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Game Review: Hi- Fi Rush is a visual delight

Hi-Fi Rush demonstrates its love of current garage and alt-rock right away, opening with The Black Keys’ “Lonely Boy” to introduce the corny but adorable protagonist Chai and the colourful, high-tech industrialised world he lives in. Chai can see and feel the pulse of his music surging through the world around him, despite being labelled a “defect” by robotics megacorp Vandelay Industries when a medical error leaves him with an iPod trapped in his chest. From then, practically everything is brilliantly connected to the beat of Hi-Fi Rush’s music as this boyish clown bashes Vandelay robots with a handmade sword shaped like a Gibson Flying V.

Tango Gameworks’ highly innovative attempt was announced during Microsoft’s Developer Direct conference last week and published shortly after. There are aspects of action, platformer, rhythm, and side-scrolling games in this game, all kept together by a fantastic sense of style and striking visual choices.

This is a daring, brave game that succeeds on almost every level – and it’s also an eye-popping visual pleasure. It’s also the first big first-party Microsoft release in over a year, capping off a long period of exclusivity for Xbox products.

This is a brawler set to a drum rhythm. You take on the role of Chai, an exuberant adolescent who enrols in a nefarious pharmaceutical company’s biological enhancement programme. When an ancient iPod-style music player is connected to Chai’s chest, the procedure goes awry. You must shepherd Chai to safety before assisting him in taking down his oppressor. The landscape and everything in it pulses to the pace of the game’s soundtrack as you navigate through these Shibuya-inspired streets.

Attacks, for example, receive a benefit when performed to the beat, which is represented through idle animations, game environment and UI, as well as music. Similarly, enemy movements coincide to musical times, allowing you to predict their activities. The method is never overpowering and rapidly becomes second nature.

Enemies eventually grow in complexity with diverse attacking methods, and confrontations that mix and match enemy kinds can become chaotic. That can be an issue when Hi-Fi Rush adds in flame-wielding robots and electrified flooring, for example, but it’s enough for most encounters.

Because music is at the heart of Hi-Fi Rush’s design, anything that syncs to the rhythm via auditory cues is also reflected visually. For example, strong combo finishers known as Beat Hits employ coloured circles to signal precise timing, whereas large oncoming assaults leave AoE marks on the ground that change colour to the beat to indicate when they’ll fall. You may also use an on-screen metronome to help you keep track of time more precisely.

Environments in general highlight some of the game’s most inventive creative choices. Real-time lighting details are disguised into halftone comic-book style patterns, which are especially noticeable in bloom and screen-space reflections. Cross-hatched patterns are used to represent ambient occlusion. Real-time shadows have a rounded ‘gloopy’ appearance and dynamic transitions between shadow cascade levels. The outline shader is also active in ambient geometry, resulting in magnificent thick black silhouettes. Instead of geometry, backgrounds are frequently shown with strong 2D art. And there’s a lot of ambient animation going on at any given time, all in rhythm with the beat.

Unlike more traditional music games, even those with no sense of rhythm can join; flawless time only boosts the potency of your assaults. It’s quite easy to make mistakes, and regardless of when you click the button, the game changes the timings of your character’s movements to meet the beat, allowing even the most terrible player to feel skilled. Aside from the robot assassins, this is a world that is enjoyable to reside in and explore, made all the sweeter by its surprise appearance.

Hi-Fi Rush is without a doubt one of the most appealing games we’ll see in 2023 and is an incredible joy that everyone should try.

 

Harry S

harry

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