Hi Fi Rush Review
With the abysmal year that Microsoft had released almost zero major exclusives for all of 2022, many fans were expecting some sort of news being dropped in the Developer Direct in late January. Even though most people felt that the direct was solid in what was announced there was one game that got a lot of people talking. Hi Fi Rush in its preview showed off some interesting mechanics and cool concepts, but when developers announced that the game would drop the instant the presentation ended, people were skeptical. I mean let’s be real how many direct to DVD movies come out as hits?
If you were to tell me that by the end of January that Xbox would shadow drop a Tango Gameworks title that was as cartoonish as Sunset Overdrive and it would be a banger, I would have told you that you were crazy. Hi Fi Rush is fun to play title with great art design, a killer soundtrack, and a well-paced story that keeps you wanting more from the studio. Taking the gaming industry by surprise was a definite plus but the question is how good is Hi Fi Rush overall? Is it a sleeper hit of 2023? Is it worth buying? In my review, I give the good, and the bad, and answer these questions in my final verdict.
Setting the Stage
Right from the start, Hi Fi Rush hits us with the connection to alternative rock with some classic tunes like “Lonely Boy” to introduce us to our main protagonist Chai and the colorful, high-tech robotic world of Vandelay Industries. We get hit with a cheesy dialog which gives the players a sense that the comedy of the game will be following these basic concepts. Trying to get a new robotic arm through the Arm-Strong project in the hopes of making himself a “rockstar” is funny despite the fact that Chai doesn’t even know how to play the guitar.
In the process of surgical altering Chai, he is labeled as a defect due to a mishap that implanted his iPod into his chest giving Chai powers to feel the pulse of his music coursing through the world around him. From this point on, all aspects of the game including combat, cutscenes, and music are tied to the rhythm set by the world around you. As the world tries to erase you as a defect, Chai needs to fight his way out of Vandelay Industries. This playful setup creates a defining tone of the game which only gets better the further you get through the story.
The Good
The Gameplay
The combat of Hi Fi Rush is very impressive. Usually, when you have a good part of your combat system synched to rhythm-based mechanics, most games like Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory or Beat Saber, feel more niche in its design and do not usually last long in playtime. However, Hi Fi Rush destroys this argument and literally finds a perfect way to combine the rhythm-based mechanics directly into its combat. Making it not essential to play the game by hitting enemies to the beat but adding it as a supplemental reward for those that can synch their attacks to the rhythm.
For those that are fearing that this is just a button-mashing fest, don’t worry there is no need to fear. Hi Fi Rush has a massive amount of possible combination attacks that are added together to make the game feel very fast-paced and fun to try different ways to engage opponents. The gameplay sort of feels like a combination between Devil May Cry and Persona 5 Strikers in the ways to combat your enemies. Being able to hit chains of attacks to increase your ranking for the overall fight gets you more money to buy new combinations so the incentive is to get to S tier each time.
Allies Expand the Field
Once you start to gain allies your combat starts to get even more diverse since you can now include different chains of moves together which will make fights more fun. The enemies you face are also varied enough which it makes it feel very diverse in how you plan to fight enemies since you need to be strategic in how you engage. Over time as you start to learn new mechanics like parrying and grappling, it really makes the game come full circle with what you can do. Throughout my completion, I never once felt like I was just button-mashing through opponents. Each combat scenario gives you many ways to play and you have to give Tango Gameworks a lot of credit there for making it feel fresh.
The Story
The Story and overall writing of the narrative of Hi Fi Rush is a strong points of this game. Obviously, the story is straightforward with your ultimate goal of just trying to survive and escaping Vandelay Industries. However, in the process of you escaping killer robots, you find out there are deeper and darker forces at work that could drastically impact the world. So with the help of your allies, who are all moles within the company, you try to expose the truth of what is happening and put a stop to the major problems you find along the way.
The Characters
What makes the story good is mainly the writing of the characters. Chai is a goofy, carefree guy that only cares about becoming a rockstar because of his love of music. One of those characters that you just have to like. Peppermint is one of those badass characters that is considered the brains of the operation that leads the charge on most of the plans. The banter between her and Chai is the closest we see to the basic odd couple relationship that is always butting heads but quickly turns into a strong friendship.
Macaron is a big softie that looks like he can take down any enemy but is more of a pacifist. Kind of like the caring dad of the crew. Last we have CNMN which is the comic relief that basically drops in one-liners to amplify situations. Of course, we can’t forget about 808 which is the cat that accompanies Chai through the journey and functions as the communicator that brings the crew along with you.
The Crew you Keep
The crew we develop in Hi FI Rush is the best part of the character development because each one has its own themes as well as the charm that fits perfectly in this world. The dialog between each of them is flawless and you have to give a lot of credit to Tango Gameworks for pairing these voice actors the way they do.
The Antagonists
The Antagonists you face off against in the story in my opinion are top-notch. Each major villain in Vandelay Industries represents the bosses of the different sectors of a corporation. Rekka the head of Production, is a brutal and aggressive leader that rules her section with an iron fist and seems similar to a pro wrestler. Zanzo the head of R&D, is over the top with his antics basically mirroring a CEO that can come up with a big idea but never knowing the details of how.
Korisca the head of Security, seems to be the most ignorant of the group but is more about justice and keeping order. Mimosa the head of marketing, turns everything into a show for the sake of putting the spotlight on her and Kale. Roquefort is the head of the budget cut throat businessman that is more than willing to slash budgets and his enemies. Lastly, Kale the head of the company believes the evil things he is doing is for the right but never understands the moral implications of his actions.
Themes of Characters
Each villain was written brilliantly due to the fact that they represent the theme of modern-day corporations and the flaws they possess. Tango Gameworks devs came out recently discussing these themes and most people can associate in some way with understanding how true some of these tropes are. But the best part about these antagonists is that they have great banter and the writing for each is done well. It’s difficult to find good characters in general but if you can land not only on both protagonists and antagonists then you have a banger there. The dialog between all characters is great and keeps the tone from start to finish.
The Soundtrack
For a game that is all about music, it clearly shows how damn good Hi Fi Rush’s soundtrack is. Each area as well as the major boss battle has a specific track that matches the theme of each situation. Having multiple types of alternative rock bands like Nine Inch Nails and The Black Keyes, on the official soundtrack gives Hi Fi Rush a much-appreciated boost in great music. Even if you are not a fan of the bands, Tango Gameworks also created their own soundtrack which does a great job for each level. The goal of any soundtrack is to elevate each situation and Hi Fi Rush’s music does that exactly, whether it is a cutscene with some characters or an all-out brawl, the music hits it right.
The World Moves with the Beat
What’s even more impressive about the soundtrack is that the entire world revolves around each song. Chai snaps his fingers, moving in combat, even the trees bump around based on the beat of the song. I can’t even imagine the amount of work it must take to have the entire world based around the same beat. Like we have developers that can’t even get the simplest cutscene to actually function without lag or sound stupid and you have Hi Fi Rush make an entire world revolve around the beat of a song.
The soundtrack is killer, and I was heavily impressed with the many songs used throughout. They amplify the situation and make combat and cutscenes better for it. Imagine people trying to find ways to rag on the soundtrack. Like do you not have a soul? The music of Hi Fi Rush may not go down as the most legendary soundtrack out there, but I can guarantee there is no other game out that has utilized the mechanics of rhythm as well as this game has.
The Art Style
One of the best aspects of Hi Fi Rush is the art style. I’m always a sucker for games that use good animation with a wide array of the color canvas. I might be making a bold claim here, but Hi Fi Rush has some of the best animations in games I have ever seen. Hi Fi Rush emphasizes the comic book/manga style of animation that shows characters that are very expressive with emotions but the goofiness of the game only is highlighted by the art style as a whole.
What you will see throughout the game is that when there are cutscenes they have the exact same animation as the combat sections, so it literally feels like you are always in a cutscene throughout the entire game. Throughout the world, you see how expressive every aspect of the level is by the use of rhythm to make everything pop. The color palettes and themes of each level really are impressive.
Addressing Criticisms
People like to rag on next-gen consoles for having games that focus on animation but there have been bangers that have followed a similar art style and have been rated extremely high. The game reminds me of Sunset Overdrive and Persona 5 in its art style due to the excellent animation and just overall fun world that just keeps you playing. The game gives you the vibes of a classic PS2, Xbox game which did bring me back into memory lane.
The Bad
Only Next Gen
Even if there isn’t much worse in this game, one of the things that surprised me was that this was only released on next-gen consoles. Some people have mentioned their criticism of Hi Fi Rush for not being that demanding on your console but only being available to release the game on next-gen consoles is kind of confusing. I understand that at some point you are trying to get people to buy Series X/S’s to play your new games which is smart but this game most likely would have made even more money on all consoles if it was dropped on the previous gen as well. I think being strategic with the games that can be released would be beneficial to Microsoft overall.
The argument that I can see being the main reason why they don’t include it on the Xbox One is mainly due to the way the cutscenes operate in this game. There are absolutely no loading times in this game, most likely due to the fact that the game isn’t as demanding plus the next-gen consoles make it easy to accomplish this feat. Having a cutscene with your allies and then changing right to the combat scenario is what gives this game that immersive feeling and it seems like it’s not likely that would have worked as well on old consoles compared to what we see now.
Platforming Can Feel Clunky
One of the only issues I saw with the movement and gameplay of Hi Fi Rush was at times it felt sort of felt clunky. I overall love the combat of the game but there were times when platforming moments were difficult mainly because jumping and camera angles were a little out of wack. At times this did feel like an older game where jumping from platform to platform was a little tough so I would fall to my death or miss a timed dodge for that reason.
I can say the same thing when it comes to the lack of a lock-on mechanic in combat scenarios. I think the fight-to-fight sequences of this game were fantastic but if I were to give any criticism it has to be that most fighting games give you the ability to lock on a specific opponent when targeting moves but this game does not have that. There were times my allies targeted the wrong opponent, or I was swinging blindly at space because I did not have a specific target. These issues are only minor and did not alter my gaming experience so overall the gameplay was fantastic.
Final Verdict
When analyzing Hi Fi Rush I can tell right away that this game is very polished and deserves a lot of praise. How often can you say that a game that was shadow-dropped can be as successful as this one? Tango Gameworks said that this was a passion project for them, and they were excited to get this out to the public to see what they had in store.
The gameplay was fantastic, and they intertwined the concepts of rhythm seamlessly throughout the entire game. The story was fun, and the characters steal the show, and it makes me want to see more of them in the hopes of a possible sequel. The music and art style were out of this world with stunning animations that set the bar high for future releases. There were moments when the platforming can be clunky at times but overall, it was an amazing experience that really impressed me in my completion.
Rating
I’m giving Hi Fi Rush a 9 out of 10. You have to give Tango Gameworks props for dropping a fire game to start the year. I honestly can say that I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a sleeper pick as a game-of-the-year contender.
Should you Buy it?
This is a must-buy, especially on retail it is only $30. Hitting in the top 10 on Steam in its first week and outpacing other major AAA games leaving them in the dust. Haters are going to hate but this game will be a game that people will remember for a long time!
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