F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch

The Chinese developer has received strong support from Sony in recent years through the China Hero Project program organized by Sony Asia to support independent developers in China, and while the wait continues for the release of the most interesting projects of this program, we get one of them The first project to be supported is the Metroidvania game FIST: Forged In Shadow Torch, the first project from the TiGames development team.

Story and Characters

The game’s story takes place in a world where a war was taking place between an army of robots and human-shaped animals, or “Vortisans” as the game calls them. The Vortisens lost the war and the army of robots took control of the industrial city of Torch City. The events take place after the end of the war, when the rabbit “Rayton” tries to save his friend from prison. Events follow, and Rayton discovers that his former colleague, “Cicero”, is the leader of the robot army. Your mission shifts from rescuing a friend to confronting another friend to free the world. Rayton is supported by the mysterious cat “Lady Q”. The story tries to offer some surprises to remain interesting but fails to do so as the events are very predictable and there is nothing surprising here.

Technical Level and Audio

The technical level of the game varies, which is annoying. The world of FIST is full of details, especially in the background of the screen. The game sometimes looks good technically, sometimes the details appear blurry for some elements. You’ll also be switching between screens a lot in this experience, and you’ll notice that the details of the next screen appear gradually. It’s late if we talk about the PlayStation 4 version on which we tested the game and the level of animations is modest, be it during the game or during the cinematics. There is also an exaggeration of special effects during combat, which can obscure vision and prevent one from seeing the opponent’s attempts to attack. On the audio level the game offers a number of good tunes that you will hear during some boss fights and some other occasions.

Gameplay and Combat

When it comes to gameplay style, FIST delivers the experience expected from Metroidvania games. The game system is simple and your abilities are limited at first, with you gaining many new skills and tools as you progress through the game, which adds additional depth to the combat style and also allows you to return to previous areas to overcome a previous obstacle. To achieve your next goal, the idea of ​​the game revolves around the robotic hand you have, for which you acquire two additional skills and receive a number of secondary tools, each of which plays a special role in battles.

Boss Encounters and Challenges

The battles remain interesting due to the very wide variety of their types. As you progress through the game, you will encounter opponents with new abilities. You will also face some recurring enemies, but with stronger versions than the previous versions and the strategy that you have to defeat each type is different from the other. Also, it may be easier for some of them to try out a certain skill of yours. The mechanic for defeating him, which encourages you to switch between your equipment. The game also offers many options for subsequent strikes or combos, which can be confused with the robot hand’s abilities. The gaming experience is generally smooth, but we are faced with an unsuccessful design decision here, in addition to some of the technical shortcomings mentioned earlier, such as blocking function. Or parry. It is activated by moving towards or away from the opponent in the moment before his attack, rather than assigning a button to this function, which made it impractical to use. If you make a group of consecutive attacks while jumping in the air, however, it will be difficult to block the opponent’s attack by moving towards him. Although many enemies can be defeated without this feature, it becomes necessary when confronting some of the more powerful types, especially bosses, and would have been better to simply provide a dedicated button for this feature.

Game Duration and Conclusion

The boss encounters are numerous and varied in their ideas, and you will encounter bosses of different shapes and sizes, which makes things exciting. Outside of the fights and boss encounters, you move between many regions and in each region you will face a number of bosses. There are a number of challenges such as jumping between platforms and a series of simple puzzles. Each region will present puzzles and challenges based on the nature of the region itself. We found these challenges very entertaining, as many of them require precision and reaction speed, but they are not at the same time insurmountable, and the core content of the game is excellent and very satisfying, in addition to the excellent side content. If you are a fan of the exploration element, the game encourages you to do so thanks to the very complex design of the maps. Behind these branches lie many secrets and treasures, in addition to the opportunity to develop some of your tools. There is also a group of optional boss encounters that you will complete. The nice thing is that these encounters are also diverse and offer the necessary challenge.

You can complete the experience within 13 to 14 hours if you focus on the basic content. For our part, we spent about 18 hours getting to 77% completion of the game, noticing the many secrets and areas that we still have to explore. FIST: Forged In Shadow Torch offers an excellent experience. For fans of Metroidvania games, it is satisfying as, in addition to the excellent content, it keeps the combat varied and challenging with entertaining challenges and puzzles. The game may suffer from some unsuccessful decisions, but as the development team’s first game it’s an excellent start.