PC Gamer - UK (2022-04)

Sifu is a singleplayer-only brawler

with just five levels, each of which

ends in a two-stage boss fight. Except

for the final boss’ annoying immunity

to certain attacks, there are no tricks.

The bosses can all be

defeated just like any

other opponent, and

the opening credits

even show you how to

fight them. When you

make it to the second

phase of a boss fight,

Sifu even restores all

your health. It’s so

charitable that every time I died, I

said a few short words of gratitude

through my clenched teeth.

You aren’t even out of the fight

when Sifu kills you. Thanks to a

magic talisman, the protagonist can

be resurrected on the spot, which

causes them to age one or more years

• the penalty increases each time the
  talisman is used. That gives you more
  than ten chances to kill all five bosses

while blowing through the hero’s 20s,

30s, 40s, 50s and 60s.

OLD BOY

At some point in their 70s, the

protagonist will use up

the talisman’s last

charge, and another

death will be game

over. That’s not too big

of a deal, because you

don’t have to beat all

five bosses in one run.

Once you’ve reached a

level, you can restart it

as many times as you want, always

beginning from the lowest age at

which you finished the previous level.

If you’re struggling to beat a boss –

the bloodthirsty, demonic museum

owner, for instance – one option is to

give yourself more leeway by

attempting to finish the previous

level at a younger age. You might

need to replay the level before that

level, too, though, and at that point

you may as well start from the

beginning and grind out some

permanent skill unlocks.

That’s the devilishness of Sifu:

when the way forward is too difficult,

you can always admit your

deficiencies and go back in time to do

better, drawing out what would

otherwise be a brief experience. Even

with unlockable shortcuts, most

levels contain a few encounters

before you reattempt the boss fight.

I don’t know if Sifu would be

possible before SSD times, because

even as it stands I think it takes too

long to restart a level, never mind get

back to the boss fight. It’s about

repetition, which makes any and all

forced lingering irritating. For

instance, there are pointless moments

where you’ve got to listen to an inane

line of dialogue and respond before

progressing – I do not need to ask

what the goddamn three trials are the

30th time I am doing the three trials!

• and there are beautiful but
  strangely long, unpopulated
  passageways everywhere you go.
  It’s irritating how compelling Sifu
  is in spite of all that. I can’t say that I
  was exactly happy to beat up the
  same nightclub bouncer 50 or so
  times on my way into the second
  level, but I didn’t feel I could accept
  defeat, either. And at least when my
  cortisol levels are within a normal
  range, beating up bouncers in Sifu is
  exceptionally fun.

FLURRY OF FISTS

All of your time in Sifu is spent

heading toward bosses or fighting

them, but they aren’t its best fights.

The boss battles are all one-on-one

bouts, and although I should

probably thank the videogame gods

that we’ve been spared a boss who

calls in waves of reinforcements, this

is one game where that might’ve

actually been good.

Beating solo enemies in Sifu

largely involves the same pattern

memorisation you can find back in

the NES era of gaming, with some

W

as Sifu’s final cutscene worth the frustration I endured

to see it? Not really, but at risk of sounding like I’m

quoting some misattributed kung fu aphorism, the

experience of mastering Sifu’s combat is what mattered

and I couldn’t get enough of it. That’s down to some of

the most enjoyable melee combat ever – fluid, funny, improvisational – and

a devilish structure that taunted me with its contemptible fairness.

BRAWLER REVIVAL

Become a kung fu master in SIFU

By Tyler Wilde

Beating up

bouncers in

Sifu is

exceptionally

fun

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

A challenging

singleplayer brawler

inspired by kung fu and

martial arts movies

EXPECT TO PAY

£32

DEVELOPER

Sloclap

PUBLISHER

Sloclap

REVIEWED ON

Intel Core i5-9600K,

16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX

2070 Super

MULTIPLAYER

No

LINK

sifugame.com

W A Y S

I DIED

You may find

that this chart

applies to other

games, too

1%

Fell down stairs.

3%

Got surrounded.

82%

Got tripped by a

low attack because

I didn’t do the

special dodge that

hops over those.

10%

Mistimed a dodge.

4%

Tried to get all

fancy like I’m Tony

Jaa or something.

Sifu

REVIEW