Hi-Fi Rushsucceeds largely on its mix of third-person action and rhythm game elements, set in a visual style reminiscent of anime and Saturday morning cartoons. Add to that the fact it was shadow dropped by Bethesda and Tango Gameworks at the same time it was announced, and it’s no surprise thatHi-Fi Rushis quickly turning out to be one of 2023’s early surprise hits.
Despite all its mini-games, the main method of interacting withHi-Fi Rush’s world is still its third-person combat. As protagonist Chai, players chain light and heavy attacks while mixing in grapples, partner attacks, and special attacks.It feels veryDevil May Cry-esque, but whileHi-Fi Rush’s combat allows for a wide range of player expression, its training room isn’t available until later than it probably should be.
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Hi-Fi Rush Offers Players a Ton of Freedom
BecauseHi-Fi Rush’s combat is a unique blend of third-person hack-and-slash components and rhythm game mechanics, it spends a great deal of time teaching its users how to play properly. Hitting attacks, parrying, and dodging is easy enough for fans of action games, but it can be difficult to time everything with each level’s unique beat. To this end,Hi-Fi Rushgoes the extra mile by making its backgrounds, animations, HUD, and evenplayers' PlayStation, Xbox, and third-party controllers move to the tempo.
Even with these elements in place,Hi-Fi Rush’s combat can be daunting to learn. The game’s combos rely on memorization and proper timing, with some of the strongest combos in the late game requiring multiple button presses at various lengths. These longer combos don’t build on past moves, forcing players to commit new combo strings to memory while risking the possibility of forgetting older ones.
Entering Hi-Fi Rush’s Training Room
By talking with Peppermint afterTrack 3: Trial By (Volcanic) Fire, players can enter a safe area that allows them to practice Chai’s moves at their leisure. Gameplay modifiers like an infinite Reverb gauge and enemy invincibility can be turned on, making it easier to wail on foes without pause. There is even a handy menu that allows players to pull up purchased combos on their HUD so that they can practice different timing executions.
Withall the advantages a Training Room providesfor typical action games, it is a shame thatHi-Fi Rushblocks access to it until Track 3.Hi-Fi Rush’s chapters tend to be quite, long and seeing as there are 12 total, having to make it through a fourth of the game before accessing the Training Room puts many players at a disadvantage. Those who are having trouble with the game’s combat have little choice but to practice their moves on campaign enemies. These foes get progressively harder as the narrative progresses, with Track 3 mixing more enemy variants with increased numbers in multiple waves.
It would be great if the game made its Training Room available as soon as it started introducing more chainable moves like grapples and partner attacks. While short tutorials are available for these moves throughout the campaign by talking to Smidge the training robot, doing so requires a lot of backtracking through the earlier levels. Considering how important it is to getHi-Fi Rush’s combat down to enjoy the game,Tango Gameworks should have given a bit more thoughtto the Training Room’s accessibility.
Hi-Fi Rushis available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
