God Hand

1. plotlesviolence

   Apr 21, 2016

   10

   [OVERVIEW=10]
   One of the greatest 3D beat-em-ups ever made. Smooth, fast, and pure.
   [PRESENTATION=9] (Visuals=7) Anime-physics-influenced[OVERVIEW=10]
   One of the greatest 3D beat-em-ups ever made. Smooth, fast, and pure.
   
   [PRESENTATION=9]
   (Visuals=7) Anime-physics-influenced with rapidfire punching and characters launching across the room. Characters look…don’t know if “good” is the right word; let’s say, interesting; “Fist of the North Star”-ish, as if they’re all trying to start fights for dressing funny, which would fit the plot. Colorful environments, wonderful fighting animations.
   (Sound=7)
   (Physics=6) Screen shakes add to the impacts, much as in “RAD:Robot Alchemic Drive.” Doors/crates/chairs shatter, but no ragdolling. One section of one level has cloth physics curtains
   (Plot=9) It has that bizarre auteur-style plot in service to the chaotic setting and gameplay rather than coherence or believability. It certainly kept my attention, and I never used its skip feature.
   
   [CONTROLS/MECHANICS=10]
   (100% Melee Brawler/Beat’EmUp=10)
   You have Triangle and X attacks, a 6-hit sequence by repeatedly pressing square, and 3 more strikes by holding the L-stick back when pressing buttons. Movement is “tank” style (turning instead of strafing); double-tapping L-stick forward runs (FAST), enabling rushing attacks.
   Attacks follow the convention of speed being inversely proportional to power. Slower strikes can have effects that stagger, knock back, sweep surrounding enemies, launch into the air, or break through enemy blocking.
   You can pick up and use/throw objects/weapons, but you can’t throw enemies. Circle will pummel downed/staggered enemies. There are almost no QTE’s aside from waggling the L-stick to escape grabs.
   The dodging mechanic with the R stick is superb: press forward in perfect timing to duck, allowing a free hit, backwards or sideways to dash more safely.
   Play speed is extremely fast, so managing crowds requires excellent reflexes. The “feel” is just unparalleled, and while the game can get very hard (on “Easy”!), you are always in complete control.
   Special attacks and a Rage mode let you briefly but enjoyably decimate enemies every so often.
   (Physics=7) Enemies can accidentally hit each other, i.e., with rushing attacks, and you can knock enemies into each other.
   (Camera=5) A behind-the-back view focuses on the enemies in front, but you’re vulnerable to being blindsided from behind.
   (Friendly AI=6) If you rescue (and somehow avoid beating up) friendlies, they reward you with health/upgrades.
   (Enemy AI=9) Enemies are great at ganging up on you, hitting you while you’re mid-stomping a downed enemy or running to grab thrown objects, which encourages you to watch the upper-right-corner radar and keep dodging. Enemies have great variety and occasionally do 2-person combos; bosses are particularly interesting.
   
   [DESIGN=9]
   (Menus=6)
   (Level Design=7) Levels are nice and constrained, but there are a few interesting additions here and there to the “beat everyone up” objective, like stomping out a bomb’s fuse while fighting off enemies. There are some environmental hazards to knock enemies into (like chairs, a collapsing veranda, fire, or kicking them off rope bridges), but nothing on the order of, say, Madworld.
   (Difficulty Curve=0) “Normal” is just unreasonably, frustratingly hard, at least on a first playthrough. “Easy” is still hard, because difficulty goes up in realtime the better you do, killing you faster than (I) can improve. Enemies and crates drop health, but strangely you get no free health between levels. Checkpoints keep things do-able, but it badly needs quicksaving/quickloading, ideally mapped to the controller.
   (Upgrade System=9) You collect and swap out moves. At first I felt it was a needlessly complicated keybinding feature, but once you unlock more, there’s a lot of fun to be had tailoring and experimenting with different movesets. I put a fast fist combo on the square-sequence and different special properties on the remainder. It’s a mark of excellent design that there’s no way to rearrange moves to “cheapen” things: fast attacks eventually get blocked, causing you to stagger; slower moves get interrupted. You have to react fast enough to break guard or dodge as appropriate.
   (Modes=Singleplayer campaign (15 hours. 50% Padding)) The campaign stays interesting the entire playthrough, but I feel it’s “padded” because the difficulty makes you replay everything at least twice as often as is ideal. There’s also optional timed challenges in the levels and an “arena” mode.
   
   [CONCLUSION]
   It reminds me of Wii “Madworld” but way better. A “10” engages me to the point of obsession with unique gameplay that has never been surpassed by sequels, and while God Hand meets both criteria easily, I was still hesitant because of the frustrating difficulty. But it challenges God of War, Metal Gear:Revengeance, Ninja GaidenZ:Yaiba, and X-men Origins:Wolverine for the title of best singleplayer 3d beat-em-up on any system. While its creators went on to form Platinum games, a studio known for 3D beatemups, no Platinum game ever came close in quality.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
2. Qualityfinder

   Oct 4, 2012

   10

   Best beat em up game ever made. The best game Capcom ever had and it wont get another one like this cause they let go of the best game devsBest beat em up game ever made. The best game Capcom ever had and it wont get another one like this cause they let go of the best game devs that ever existed. The game is pure fun with solid soild gameplay.… Expand

   • 7 of 7 users found this helpful
4. Gear_Felipe_117

   Sep 12, 2019

   10

   A mí parece es uno de las joyas del PS2, lástima que muy pocas personas lo conocen ya que merecía mucha más atención. Además nuevamente ShinjiA mí parece es uno de las joyas del PS2, lástima que muy pocas personas lo conocen ya que merecía mucha más atención. Además nuevamente Shinji Mikami demostrando porque es un genio...… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
5. [Anonymous]

   Jan 16, 2008

   10

   This game is hilariously underrated, and anyone turned off by negative reviews should give it a second thought. Initially, you may be turned This game is hilariously underrated, and anyone turned off by negative reviews should give it a second thought. Initially, you may be turned off by the fact that the game essentially throws you right into the middle of things, with no idea of what to do, but tinker around with it, and you'll find a rewarding combo system, with clever (albeit irreverant) humor and dialog. Plus the soundtrack is great.… Expand

   • 1 of 2 users found this helpful
6. grimreapersims

   Jan 2, 2022

   10

   ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................blank… Expand

   • 1 of 1 users found this helpful
7. SomeOne

   Apr 8, 2009

   9

   God Hand is a fantastic game. The fact that you can fully customise your combos and movelist means that you can change the game to match YOUR God Hand is a fantastic game. The fact that you can fully customise your combos and movelist means that you can change the game to match YOUR fighting style more than ever before. This is a good thing because the game is challenging, and unlike some games where button mashing may get you somewhere, button mashing in God Hand won't even get you past the first few enemies. It requires real skill, and when you become one with the fighting engine and start dominating with combos that you created yourself it's incredibly satisfying. The characters and dialogue are so funny I was in stitches for most of the game. There are heaps of other great ideas in this game, for example instead of only getting upgrade points through fighting, you can take them to a casino and try to increase the amount. 300 points short of a new upgrade? Go to the Blackjack table and get that upgrade sooner rather than later! You can even bet on Chihuahua Races, which is so much fun it could be a game on it's own. The graphics aren't high quality (great art style though) but the sound definitely is! I'm totally addicted to this game, I got it for 24 Aussie dollars and it's paid for itself ten times over already! I think Edge put it best when they said you will either love it or hate it, but either way you have to play it at least once. So go play it!… Expand

   • 1 of 2 users found this helpful
8. hyun8801

   Dec 21, 2020

   0

   face paced action game with **** camera and auto lockon working against you all the **** time. **** user scores, this is a **** game

   • 0 of 8 users found this helpful

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