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Tekken 8
Tekken 8 - Video Review
We've battled to become King of the Iron Fist in the latest title in the legendary fighting game series.
Audio transcription
"What an incredible fighting year we've had, with Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1 and now Tekken 8 being released in the space of just 9 months, and to top it all off, the first to have been really good, and now you're probably wondering how Tekken 8 stands up compared to these giants. The answer is, perfectly fine. A lot has happened since Tekken 7, not least on the technical front where Bandai Namco has changed the graphics engine from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, in addition they have greatly updated their online offerings and once again delivered a meaty campaign."
"As is usual with fighting games, they're never more fun than when you're taking on your friends in hard-hitting matches, whether locally or online. Tekken 8's whole system is designed to get you into the thick of a fight really quickly. Key to this is the new Heat system, which rewards beating the crap out of your opponent really fast, because for a limited amount of time you get an enhanced version of your character, with both the ability to do more damage and hit some special attacks. Heat can be activated with either a button press or it's woven into your combo with the Heat Engager, the latter providing an extra 5 seconds of Heat. You're encouraged to really go at your opponent here, who will also take a beating even if they block. You can also more easily get back some life in Tekken 8, as some damage leaves a shadow in your life meter which can be refilled over time, but even this requires jaw slapping and neck kicking and in the end we have a formula that just encourages you to play furiously."
"To train, you'll likely want to spend a lot of time in the new Arcade Quest game mode, which is kind of like a light campaign where you have to fight your way through Japanese arcades to become the best in Tekken and be a douchebag gamer. Not only is this a good opportunity to unlock a lot of cosmetic items, but it's also really cosy and above all provides a good opportunity to have the basics explained to you by other nice NPC arcade visitors and to try out everything in a controlled environment."
"Another draw for Tekken 8 is the campaign. Along with Mortal Kombat, Tekken is a market leader in this area and the Tekken series has a long, continuous history that has been going on uninterrupted since the first game. The campaign is perhaps not something you can buy the game for alone, but for a fighting game it's very impressive in all its extreme cheesiness. With no discernible self-irony, we see the Tekken characters running around trying to deal with the growing world problem of Kazuya. Katsuhiro Harada seems completely uninterested in trying to modernise Tekken or add more self-irony. In a way, it seems both Capcom and NetherRealm Studios are doing with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Unfortunately, the campaign starts treading water towards the end, but overall it's still very impressive even if Mortal Kombat is still better in this area."
"If you've played Arcade Quest and the campaign and still feel like you haven't quite figured out how best to play Tekken, Bandai Namco has done as many other fighting game developers have done before and tried to deliver an alternate control scheme called Special Style. This works for more than just beginners, but even if it's not too flexible, it still makes Tekken more beginner-friendly overall. The downside is that the system makes pretty much every character play like everyone else, thus losing a lot of variation if you choose to use it. The controls are otherwise incredibly good, with a very clear sense of what each button does. The fights are intense and even intimate, an effect of two pugilists trying to maximise their heat by delivering as many blows as possible in the shortest amount of time. The intensity can even leave you out of breath after a fight."
"So far, the game is a real highlight, but one area where it feels like Tekken 8 hasn't made such a big step up is in its game engine. It doesn't feel like Tekken 8 makes the most of this upgrade from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. While it's certainly better looking than Tekken 7 by a good margin, both Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 are better looking, and all the artificial lighting effects to highlight things like heat make it lose even more visual flair. It's still very nice, but there is a slight expectation that there could have been more done."
"All in all, there's no doubt that Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 should bow to the King of the Iron Fist. They were both really good games, where great attempts were made to modernise and alter the genre. Tekken 8, though, is built on a different foundation, where Bandai Namco loves its series and wants to optimise and build the best possible Tekken installation without the pressure that there must be something new just for the sake of Therefore, we are daring to say that Tekken 8 is the winner of these three fighters, where only the graphics and the campaign in Mortal Kombat 1 can measure up to what Bandai Namco has to offer. Fighting simply doesn't get much better than this, and the utterly furious and hyper-exciting Tekken 8 will be our main fighting game for years to come."
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