Sifu | New Gameplay Today

The 2022 calendar is full of exciting games, so let’s add one more. This episode of New Gameplay Today features Alex Stadnik and Marcus Stewart as they play with Sifu (developer Sloclap)’s new action game.

Sifu was revealed at Sony’s February state of play. We were lucky enough to experience the preview build. This demo is set in a club filled with criminals who are just looking to fight. It is evident from the very first encounter with the bouncer how exciting and promising Sifu’s combat style is. The bouncer will show that enemies can bounce off walls, and they may react in a different way depending on the environment. Sifu’s combat system allows for the use of everything, including broken wood shards and bottles.

You can use your environment to find new weapons. Your enemies will try to surround you as often as possible, so it is very beneficial to utilize the furniture and walls of each arena to help you segment and deal more damage to your foes.

Another major draw of Sifu’s game is its aging mechanic. The aging mechanic changes the way the character plays as they take damage, eventually dying. Each time you die and age, you get access to an upgrade menu to learn new combos and add buffs, which is especially helpful in the more intense fights. However, hitting certain age markers during a session will prevent you from accessing some parts of the upgrade trees. This is why it’s important to use your combat skills and XP carefully. Your character’s aging mechanism also impacts how they play. The older you become, the more damage you do, and the less speed and health your character has. We only had a glimpse of Sifu’s aging balance in the demo. However, we are excited to see it in full.

Fans don’t need to wait too long until Sifu is released. Sloclap’s next video game will launch on February 8, 2022 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC. However, this is earlier than was originally planned.