Killer Instinct | Review Thread

So basically all these reviews are of a demo of a game that will come out unfinished at launch.

So a 10 from polygon then! lol

The game looks great but without a full set of features and characters, not sure what score it should get. How do you score a game that doesn't have everything available yet? I would think you score it on whats available rather than what is coming, so if this game is getting 8s and 9s based on what it currently has, it must be one HELL of a fighter game
 
So a 10 from polygon then! lol

The game looks great but without a full set of features and characters, not sure what score it should get. How do you score a game that doesn't have everything available yet? I would think you score it on whats available rather than what is coming, so if this game is getting 8s and 9s based on what it currently has, it must be one HELL of a fighter game

Score it based on 0 - 5 Funs.
 
Pleased to see you bring all this up, I was pleasantly surprised at the scores but I didn't have time to read the meat of them. Glad I didn't bother.

On a broader scale, what you spell out here touches on what I dislike about most reviews nowadays. It's like having a car review that stops with, "Yeah it goes fast, you can reach 100 miles an hour eventually if you really feel like, steering wheel works like it's supposed to, and you can rest assured it comes in red. For those who don't like sweating, air conditioning is standard. Looks nice with a girl on it. 8/10" Good analysis of systems and their functionality and even fundamental things like control schemes seem underrepresented in most reviews, unless I'm looking in all the wrong places.

That said, I'm waaaaay out of the loop for tournament play and I don't want to sound like I'm pretending I am, so this realistically might be good enough for me to fool with whenever I get an Xbone.

My review (USGamer) covers quite a bit of detail about the game system.

The reviews so far seem fair aside from the lack of online impressions. Hope the netcode is ace. The game obviously would've scored higher if it weren't for the lack of content, which will be added over time. I'm fine with that.

As far as I can tell, I was one of the few people who played online. I had absolutely no issues playing online, so I don't know what the problem was for anyone else.

As someone who really, really dislikes online play for any fighting games other than Tekken Tag 2 and Soul Calibur 5, I can safely say KI netcode is top notch... at least under the current network conditions.
 
Priorities I guess. With the short dev time they probably hat to cut shit.

Exactly, which is probably why the list of initial characters is small and not many game modes included....at the moment. Doing this gave them more time to polish the game and make sure the balance was right and the game was actually fun to play. If they had tried to cram in 14+ fighters and single player mode whilst flushing out the online side of things i can safety say that the product we have currently would be no where near as good and would have reviewed badly. Least this way they can add stuff over time and build upon a solid foundation!

For me such a small initial roster is a refreshing change, as usually when i see a character select screen for recent fighters i feel over whelmed least with KI we can hone our skills on probably all 8 characters easily and will give a much more balance and enjoyable online community!
 
This soundtrack is blowing my mind right now, i loved reading Micks bio -

19 years ago I played my first round of Killer Instinct in a dark, smokey pub in Capella, a small town in central Queensland, Australia. This amazing game, and the amazing music by Robin Beanland & Graham Norgate, inspired me into a career of music for video games.

Seems like this guy really poured himself into the game. Also, Spinal's theme is going to be amazing.
 
Exactly, which is probably why the list of initial characters is small and not many game modes included....at the moment. Doing this gave them more time to polish the game and make sure the balance was right and the game was actually fun to play. If they had tried to cram in 14+ fighters and single player mode whilst flushing out the online side of things i can safety say that the product we have currently would be no where near as good and would have reviewed badly. Least this way they can add stuff over time and build upon a solid foundation!

For me such a small initial roster is a refreshing change, as usually when i see a character select screen for recent fighters i feel over whelmed least with KI we can hone our skills on probably all 8 characters easily and will give a much more balance and enjoyable online community!

I agree 100%. Starting small and adding characters over time will probably mean that I will end up maining more characters than I do in other fighters. This is a good thing imo.
 
Fighting game reviews are the worst. The reviewers never know a damn thing about fighting games. IMO, watch some videos of this game in action to make your decision. You will get more out of that than anything you read in one of these reviews. Or come talk about it in the Fighting Games Weekly thread.
 
Very surprised that a couple of the reviews claim the graphics look like a 360 game...thats a bit of a stretch lol.
 
Very surprised that a couple of the reviews claim the graphics look like a 360 game...thats a bit of a stretch lol.

I dunno, to me it looks like a 360 game with obnoxiously loud and overcompensating particles. But now they can do those particles!
 
Very surprised that a couple of the reviews claim the graphics look like a 360 game...thats a bit of a stretch lol.

I think the graphical complaints are moreso that it doesn't look far enough above a 360 game. Like, had this been announced for xbox 360 I wouldn't think much of it other then "hey that looks pretty nice for a 360 game". Obviously though, if it were really running on xbox 360 instead you'd see tons of subtle changes that would add up to a large overall difference. Characters would have much more compressed textures, the particle effects would look almost turned off in comparison , backgrounds wouldn't look nearly as lively with fewer moving parts etc etc.

Compare Mortal Kombat on 360 to this to get a clearer picture of what the differences really are. As with most improvements of this sort, playing KI for a few hours then popping MK back in will make the improvements more obvious.


Loving that sound cloud link.
 
I dunno, to me it looks like a 360 game with obnoxiously loud and overcompensating particles. But now they can do those particles!

Look at it in person. This game looks nothing like a 360 game. From the launch games I've seen, the only game that looks better graphically is Forza.
 
It appears none of the reviews critize the actual core of the game. Only the small roster and the unpolished 1st player and multiplayer modes.

The moment you hear "Round 1", it is bliss until you need to see a menu again and realize you can't have a spectator lobby and whatnot. The training mode is also divine. The netcode was also praised. Good signs that the FG fans were the #1 priority.

That said, the game *was* rushed to meet launch and it is paying a heavy price for it in the reviews.

I think there is too much missing content for a patch. It'll be at least a year before KI...err...achieves its final super sayajin form.

DH acknowleges all that with the low, low, really low price. This game is an excellent value.
 
It's weird, I said KI is my most anticiped game for the line up, and now I'm watching an old ER episode and guess what:

qAkPl0R.png

Coincidence? I don't think so! :D
 
DrDogg said:
As far as I can tell, I was one of the few people who played online. I had absolutely no issues playing online, so I don't know what the problem was for anyone else.

As someone who really, really dislikes online play for any fighting games other than Tekken Tag 2 and Soul Calibur 5, I can safely say KI netcode is top notch... at least under the current network conditions.

That's great to hear, man. I have no concerns whatsoever and now I'm just waiting to get my hands on the game.
 
I dunno, to me it looks like a 360 game with obnoxiously loud and overcompensating particles. But now they can do those particles!

I think it looks great for what it is, but the resolution greatly hurts it. 720p really bothers me now. Even 900p I think would have made a big difference.
 
It's weird, I said KI is my most anticiped game for the line up, and now I'm watching an old ER episode and guess what:



Coincidence? I don't think so! :D
IIRC the KI1 arcade was featured on an episode of ER as well.
 
I think they reviewed the complete launch build of the game

"Though it lacks an arcade mode or a full-sized character roster, Killer Instinct delivers where it counts."

"Once the rest of the add-ons are actually finished, this could even be one of the best titles in fighting games."

"It's just a shame that Killer Instinct feels incomplete, even if it's by design. "

Kinda wrong to give such a high note for a game without story mode and part of the chars, as good as the gameplay looks
 
"Though it lacks an arcade mode or a full-sized character roster, Killer Instinct delivers where it counts."

"Once the rest of the add-ons are actually finished, this could even be one of the best titles in fighting games."

"It's just a shame that Killer Instinct feels incomplete, even if it's by design. "

Kinda wrong to give such a high note for a game without story mode and part of the chars, as good as the gameplay looks

but thats the launch build of the game. What more do you want them to do?
 
but thats the launch build of the game. What more do you want them to do?

Well a lot more could have been given to players from the start, that would be if development started early or if the finished game was supposed to be rushed. Having a full fledged KI at launch would have been amazing. What we have is great though and I will be buying day one. However, I can't help but think that given the proper development time we could have had a full fledged fighting game that would be a killer app for the Xbox One right at launch.
 
Well a lot more could have been given to players from the start, that would be if development started early or if the finished game was supposed to be rushed. Having a full fledged KI at launch would have been amazing. What we have is great though and I will be buying day one. However, I can't help but think that given the proper development time we could have had a full fledged fighting game that would be a killer app for the Xbox One right at launch.

oh I agree with you but I meant what more did he want the Reviewer to do. He/she obviously was only able to review the product available and isn't capable of going to the future and playing stuff that will be out 3-6 months from now.
 
It's baffling that people value story modes in fighters that much. It is so strange to me.

Ironically fighting games tend to have better storylines than most "cinematic" games. At least games like MK KI have storylines that make sense and there is a coherent lore.
 
Awesome score. I want to jump onto this hype train.

Hop in buddy!! We need more people aboard

Except as an actual thing, its not free-to-play!

From the man himself:

k4LRJfF.jpg


Once the rest of the add-ons are actually finished, this could even be one of the best titles in fighting games.

Wow. It's a shame MS didn't get started on this game earlier, because it's only the lack of features hurting the scores.[/QUOTE]

**crosses fingers

I dunno, to me it looks like a 360 game with obnoxiously loud and overcompensating particles. But now they can do those particles!

You should get those eyes checked buddy.

Kinda wrong to give such a high note for a game without story mode and part of the chars, as good as the gameplay looks

Yeah no. See MAHVEL, SF3rd, SSF2T. Those games had the worst or no story at all and are the most played and with the largest community

It's baffling that people value story modes in fighters that much. It is so strange to me.

EXACTLY. To me FG's are about kicking someone else ass.
 
Didn't one review mention something about poor sound design....?

What

The

Fuck.

It's easily some of the best music I've heard for a game in a long time.

well sound design isn't just about composed music. it takes a lot more things into consideration like sound effects and how everything balances out.
 
This game is causing me troubles.

I really dont care for the Xbox one, but I loved KI 1 and 2 on the arcade and console ......... but its double helix......... I dont know, I dont know...... and I live in Japan so who knows if ever I'll see the xbox one here......... and If I get it the lag will be terrible because maybe 3 people here would be buying it and most of the matches will be online to the US.

I dont know....
 
This game is causing me troubles.

I really dont care for the Xbox one, but I loved KI 1 and 2 on the arcade and console ......... but its double helix......... I dont know, I dont know...... and I live in Japan so who knows if ever I'll see the xbox one here......... and If I get it the lag will be terrible because maybe 3 people here would be buying it and most of the matches will be online to the US.

I dont know....

idk man, I just don't know............

BUY IT
 
I'm in for the $20 for sure, but for as much as I'd like that old school KI, I don't think I convince myself that $40 is worth the upgrade. Either way, game looks fucking great.
 
well sound design isn't just about composed music. it takes a lot more things into consideration like sound effects and how everything balances out.

I've watched countless streams of the game being played and one thing that always stood out was how great the game sounded. It's not just about the music but how great the hits sound, how hype the announcer is and the most impressive thing - how the ultra combo's change the music.

I have a hard time believing anybody with any kind of KI experience or any kind of knowledge of Killer Cuts could not praise just how fantastic Mick Gordon's work is. I can understand the complaints about the lack of content, the small roster and even no story mode but the sound? opinions really can be very wrong.
 
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