Monday, March 28, 2016

One Finger Death Punch - 20/20 hours

I powered through my last three hours, and it wasn't so bad . . . except that my brain is now mush. I keep wanting to react to things, but the quiet of the hotel at night is not the sort of environment where fast reflexes offer any sort of advantage.

What's left to say about One Finger Death Punch at this point? I was often surprised at myself while playing this game. I thought for sure that I couldn't beat a particular level and with all but three exceptions, I was wrong (and it's debatable whether I'm wrong permanently, even with those).

That's a good feeling, though I must have a serious pessimistic streak because I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was afraid that I'd hit a wall and be forced to just grind on to pad my time, but luckily that never happened.

I think I will remember this game fondly, but I don't think I'll play it again. It's well put together and it manages to strike the perfect balance between the simplicity of its basic idea and the depth of skill and knowledge necessary to play it well. However, it requires entering a state of consciousness that simply isn't very comfortable. Maybe there will be times when I want to narrow my focus and until time is sliced thin and there's no separation between my thought and my actions, but if so I already have Tetris for that.

In the end, I really liked One Finger Death Punch. The goofy martial-arts nerdery of its presentation combined with the relentless, but fair, pace of its action made it an experience unlike any other. I really couldn't ask for anything more from a casual indie game.

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