Founded in 2015, the Parisian studio Sloclap made a splash four years ago with the release of Absolver, an action-RPG heavily focused on martial arts. The developers obviously have a taste for close quarters combat, since Sifu also plays in this field. Revealed last February during a State of Play event, this Playstation and Epic Game Store exclusive is the missing link between a beat'em up and a classic Street Fighter fighting game. A bet that seems set to be won!
Limited in its content but rich in information, the preview version that we were able to test allowed us to discover the first half of the second chapter of the game. The introduction, the tutorial and the first chapter responding to subscribers absent for the moment, we we will not dwell too much on the scriptwriting aspect. For the moment, let's just remember that the main character is in search of revenge, his family having been murdered by a mysterious gang. Before starting the second chapter, we were still allowed to visit the “wuguan” of our hero. It is obviously a hub for launching the various missions, training in a virtual environment, and consulting various documents. This rather cozy home indeed houses a wooden board on which are pinned several flyers, newspapers and photos, all of which provide some additional scriptwriting information. It seems reasonable to imagine that the hero collects these elements over the course of the battles. The clashes are indeed clearly the heart of the gameplay, as evidenced by the level The Club that we were able to cover. It all starts in a typical Asian alley, where Chinese characters made of multicolored neon lights illuminate the air conditioning vents attached to the walls. Faced with the bouncer who forbids us to enter the disco, only one possible solution: violence! This fight is only the first in a long list, as the exploration takes us from clash to clash, one on one or against groups of enemies. From the bartender to the simple customer, including the big bodyguards, no one escapes our wrath. A small system of dialogues sometimes gives us the choice between three lines during certain meetings, but the castagne seems to be inevitable each time.
“BE LIKE WATER MY FRIEND”
It is important to take the environment into account to simplify the task, since the throwing of armchairs, chairs or even bottles is at the rendezvous. Getting an enemy over a guardrail or, on the contrary, stepping over a barrier to temporarily flee a fight and thus better reposition yourself are also strategies to consider. But the best is naturally to master the combat system (and combos) at your fingertips. We have a light attack, a heavy attack, a parry and a dodge at our disposal, the latter two movements being extremely important. Darting in nag mode without ever trying to protect yourself inevitably leads to failure, while a well-placed block allows for a counterattack that can really hurt. Successful strikes are rewarded with a concentration gauge system which, once filled, serves to slow down the action and target weak points. The result takes the form of an automatic, strong and spectacular blow. Baseball bat type weapons also answer the call, but the most important thing is to master the many combos available to us. According to the menus, there would be a total of twenty-five of these skills to unlock. A system of general improvements (weapon durability, health boost on certain shots, increased concentration gain during parades, etc.) is also available, but Sifu has a big surprise in store for us in the way we unlock all of this!
OLD AGE IS A SHIP …
Thanks to an obviously magical pendant, our fighter is indeed able to resuscitate in case of death. But the price to pay is then counted in lost years. In other words: with each failure the hero ages more and more, and thus passes from 20 years to 21 years, then 23, 30, 39, 45, 56, 61, 67 … until senescence catches up with him and inflicts on him the death of too many, definitive this time. This process has several relatively important effects. First of all, each rise in age results in an increase in the damage caused (representing the experience and wisdom acquired) and by a reduction in maximum health (we are no longer twenty my good lady…). But above all, some improvements impose a maximum age to be unlocked. It is therefore important to stay young as long as possible, that is to say not to accumulate failures. This is a coherent and original system, which also gives us the opportunity to see our character aging on the screen, his hair and beard becoming longer and longer and white. The artistic direction that one could qualify as “slightly cartoonish but not too much” is also rather pleasant. Grain on the image, changes in camera shot and photo mode reinforce the cinematic aspect of the fights, the old kung fu films being obviously a major influence for the developers.
Our degree of expectation 
Scheduled for February 8, 2022, less than a year after its official announcement, Sifu looks set to be even more enjoyable than Absolver. This preview version allowed us to appreciate a very attractive artistic direction, a great general fluidity, a rich combat system, and an original hero aging mechanic. Of course, there are still some unknowns, especially with regard to the narration, the quality of the exploration and the different levels, the balance, and the presence or absence of bugs in the final version. We'll be sure to check it all out in the test!