REVIEW : Midnight Fight Express (PC)
A game idea where you, as an ex-criminal and a fully trained fighter, join the project of saving the world from the bad guys with a drone device that makes funny jokes and punch everything in your way to bring down a criminal gang that he was involved in before, but then fall into the hands of the police and forget everything and you remember by playing these memories how does it sound? Yes, I know that the sentence is completely similar to Bihter’s famous line in Aşk-ı Memnu. However, this is how I can explain the theme of the game to you in the shortest way.
Midnight Fight Express: A beating is something that can be both beaten and eaten.
I will give you my views on the game, which attracted my attention, especially with its difficulty and vulgar language. Midnight Fight Express is a very well thought and designed beat’em up game. It’s an experience in itself, with its signature art design, animations, colour palette and Cyberpunk-esque soundtrack. However, like every game, this game has some weak points. Now I will hit the game that hit me from my weak points every time. Yes, I said at the beginning of the review that this article will tire you out a bit, the game is just as tiring.
We start the game with a character named Babyface. A former combatant and member of a notorious criminal gang, Babyface has a messy story. One day, our character, whose world changed with the drone that came out of a box left at the door of his room, starts to fight with his former colleagues. The drone has the ideology of saving the world and clearing it of bad guys and is also designed as a character who likes to joke. Our character has no lines. He usually likes to talk his fists.
You have two hands and many enemies
It has been a very successful production in terms of enemy diversity, which is one of the requirements of the Midnight Fight Express genre. There are 113 types of enemies that you can encounter in the game that you have to display different tactics against. Among them, there are also enemies for snacks and notorious gang members who can give you a hard time… As such, it is possible to say that the game is a difficult production in itself. I experienced it by playing with both keyboard & mouse and controller, and when I saw the phrase “Play with the controller for the best experience” at the beginning of the game, I burst out laughing. Maybe it’s my clumsiness, but with the controller, the game becomes much more difficult.
Although the gameplay mechanics are like water, it does its best to give you difficulties. Contrary to the games we criticize, it does this not with its mistakes, but rather with its enemies and the limitations of being human. There are three difficulty levels and there are no easy ones among them. You can play by choosing between normal, hard and realistic difficulty levels. If you like to progress by punching digital guys and don’t want to be too hard, you should play at a normal level as I did. Because the game is a bit difficult even like this.
Of course, the mechanics of this game, which makes you feel like John Wick +, are not designed to adapt to very fast gameplay. However, because you have to be very fast in the game, it can sometimes give you a feeling of inadequacy. In other words, you can do a flying kick by flipping an enemy 3 meters away, but when you try to dodge a punch, your character tries to escape by taking a tiny step. You can be very fast when attacking, but you cannot catch this speed while defending.
Kick a man with cool animations
Midnight Fight Express has a very nice colour palette as an art design and has a unique design with low-poly designed characters. The lighting and post-processing effects of the sections he shows with his isometric camera are very well designed. I can also say that it is very successful in animations.
The animations, the approaching camera, the combos, the particles scattered around, or various effects look pretty good when you do just-in-time protection moves. Character animations are fluid and it appears as we would like to see in such games.
The game is much more enjoyable with exciting music
I can say that the thing I like the most about the game is the music. Because they are designed by the game’s rhythm and reflect the atmosphere very well as a genre. To give you an idea, I can say that the music is subtly similar to the soundtracks of Cyberpunk 2077.
The customizations and skill tree are pretty detailed
As you progress through the game, you can feel that you are making progress. The skill tree doesn’t just change the parameters that run behind it. I can say that it is a successful production in this regard. Each ability unlocks new moves and new features. As you progress, you realize that you are experiencing a more tangible production.
The skill tree, which allows you to create your playstyle, can still limit you at some points. When you develop your skills and start the next chapter, you face different types of enemies that you cannot use any of these abilities. If you make improvements to them after the chapter is over, new ones greet you in the next chapter. I can say that it is a skill tree that is beautifully designed but cannot keep up with the flow of the game.
In addition, it is useful to add that the language of the game is a bit heavy. Since there is no Turkish language support, you will have to play in English and some cultural jokes are fed with heavy language. So if you don’t have a very advanced level of English, you might miss the humorous tone of the story.
long story short
In short, if you’re good with old-school beat ”’ ’em-up games, Midnight Fight Express might be the right game for you. If you want the battles to get out of hand when it gets too fast, and the game to be a little difficult, I can say that it offers a good struggle. However, it is worth noting that there are some obstacles to its potential to become a more advanced, better game. Of course, we say this, but the game is not bad. It was just going to be very good, but it didn’t.
