Def Jam Fight For New York review

Fight for NY is the latest in the Def Jam beat-em-up franchise. In a surprise move for EA they haven’t just tweaked Vendetta, they’ve actually invested some time and effort in revamping the game for this new outing. Not just older characters, new arenas and a couple of new fighters, Fight for NY adds plenty of new characters, arenas and a story mode. The story mode provides most of the single player action with the multiplayer and practice being catered for by the one-off match types.

Fighting Talk

In the story mode you take the role of a new fighter who must earn the respect of the others he fights with. You do this by taking on a series of one-on-one fights against opponents from other gangs. These take place at a variety of venues where you fight two or three opponents and then take on a final fighter who is only unlocked once you have defeated the others. Some times you’ll be able to enter free for alls or team battles but the bulk is played out as one-on-ones. Between certain fights you get the opportunity to have extra matches, too, and these might be to win a girl from another fighter or to defeat an opponent after being bad-mouthed in the story.

The story is relayed through cut scenes and text and voice messages left on your phone. These relate how your gang is losing to the other gang. The story goes that to return your gang to the top you have to win clubs by beating all of the fighters from each club. It’s not terribly plausible but somehow manages to still be compelling and both the characters in the scenes act respectably and the voice acting is also passable. The story is helped out by the action, which manages to be addictive by making the fights seem almost impossible but not so impossible that you give up. A difficult balance, which Fight for NY seems to strike.

Taking Control

The controls for Def Jam are only explained very rudimentary in the instructions leaving you to find out the intricacies of the system as you play. You can pick up tactics from the other fighters who tend to pick one tactic and repeat it over and over and you are given control tips between fights from your trainer. As you win fights you get points to level up your character in strength, speed and toughness and these points can also be used to learn extra moves and styles.

You can master up to three of the five available fighting styles in any combination from Kick Boxing, Martial Arts, Wrestling, Street Fighting and Submission. This means that you can focus on grappling with some striking or you can focus on striking with some grappling. As you progress the opponents always manage to stay one step ahead of you but your fighting ability does reflect the points you spend in levelling up.

Getting Suited

Part of the story in Fight for NY allows you to select clothes and jewellery from available brand name gear. You purchase this with the prize money you win and as the game progresses better merchandise becomes available. Changing outfit, hairstyle or tattoos shows on your character in mugshots, cut scenes and during the fights. This gives you a sense of ownership of the character as your choices actually affect the presentation of the game. They also affect the outcome of the fights as the crowd are more impressed with a fighter wearing the latest gear. As the crowd gets behind your character a momentum bar increases and, when it’s full, you can perform a “Blazin’” move. These are special moves that you learn by beating opponents or by buying them with your experience points. The better, more expensive, ones do more damage but they’re all impressive.

The combat in Fight for NY is tough. As I’ve mentioned, the opponents always seem to be one step ahead of you in terms of training. This makes tactics very important. The opponents are at they’re most dangerous if they can get control of the match. If you can keep your opponent on their toes with lots of quick strikes followed up with grapples then you can keep the match going your way. The problem comes when the opponents do that to you. They’re extremely good at countering which isn’t easy for you to do to them and they fight very well. This helps to keep you involved with the fight as having your opponent just about to be finished before they turn take control and end up winning is frustrating but makes the fights compulsive.

Fighting Friends

Fight for NY supports up to 4 players on a single console. This allows you to have one-on-one fights, two-on-two team fights and up to 4 people in a free for all. The fights play the same in multi player as they do in single player except that you fight as characters from the single player game. More of these are unlocked as you progress along with additional arenas. You can also unlock soundtrack tunes in the single player game that you can select.

Fight For NY is undoubtedly a great fighting game. The story, characterisation and difficulty level all make this a compelling title. The characters are well animated although there are a few animations missing such as lying right up against an object where the characters head goes inside it. The sound is good with Hip-Hop tunes on the soundtrack and decent voice acting, while the multiplayer mode is fun and adds some extra life into this title. There is much to recommend here and very little to criticise. EA have broken their mould of rehashing the same thing year on year (although I might take that back next year!) and created a rich title that improves significantly on its predecessor.