00:03i just got to play stranger than heaven and no i did not see tupac in fact the entire demo
00:08was
00:08combat based so no story spoilers here we're just going to talk about combat and i came away from
00:14it pretty surprised to be honest for those of you unaware the way stranger than heavens combat works
00:21is it is dynamically left and right based so left bumper and left trigger control your left hand and
00:28right bumper and right trigger control your right hand then on top of that there is different weapon
00:34types i think there's like 15 17 plus in the actual game but uh in the demo we only got
00:41to play with
00:42three which is a knife a giant like crowbar and then your fist i guess your fist count as weapons
00:48so got to kind of go through a series of combat trials with the different characters each kind of
00:54focusing on using one of these different weapon styles the first being just your fists and the
01:01first thing i did is i tried to just mash the button and punch them like i'm playing a yakuza
01:06game and i
01:07died immediately so take everything you know about yakuza and like just crumble that into a little ball
01:14and throw that in the trash because that does not apply here this game is slow it is weighty and
01:20if you
01:21are not careful you will get your ass kicked real quick what makes the dynamic kind of left and right
01:27combat so interesting is it's very contextual the moves will change based on like the way you combo
01:34your left and right hands the way you hold down the trigger and for how long uh the position of
01:39yourself
01:39and the position of your enemies for example like when i would do a dodge and then i would press
01:45the left
01:46trigger i would do this like special like kind of like back kick that would like kind of stagger the
01:52enemy in a certain way and then i could like rush up into them and do like a gut punch
01:55it's very dynamic
01:56but it's also kind of got this frenetic messiness to it that's really hard to get a grasp on
02:02uh i found myself struggling like throughout the demo to kind of get grips with it but by the end
02:08of
02:08the demo i was really was starting to click with me and i was like oh okay like i understand
02:17what
02:17they're going for and it does create this sort of unique melee feel that doesn't quite feel like any
02:24other game i've played which i think is really cool and then the second combat challenge i got to use
02:28like
02:29this giant crowbar and that was like incredibly slow but as you can imagine because this is a massive
02:35crowbar it's kind of meant for um area of effects you know large pool of enemy type situations
02:40crowd control that's the word because it's a two-handed weapon the left and right triggers would
02:46instead just kind of do different styles of attacks so the left trigger you would do this sort of like
02:50forward upward jab the way it seems to work is like your left hand or left action i should say
02:56is
02:56about kind of like stunning the enemy and putting them off for a second with the third character where
03:01i had a knife you hold a knife in one hand so all of your right triggers uh are using
03:06the nice but
03:07then your left hand is kind of doing these punches so uh there's this move you would do where you
03:12would
03:12like get up close to the enemy you would tap the left trigger you would do like a quick little
03:16jab
03:16punch like in the face and then they get stunned you would immediately follow up with your knife
03:20and just like stab right in there that final encounter was a solo encounter against not like a boss but
03:26like a high level enemy who had like this huge health pool he was kind of like the big challenge
03:31of the demo and it really like forced me to learn and really like get comfortable with every intricacy
03:37of what i've been doing and the way the combat works because i got my ass handed to me many
03:42many
03:42times i actually thought i wasn't gonna beat it but then one of the people you know hosting the event
03:47actually told me that there is a parry mechanic that i didn't realize was in the game um and when
03:52he told
03:52me that i was like oh okay cool and then the parry mechanics also interesting because the way it works
03:57is you will block with b and then if you press left bumper or right bumper you parry but you
04:03have to
04:03press the correct bumper based on the way they swing so if they you know swing to the left and
04:10you parry
04:11with the right like it'll end up not working and you'll like end up taking damage so you have to
04:16kind
04:16of learn the enemy's patterns to correctly parry which ended up being extremely satisfying and i was
04:23able to use the parry very effectively to kind of like beat that boss it sort of taught me that
04:27there
04:28are there are different types of moves that are kind of meant for each specific enemy and boss you
04:33know you need to learn and master and understand what move makes sense to beat that specific enemy
04:43if i had to spend my time with it i would say i started it confused and unsure but by
04:50the end of
04:50the demo i gotta spend enough time with the combat that it's like i understand the vision i get what
04:55they're going for and i actually think it feels really cool and unique i'm a fan of this combat i
05:00think it's pretty neat i think it's very different it stands apart from uh any other melee combat i've
05:06ever played in this style of game uh and it actually has me like really excited to check
05:11out more of it unfortunately i don't know much else about the game as far as like story and and
05:17gameplay so um that's something that hopefully we'll get a chance to check out more so we can
05:22really dive into because like man the heck is up with tupac anyway i'm john luke uh this is game
05:28spot
05:28if you want to see more coverage of stranger than heaven or all things video games uh check us out
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