I really can’t keep the name straight
Violence in video games gets better and better with the years. I thought it was cool if you could shoot enemies’ hats in Golden Eye and the weapons from their hands in Perfect Dark but now… wait, those things are still cool. Why aren’t they done more often?
Anyway, video games have served ballistic violence well for decades, but physical violence only seems to have become fun around the time of Batman Arkham Asylum. Or was it Assassin’s Creed? It’s those punch parry throw fights that make you feel powerful and make the action more cinematic. You might just hit buttons when the game prompts you, but it feels impressive.
Midnight Fight Express is, succinctly, that. It’s a beat ’em-up with a similar combat system and a few twists of its own.
Midnight Fight Express (PC) [reviewed], Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox Series X)
Developer: Jacob Dzwinel
Publisher: Humble Games
Released: August 23, 2022
Recommended retail price: TBA
Thugs have taken over the town, and you are an amnesiac protagonist who really loves the feeling of bones breaking against their knuckles. You will be guided by a drone that will tell you in a friendly way that they know everything but tell you nothing at all. That is good! Who needs motivation when you have fists?
Midnight Fight Express is a level-by-level beat-’em-up. You know the type: you walk into a room and all the doors get kicked in, which is a sign of a new wave of thugs. It’s probably better they don’t knock since then Midnight Fight Express continuously assesses you and will give you a score on completion. The best way to increase your score is to keep your combo going. Fortunately, this is not a matter of avoiding pain, but just maintaining a brisk pace and not dying.
That may be too much of a simplification of the overall design, but Midnight Fight Express is not a particularly deep game. It has its sights set on Hotline Miami and John Wick. It wants to be fast and messy, and it largely succeeds.
Midnight Express Express
Each level presents something new. The locations are typical battlegrounds in the city, such as subway tunnels and an airport. Gangs are exchanged as you progress, so you go from fighting mutated rat people to corrupt priests. Some levels get a little creative, and others get a little tedious. There is one where motorcyclists circle around to hit you. They’re easy to take out if you have a gun, but if they run into a wall, they’ll explode, potentially killing you. It’s just annoying and doesn’t tie in with the combat system at all.
One problem with the combat is that a lot of it is behind upgrades. For example, most parry. And it’s really not intuitive when you can parry someone when they’re unarmed, but not when they have a weapon until that ability is unlocked. You can never parry everything, which seems like it makes sense, but to just put some of it away is unsatisfactory. It also means going back to previous levels so you can get S ranks with your new repertoire on.
The skills also range from indispensable to harmful. For example, Finishers let you take out stunned enemies in style. However, I stopped using throws pretty quickly as they are easily interrupted and sometimes feel like they randomly don’t work on some enemies. Enemies retreat as you perform a finisher, but wrestling leaves you wide open. It doesn’t feel worth it.
Murder Fight Express
That doesn’t mean you can’t get into the flow of Midnight Fight Express. There is definitely a learning curve here and it feels rewarding to keep improving. Learning to cycle between dodging, attacking and throwing weapons can lead to great moments. moments that Midnight Fight Express turns into gifs that you can save after each level.
There’s also a favorite combat feature of mine: targeting priority. Some enemies risk dealing more damage than others, and you must learn to deal with the most immediate threat. You should spot enemies with guns and tackle them first, or maybe it’s better to take out the little guy with the sledgehammer so you can beat the bigger fish better.
The point is, when Midnight Fight Express works, it really works. But if not, it can be frustrating. The boss fights in particular really grilled me. A lot of your moves just don’t work on it, so you’ll have to light attack, heavy attack and dodge. If you’re lucky there are weapons in the area, but I always liked taking down hordes of thugs.
Fight Night Express
Speaking of whims, the writing really got on my nerves. I’m already not a fan of the amnesia hero angle, but then everyone is holding back with you throughout the game. Yes, providing bits and pieces of exposition throughout the story is an effective way of storytelling. However, when the characters are constantly telling you that you don’t know the whole story, but they aren’t going to tell you either, it’s easy to lose interest. It doesn’t even pay that well in the end, especially since you have an amnesiac hero with no personality, so why bother?
Midnight Fight Express also relies heavily on references. References to action movies, other games and memes. I found them a bit annoying, even though I probably didn’t even notice half of them. It just feels a little lazy.
It also has great reverence for: Hotline Miami, but then everyone should do that. You can even get animal masks and wear a letterman jacket. There’s a group of guys in animal masks who ask if you’ve heard a pay phone ring. This feels most obvious with the soundtrack, which feels like a shortened version of Hotline Miami‘s. Maybe less weird and a little more cohesive. I don’t mean it’s bad, no, it just feels very obvious.
Midflight Espresso
I have mixed feelings about Midnight Fight Express. There are times when I clicked, and I ripped through the levels, and other times when I found myself sighing and hitting the Retry button. There was no real middle ground. I was either entertained or totally annoyed.
Another pass of the floor polisher would probably have helped. There are 40 missions equating to about six hours of runtime with many highs and lows. A tighter story wouldn’t even have been necessary if the gameplay was a little more consistent from moment to moment. Midnight Fight Express is just a mixed bag. There’s a lot to like here, but just as much will make you curl your fists.
[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]
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