If you’re a frequent user of Steam, you may have noticed that there’s a so-called Steam Next Fest going on that encourages you to check out the various indie games that are coming out soon. Midnight Fight Express is one of those games that Steam suggested to me, and after watching the trailer and skimming through the store page, my chin dropped in disbelief. When I wanted to see what other promising game developers were responsible for instead of a game studio, only one name looked out to me – Jacob Dzvinel.
So not only is the trailer for this isometric thresher so adrenaline-pumping and cinematic that no indie studio would be embarrassed for doing so, but it’s only one person working on it? I can not believe this. I downloaded and tried the demo without hesitation and I’ll tell you – Midnight Fight Express doesn’t look violent on the trailer. He is cruel.
- Platform: PC (Verified), Playstation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch
- Publication date: August 23
- Producer: Jacob Dzvinel
- Genre: Beat them
- Czech location: Not
- Multiplayer: Not
- Price: not yet determined, demo available on PC via Steam
First rule of wrestling club
The most accurate way to describe the history of Midnight Fight Express is that it was just one. You are a maniac with a harsh name Babyface, who is being interrogated by a couple of detectives after you have demolished half the city and killed a bunch of people. The game itself is actually this big flashback where you tell the police what really happened. A talking drone came to your apartment, you found out that you were a sleeper agent, you activated and you had to go out and destroy all the gangs that had grown up in the city. And since you’re a certified badass, you just walked out and started kicking ass.
The demo only offers three levels plus a tutorial, the whole walkthrough will take you about 20 minutes, so the story doesn’t have a chance to start meaningfully, however, it probably won’t be the strongest part of the game. The game lacks any spoken dialogue and you only rely on reading speech bubbles. When you clear a room full of enemies, action-electronic music plays in your ears, you take a revolver from the ground and burst into another room, you don’t want to read text like “In a cut-scene” And who are you? Guys for him! You just want to break in and kick their asses. Dialogues just get out of rhythm and after a while they start to get in the way. But the developer certainly knows about this, and in the settings you have the option to turn off conversations completely, which will come in handy for replaying the game.
Stop and you won’t survive
All the best Midnight Fight Express sites can be summed up in one word – fluency. Jacob Dzvinel did a great job with the animation. Light shaking of the camera and flash, swirling dust and the very reactions of the enemy to blows – all this creates the impression that the attacks have weight, the fights are natural and cinematic. Individual combos follow each other so well that you can still press the same button to attack and it still looks good. Although you will often die with this tactic on higher difficulty, at least you will look dumb.
Attacks have weight, combat is natural and cinematic.
In such a game with a simple premise and gameplay, there is a risk that after a while the game will feel repetitive. Of course, it’s hard to judge from this short demo, but if the whole game is in the same vein and keeps its leisurely pace, then we have nothing to worry about. Not only do you constantly encounter new types of enemies and unlock new combos from a large skill tree, the game also throws you various obstacles that are thematically related to the changing environment. In the final level of the demo, for example, you’re running across the roof of a train, and not only do you have to fight waves of enemies, but you also have to avoid being shot by a sniper who’s firing at you from a helicopter. This cut from the action moment with Tom Cruise perfectly illustrates what the Midnight Fight Express adrenaline ride will be like.
The feeling that something new is still happening on the screen is also helped by an excellent soundtrack that will set you in the right driving mood. Each level has its own track, and since Noisecream provides over 40 exclusive songs for the game, repetitive music tracks are unlikely.
Individual thread
What also pleasantly surprised me in the game is the wide range of customization options … well, actually, everything. By that I don’t just mean the look of your character that you can dress up, tattoos and the like. You can also set your own game difficulty to suit you exactly. You can choose how aggressive the enemies will be, what percentage of damage they deal, how much life you have, whether your health regenerates or if you try to humiliate the entire level on one health bar… Do you want to relax after a long day and play with style Midnight Fight Express will offer you this. Also, during the game, I never once felt that the game was unfair – for every death I could do it myself as a player, and not be killed by an enemy behind the scenes, poor controls or a bug.
You can also set your own game difficulty.
Looking at the extensive customization options, one is surprised that the game lacks a very simple choice of brightness and gamma, which is very disappointing because the game looks washed out in places. But it shouldn’t be something that can’t be easily fixed with a quick patch. Graphics flaws can be minimalistic character models where it’s hard to judge if this is an intentional art style or just the limit one developer is working towards on a game. However, given the camera angle and the pace of the game itself, this is not a serious problem. I dare say that even the lowest graphical details look good in the game, because visually the game is drawn not by textures and shadows, but by animations, camera movements, slow motion and hectic action. It’s just that the game looks much better in motion than it does in pictures, so you probably won’t use the photo mode that the game offers much. On the other hand, you will start the game even with weak groups.
See you baby
From the above lines, an attentive reader probably understood that the game pleasantly surprised me and there is little to reproach her with. Based on the demo, the story serves no purpose other than to justify tearing down half the city, but let’s be honest, no one will buy Midnight Fight Express for its storyline. This game is just an action game in a playful way, he knows it very well and makes it his biggest advantage. Any criticism is easily overshadowed by the fact that this is the work of one independent developer, and the short demo itself deserves credit. If the rest of the game is like this, this game certainly has the potential to be one of the hot dogs of indie action movies like Miami Hotline, My Friend Pedro or Superhot. Jacob, take off your hat.
Source :Indian TV
