There are few fighting game franchises I really like to get into and play. Many love Street Fighter games, others enjoy Smash Bros, but for me it is Tekken. I also enjoy games like Mortal Kombat, but the later titles didn’t appeal to me that much, so I stuck with Mortal Kombat 9. This article serves as a little breakdown, or a Review of TEKKEN 7. At the end of this article you should be able to know if this game is something for you. So, lets dive deep into my TEKKEN 7 Review!
Visuals #
TEKKEN 7 runs on the Unreal Engine 4, making it a pretty good looking game. While hair and some cloth physics can look a bit funky, the game as a whole is visually consistent and a noticeable upgrade over TEKKEN Tag Tournament 2. After multiple rounds in the same match, you will notice the fighters sweat. The particles are pretty and good looking, but don’t overwhelm the screen, which would make it hard to see what is going on. The physics of hair and cloth look pretty convincing now, but as I stated before, the physics can go a little crazy from time to time.
Animation work is almost entirely recycled from older TEKKEN games, making the game pretty easy to get into if you played any previous entry in the series. Environments are equally important to the games presentation as characters are. They look pretty good. Not much more to say about that.
So, visually, this game is stunning. There are some little problems here and there, but they ultimately don’t hurt the presentation at all.
Gameplay #
Mechanically, this game is the most refined in the series. Mastering a character over time feels great and their move sets are enormous. Even after playing a character for days, or maybe weeks on end, you will discover new moves you never have seen before. Most moves are well telegraphed and can be dodged or blocked appropriately. There can be some issues when one character towers over another though. For newcomers it can become kind of hard figuring out what a mid or high attack is, since both need to be blocked in a different fashion. This issue can be ironed out if you just keep playing the game and remember the moves your opponents use.
This is a standard in the TEKKEN series, but it is worth mentioning too. The game offers a diverse cast of characters, which mostly play rather differently. There is something for everyone, ranging from kung-fu move sets, to wrestlers and even a character that is entirely based on boxing and dodging.
Even though the game play is largely great, it has significant issues. The most significant being, special “Rage” attacks. Essentially, once your health pool drops too low, you will be able to unleash a special attack, that if unblocked will decimate your opponent. They are very strong, hard to counter at times and completely takes away from skill and the overall TEKKEN experience. Similar to X-Rays in Mortal Kombat, there is a good chance that TEKKEN 7 players will get used to those “Rage” attacks and use them constantly in online matches or single player arcade playthroughs.
There sadly are some more issues though.
The Single Player #
**No TEKKEN single player has ever been worse. ** I enjoy playing TEKKEN in single player and multi player, but if I played TEKKEN 7 only for the singleplayer, I would have stopped playing it very quickly. The Story mode is generally uninteresting and tries to mimick Mortal Kombat 9’s fighting game story formula. The game features narrations in between the action from a civilians perspective, reflecting on the conflicts between the Mishima Zaibatsu and essentially the rest of the world. The story mode would have been considerably better if pre-rendered cutscenes weren’t present and the “civilians perspective” portions were cut. If you ever played a TEKKEN game before, essentially the story will be more of the same. The Mishima family hate each other and try to kill one another. That is basically it.
To make up for the lacking character endings, individual “character chapters” have been introduced into the game. Those “chapters” show some Text on screen before the fight begins. You fight, you win and you get an ending to the character chapter. This is incredibly disappointing and animations could have been created for the arcade mode instead.
I haven’t played through the story mode or all “character chapters” and I frankly do not want to. The “character chapters” hammered the final nail in the coffin for me. I will not complete the story mode of TEKKEN 7.
This also might be the first TEKKEN game in the series, maybe even the first fighting game I have played, that doesn’t feature character ending movies for the arcade mode. That is ridiculous and completely takes away from the arcade experience. On top of that, TEKKEN 7 only features the story mode, arcade mode, practice mode and versus mode and a treasure hunt mode for offline play. If you think about buying TEKKEN 7 for the singleplayer only, you might wanna buy TEKKEN Tag Tournament 2, or any other TEKKEN game, instead.
The PC Port #
It would be OK if it did just one thing. The buttons showcased in the menus are XBOX controller button icons only. RB and LB, A, X and Y, if you do not have a controller, or don’t want to play with it, you need to learn the button prompts by memory. Every PC port which doesn’t address keyboard accessibility, automatically is a lackluster one.
On the flip side, the games performance is really good and it stays at a constant 60 FPS. Multi player matches are played without any noticeable lag and connection issues arise only rarely. It is very comfortable to play the game on the keyboard using the numpad and WASD keys and a controller is not at all needed to play the game comfortably.
DLC #
Downloadable Content sadly became a staple of the industry. Overpriced digital content you need to buy to get a complete gaming experience, sadly became the norm and is not the exception. Fighting games like Street Fighter 4 and 5 are the most notable games that are guilty of this. Hundreds of dollars worth of DLC, including characters that have been locked behind a paywall.
Sadly TEKKEN 7 follows this trend. Some crossover characters and even worse, an iconic game mode and TEKKEN fighters that have been present since the very first TEKKEN game are locked.
Want to play Armour King, Anna or Marduk? You need to buy DLC to unlock them. You want to play TEKKEN Bowl? It is locked behind a paywall. This is very disappointing and not to mention, the DLC are pretty expensive as well. This extra content already is in the game, but you have to pay to lift an arbitrary lock the game imposes on the player.
The Verdict #
Don’t buy TEKKEN 7 at full price. It simply is not worth it. Too many DLC’s, an incomplete single player experience and a below average PC port make this game one of the worst TEKKEN games in the franchise and I say that being fully aware that this game features the most refined fighting experience in the series so far. If you own a PS3, play Tekken Tag Tournament 2 instead, or buy any other game in the franchise. You will get much more entertainment value out of the previous games in the series than TEKKEN 7. If you decide that you still want to play TEKKEN 7 for the multiplayer though, it might be a good purchase at a reduced price tag.
Thank you for reading this review, hopefully it helped you in making an informed purchase!