Killer Instinct: ULTRAAAAAA!
06 Apr 2016
This review is for the PC version of Killer Instinct and does not reflect on the Xbox One Version. I’ve been waiting for Killer Instinct to come out on the PC since it was initially announced at E3. I’ve also been following this game from watching it being played at EVO to watching random streamers. Needless to say I have been waiting for this game to come to pc for a very long time. So what makes this one of my favorite fighting games next to 3rd strike and CvS2? I will answer that question with one word, and that word is hype.
Hype is a term that gets thrown around a lot, and I mean a lot. It’s been thrown around so much that some people even hate the word in any form. But watching this game and even playing it, I can’t help myself from getting worked up. The game is so much fun to experience whether you are a fighting game fan or a casual observer you will find yourself loving every moment of this game. So what makes this game “hype” and sets it apart from other fighting games?
The first thing that sets this game apart is the combo system. The combo system in this game is great because it makes you worry less about the combo and more about getting into your opponents head. So in Killer Instinct you start off a combo by doing a special move, from there you can do these things called auto doubles. Auto doubles are to hits with the strength and type of that button. For example I am playing Thunder and I start my combo with my opener of quarter circle forward punch, from there I hit the heavy kick button and I will do two heavy kicks. From there I have to do one of my special moves again to continue the combo, after that move is over the cycle repeats itself of special move and auto doubles. When doing a combo you will notice a bar building on the screen once that bar becomes full your opponent will spin out. You prevent this by doing one of your special moves with the heavy button, this will cause the combo to end and do more damage then it would if you let the opponent spin out. This is all well and good but it must suck for your opponent to constantly wait whenever they get combo’d right? Wrong! If you are getting combo’d you aren’t just waiting around for your opponent to finish the combo, you are actively looking to break there combos. You do this by hitting both the punch and the kick buttons that correlate to the attacks your opponent is doing. Breaking combos will stop the opponents combo, launch them away from you, and stop most of the damage from the combo. But if you fail at breaking the combo you will be locked out from breaking the combo for 3 seconds. Maybe you don’t want your opponent to break your combo and you want to keep it going, well your in luck because Killer Instinct has counter breakers. That’s right if you are willing to take a risk in dropping your combo you can “break” your opponents combo breaker and continue with the combo, reseting the combo bar and allowing for more damage .This is a really neat mechanic that allows for both player to be constantly active, getting into the minds of their opponents and creating some of the most insane moments, and comebacks since Evo moment #37.
The other thing I really like about this game is the character designs. Every character is unique and plays on a certain trope. This makes playing these characters interesting and fun as all hell to play and play against. It also feeds into what we talked about earlier with hype. You wanna see a Native American take down a werewolf, a giant stone defender, a Japanese ghost? Well with Killer Instinct you can and they will look dope as fuck doing it. The music in this game is so god damn good it will blow your fucking socks off. It also plays into the game as well, when you pull off an ultra combo the music goes to the rhythm of your hits. The music plays a huge part of this game and makes the game feel like 500 people poured their heart and soul into the game. Speaking of which Double Helix and Iron Galaxy are the developers on the game and they are extremely small studios.
But the best thing about this game is just how accessible it is to people who have never played the game before. If you are brand new to fighting games they have a tool called combo assist. Combo Assist allows new people to not have to worry about linkers, auto doubles, and enders. Hit somebody and you will start a combo by continuing to hit buttons. You still have to end your combo so all you have to do is hit forward and a heavy button. This really isn’t a problem for people who are good at fighting games because they can read your moves and break your combos. Lets say you are familiar with fighting games but don’t want to use combo assist? Well the tutorials in this game are beyond fantastic and will teach you everything you need to know about the game.
Most of this has been said before because the Xbox version has been out for years at this point. So let’s look at how the PC version runs. The answer is that it runs like fucking butter on toast, like peanut butter and jelly, like Kanye and batshit crazy. When you are playing on the PC you can run a performance test to see just how well the game will run for your specific computer. The only problem with the game right now is that for monitors that run at 144Hz the game will run super fast as the frame rate is tied to the animations of the game. This is common for fighting games and Iron Galaxy is currently looking for a fix. The solution as of right now is to make your monitor run at 60Hz. The game also supports a wide arrange of resolutions options but does not support DSR.
If you have been paying attention to this review, you might have noticed that I haven’t said anything really negative about the game. In all honesty I really can’t think about anything negative with this game. If the game ran like shit you know I would put the game on fucking blast. If the game didn’t explain a lot, I would destroy the game for not explaining the game mechanics. But, in the end, this game has just hit every mark for what makes a fighting game a good fighting game. I cannot recommend this game enough, if you are even slightly interested in fighting games, or want to pick up a new fighting game buy this fucking game. OH WAIT thats right you can get this game for fucking free! Yah you heard me, you can pick this game up right now and see if you like it. You will only get one character, but that character will rotate out weekly so you can try multiple characters without ever having to buy the game. Like holy fucking shit, this is everything a fighting game should be. GO BUY OR TRY THIS GAME NOW!!!
Buy or try the game out at the Windows store