Oldie, but a goodie.
Major fighting games being ported to the PC is actually a fairly new phenomenon.
It wasn’t until just a few years ago that series like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Blazblue saw their titles being released on Steam. Even though some of the ports weren’t exactly up to the standards of their console counterparts, it’s still nice to see fighting games reaching towards a wider audience.
In that regard, Arc System Works continues its campaign on the PC market with what is arguably the most coveted iteration of their signature series, Guilty Gear.
INFERNO DIVIDER!!! Oh wait, wrong game.
MSRP: $14.99
Platforms: PC, 360, PS3, PSV
Multiplayer: Online vs matches
Played: 10~ hours
For those who are unfamiliar with the Guilty Gear series, it’s a 2D fighter with incredibly deep mechanics and what I consider to be the most unique cast of characters to grace a single fighting game.
From the drastically different play styles to their quirky personalities, it’s a great roster of characters.
While the gameplay and characters have stood the test of time, the graphics and sound quality have not fared so well.
Having put an extensive amount of time playing Xrd(the latest iteration to the GG series) on the PS4, the old sprites looked quite rough and worse yet, the sound effects and rockin’ stage songs sounded muffled, like it was coming out of the speaker of a phone.
For those who are familiar with Accent Core +R on consoles, there’s really nothing new to see here. Luckily, there’s a variety of modes on offer including mission, medal, survival, arcade, story and of course, network mode which allows for online versus matches.
Based on the experience of a few dozen matches, the netcode seemed solid, but nothing really fantastic enough to write home about.
My first two wins on ranked resulted in two wins and two rage quits. Stay classy, netplay!
My biggest issue with “Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus R”, other than its cumbersome title, is that I felt a noticeable level of input delay, meaning when I pressed a button, the move would take longer than it should to come out.
I was told that it was a possible issue with VSYNC being automatically turned on with no way to turn it off from the game options, and given I’m playing on the monitor, there really shouldn’t be a problem with input lag.
After a bit of research I learned of a work around, and there have been a handful of patches released already since the game’s launch, so I would not be surprised if the issue is ironed out before this review goes live.
Outside of that, there isn’t really much to say.
While I would have much rather have seen the more accessible and modern, “Xrd” to see release on steam, AC+R serves as a great example of the series in its classic form and notorious depth.
Fun Tidbit – Playing with the whole roster of GG really makes me want to see these iconic characters in the Xrd iteration!
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
