Capcom’s Proposal to Consumers:
You give us $69.99 and we’ll give you a quality barebones fighting game featuring a selection of your favorite characters plus some new ones. You will be able to fight online against other players powered by the best netcode this series has ever seen.
We know the single player content is lacking but we promise to give you a cinematic story experience in June. We’re also going to expand beyond the basic online multiplayer options with lobbies.
Don’t forget, we’re also rolling out new characters which you can earn for free or pay us for. Check out our season pass, it’s only $29.99.
I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to shell out money for Street Fighter V. There’s a lot of quality in Street Fighter V but at some point, quantity has to show up as well. I wasn’t expecting a story mode akin to Mortal Kombat 9 and X but I expected a barebones arcade mode at the very least. They could have included the same single player arcade mode employed in Street Fighter II and most people wouldn’t have batted an eye. It’s what we’ve come to expect from the series but when they couldn’t even match that and instead offered a tedious survival mode and a paltry story mode consisting of a handful of easy one off matches, they must have known it would have garnered criticism.
At its core though, there’s a fun and engaging fighting game. I love playing it and when the online matchmaking finds a quality opponent, I have a blast and want to keep playing. The problem is that recently (just over a month after the game’s release), I’m spending more time looking for quality matches than I am participating in them. I’ve been told that I should be looking for matches during peak times and not at 10 or 11 at night which is fair but at the same time, this is the first game that I had to make these kinds of concessions for. I didn’t have these kinds of issues in early March.
So I’ve been playing the survival mode and dabbling in the training mode whenever I wanted some guaranteed quality time with Street Fighter V. It’s such a satisfying game to play. I love how easy it is to execute moves and the changes they made to characters like Charlie gave those characters new life. A number of characters received command input changes for their classic moves. For example, Chun Li’s Lightning Kick was changed from mashing kick to quarter circle forward (QCF) and kick. I appreciated those changes but I also wished they just made everything a quarter circle motion at this point — but I’m just not a fan of charge moves so that’s just my own bias.
The words “lovingly crafted” don’t immediately come to mind when I look at the visuals Street Fighter V. It may remind some people of Street Fighter IV but if they actually looked at Street Fighter IV today and not in their mind’s eye, Capcom’s latest looks markedly superior in both style and technical quality.
The game makes a great first impression. The characters look amazing and move with fluidity that remind me of the shift to Street Fighter III. After staring at the game for a few hours, I started to notice the ugly dithered shadow work and wonky clipping of hair, belts and other loose clothing. As for the backgrounds? The less I speak about those hideous assets the better. They’re fun and feature nice touches here and there but it’s clear that they had to make sacrifices in order to keep the game running at 60 FPS.
I wouldn’t recommend Street Fighter V to many people. People dreaming of robust Mortal Kombat length single player campaigns or any significant single player offering will be left disappointed. But if you’re a fan of the competitive aspect of Street Fighter — playing against other players online or offline — Street Fighter V has a very basic representation of what you’re seeking. The core fighting feels fantastic and if you can find players to do battle with, you’re going to have a blast. I want both and thus it’s been a disappointment. I have faith that Capcom will deliver the product I want. I just wish they didn’t charge full price for it yet.
Verdict:
It’s okay
