Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. was supplied by SEGA for evaluation. Thanks!
I’ve by no means performed a Virtua Fighter sport earlier than, however which may have one thing to do with the truth that the collection has been on a hiatus over the previous couple of a long time. Virtua Fighter 5, the final entry within the collection to this point, got here out in 2006 earlier than being remade on the PS4 in 2021 and eventually launched on the PC in 2025 as Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Sadly, I the truth that this sport is nineteen years previous is starting to indicate.
It’s important to set your expectations accordingly for Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Though a few remakes have occurred for this 2006 launch, the basics have stayed in place. These days, it is fairly commonplace to count on a storyline or some type of marketing campaign in a preventing sport, however there isn’t any such luck right here. It is onerous to explain the sport as something however comparatively barebones in comparison with its trendy rivals. There’s an arcade mode that may be performed alone, nevertheless it does not add a lot of a narrative.
On the principle menu, you are introduced with an internet ranked match possibility, the choice to seek out an unranked on-line sport, play offline towards a CPU, play offline towards one other participant, Arcade mode, or play an internet event, which is run each weekend.
In a world the place its rivals are boasting roamable on-line hubs, campaigns with overarching plots, and extra characters than you may shake a stick at, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. does really feel a bit slim on options. On the plus aspect, it has an honest variety of phases, 18 in all. There are additionally 19 characters, that are considerably customizable in look, though most of the extra distinctive choices are largely locked behind the thirtieth Anniversary DLC.
Once we get round to the true meat of a preventing sport, the fight Virtua Fighter 5 is your fairly typical preventing sport affair. It holds again barely on the extra “fanciful” facets that its rivals generally make use of. That is purely based mostly on hand-to-hand fight, so you will not be deploying any weaponry or firing vitality projectiles at your opponents.
The fight feels good; separate buttons are assigned to your punching and kicking, in addition to grapple assaults, which retains issues comparatively easy for brand new gamers, however you may make use of numerous combos. Each path you maintain whereas attacking will change the motion, and you can also make sweeping motions with the path as you assault so as to add extra selection. Whereas Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. could also be missing in content material, it’s backed up by an in depth preventing and combo system that is extra grounded than others within the style, and it does an ideal job of creating you are feeling such as you’re truly in an actual martial arts struggle.
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. has added rollback netcode into the sport, which in observe is supposed to make preventing on-line seem seamless, with little delay. Sadly, I discovered the participant base for the sport to be on the smaller aspect, even at launch, which means discovering an acceptable opponent will be tough. I usually performed towards opponents from Asia, and the networking form of fell aside in my matches since I’m within the UK. Fighters had been shifting unnaturally across the area, and I had frequent disconnects. Regardless that you may filter the search to solely join with gamers with a “Good” connection in ranked matches, this appears solely non-functional. I used to be usually put in matches with over 200ms of ping, which is unplayable.
I managed to get into a few matches with low ping, round 50ms or so, however even then, after a few rounds, the sport would virtually all the time disconnect earlier than the match. I had even positioned myself proper subsequent to my router to make sure it wasn’t my Steam Deck’s WiFi sign dropping, however I nonetheless skilled frequent disconnects. For reference, after 8 on-line matches, just one may finish naturally with a winner.
I (Noah Kupetsky) additionally tried out the Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. on-line to see if it was doable the web matches had been constant even in numerous areas. I performed a number of matches, and whereas one had some stuttering, the remainder had been stable. I had no disconnects and was in a position to play it simply on the Steam Deck. I even one a few of my matches, which was an enormous shock.
Noah Kupetsky – CEO of SteamDeckHQ
The small participant base is not helped as a result of the R.E.V.O. version of Virtua Fighter 5 is PC unique. Though the PS4 version of the sport is comparable, it does not fairly have the identical options, so cross-platform multiplayer is not doable. For a sport that depends on its on-line gameplay for many of its modes, it’s kind of of a fear that each the community code and the scale of the participant base are presenting points so quickly after launch.
As for presentation, the sport is satisfactory, and the graphics have improved since its PS3 days, nevertheless it is not as much as par with different video games within the style. It exhibits its age in locations, with visuals such because the water being fairly lackluster, even on excessive settings. Nevertheless, that does include the benefit that almost all units can simply deal with the sport.
Having mentioned all that, the builders are clearly conscious of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.’s limitations in comparison with its rivals and have priced it accordingly, with a $20 launch price ticket.
Regardless, I might battle to suggest Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O., which is an actual disgrace. The core gameplay and preventing are stable and work effectively, however the package deal round it’s missing. Except for taking part in a collection of battles towards AI or 1v1 with a good friend regionally, the one different modes are online-only. The web gameplay is plagued with poor connections and disconnects that destroy the expertise, alongside a comparatively small participant base which will pose issues sooner or later for locating an internet match.
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. – Steam Deck Efficiency
I can say in Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.’s favor that it runs nice on the Steam Deck. With assist for 1280×800 decision, nice gamepad controls, and a graphics preset already in place for the Steam Deck, you may’t fault it.
The builders maintain the sport on principally excessive settings, making a few compromises often, after which operating with FSR 3 on High quality mode. This all nonetheless resolves to a pleasant high quality picture, and in my testing, the sport just about all the time holds 60 FPS, possibly dropping 1 or 2 frames in the course of the characters’ opening cutscenes.
There is not any want to regulate any settings in SteamOS, the sport is coded to run at 60 FPS, and you may want all the facility from the Steam Deck to run these settings.
Listed here are the settings I used for the sport. You possibly can click on the pictures to enlarge them:
The ability draw for this one was principally round 18W-20W, with temperatures round 65C. Thus, you may count on round 2.5 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and round 1.5 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck LCD.
Accessibility:
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. has rebindable controls, however no different accessibility settings.
Conclusion:
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. may have been an ideal sport. The core mechanics are stable, the preventing feels good, and there is loads of depth to the fight system with all of the combos you may be taught, however all of that is marred by the truth that it is a primarily on-line sport with a reasonably horrible on-line system in place proper now.
Efficiency on the Steam Deck is nice, holding 60 FPS all through, and it has an ideal management scheme as effectively. The battery life is a bit disappointing, however Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. possible is not a sport you may play for a very long time in a single sitting.
Our evaluation is predicated on the PC model of this sport.
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