Is anybody still going to play video games at the arcade? I don’t know, but now you can also finally play Tekken 7 on home consoles and PC in the Unreal 4 engine. After playing it for a couple of days, we now wanted to share our thoughts around it to help you with your buying decision.
This is what arcaders dreams are made of but is it still that awesome at home? Will Japanese Bandai Namco Entertainment be able to deliver what they promised their fans? Let’s check it out step by step.
Story
Let’s try to do this without spoilers, shall we? I can’t guarantee for the story review to be neutral though. You have been warned.
The great story arcs and breathtaking cinematics of Tekken are established by now, as a part of the Tekken franchise. Many people are buying the game even just to experience the story as an interactive movie.
The story of Tekken 7 is great and it’s really connecting a lot of dots that were not fully explained in previous installments of the fighting game. I feel, however, that in comparison with previous titles like Tekken 6, the story length was a little short. Perhaps it’s time to re-watch the Tekken movies instead?
If you’re not so much in for fighting against other human players via online or local versus mode, this might impact your buying decision. If you’re like that, perhaps it would be best for you to hold out until the game is available at lower prices after a while.
There are tiny story mode segments of each playable character too, beyond the core story. This is however merely a single fight with a quick cutscene after you won the battle.
Roster
Next to a large batch of characters that you know and love from earlier games of the Tekken series, Tekken 7 introduces a few new, really well-balanced characters with a fresh design. The newcomers don’t feel like a rehash of something that has been there before and that’s a good thing really.
I thought it was a pity to offer the full roster of characters right from the start. I’m a fan of unlocking characters step by step by completing challenges or finding secrets to unlock mysterious characters. That was really a good way to keep people hooked in the past but for some reason Bandai Namco decided against doing it like that in Tekken 7.
The characters speak their native languages but all those chatter before and after a fight is, of course, subtitled so you can understand it without studying Japanese, German, Italian, French and whatnot.
Consider it my personal opinion, but I thought there were a little too many non-human characters. It’s Tekken and not Killer Instinct we are talking about. What do you think?
Modes
Of course there are a few other modes next to the story mode. You can beat the arcade mode with your favorite characters. Fancy some competition? You can play against other human players online through the Internet or offline with a second controller. You can enter the Treasure Battle too, which is similar to arcade mode but in exchange for the option to continue after you lose, you’re rewarded with items with each victory.
I thought that it would have been nice to not only have a local versus mode but also have a couch coop mode to team up and fight together against hordes of CPU enemies. Perhaps Bandai Namco will add more modes later via DLC.
In the couple of test runs we did, we found that the Internet-based online battle was more than laggy and we often got disconnected from our opponents. This is especially painful when you’re participating in online tournaments that are planned to last for about 15-30 minutes. If you’re enemy drops, you win and if you drop, guess what, you lose and possibly get a bad rating from the other gamers. If this is a permanent situation, this needs to get addressed soon as such fighting games nowadays heavily rely on the online versus combat. Like this, it won’t become the next epicenter of eSports.
Extras
You can use the coins you earn by playing Tekken 7 to buy items for character customization. If you don’t want to spend your hard-earned in-game money on cosmetics, you can also keep working the Treasure Battle until you got everything you wanted to trick out your favorite characters the way you want for multiplayer.
If you don’t know what else you could do with your coins, you can also spend them to unlock image galleries and video clips from past Tekken games. I found this to be quite entertaining, as you can relatively easy enjoy the story and cinematics starting from the first Tekken game on Playstation back in 1994. But hold tight, you’ll need to brace for 90s 3D graphics! But actually, it’s worth the trip, especially when you weren’t around gaming that time and want to explore the original story arc.
First time on PC
It’s rather rare that there are major releases in the beat’em up video game genre being launched on platforms other than consoles. Tekken 7 is now also available on PC via Steam and the gamers seem to really enjoy the experience. Two weeks after the Steam release, more than 3,475 users have provided feedback on the gaming platform, of which 92% are positive, leading to an overall rating of “Very Positive”.
Tekken 7 on PC is too good! Killing time before the flight pic.twitter.com/FUeFQsfNTo
— Stephen Lyon (@Sajam) June 5, 2017
Collector’s Edition
If you’re a die-hard fan or really don’t know what to do with all your money, you can purchase the Tekken 7 Collector’s Edition like I did. You can order it through shops like Amazon and it’s currently priced at $139.95.
For all that money you get Soundtrack CD in a Steelbook, a collector’s box (ok?), and the actual game disc. But the reason why most people by it, is clearly the amazing 12″ x 18″ Kazuya & Heihachi aerial figure. Pure geek love.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BU-GZjXF2MC/?taken-by=techacute
Please note that the DLC character Eliza, the charming narcoleptic vampire lady, was only given away for free if you preordered the game. But don’t fret, she will still be available through download later on along with two other characters, even though we don’t know yet which these will be.
It’s worth mentioning that the US version of the Collector’s Edition did not contain the Season Pass but in European countries it did contain it at the same (or very similar) pricing. At this moment it is not clear why this was done. That’s more than unfair, so keep this in mind if you’re buying this edition.
If you want to have a look at all the goodies, check out our unboxing video below. Love it? Hate it? Let us know below in the comments!
YouTube: Unboxing: Tekken 7 Collector’s Edition
Photo credit: Bandai Namco / Stephen Lyon
