"Night City Assault" alpha demo hands-on impressions

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As I just happen to be a mid 80s kid, I grew up playing beat-em-up series such as “Streets of Rage”, “Double Dragon“, “TMNT” and “Battletoads“. And I had a blast while doing so. However, the beat-em-up genre faded away quite a lot by the end of the 90s (the golden age of beat-em-ups were between 1987 and the early 90s). And it got even worse during the early 2000s. Even so, there was a turning point to be found in Capcom´s Devil May Cry 1 (which were released back in 2001). As DMC1 made the genre popular again by combining beat-em-up, with 3D hack and slash. And after DMC1 came other beat-em-up-like games such as “Shinobi” (2001), “Ultimate Spider-Man” (2005), “God Hand” (2007) with many more (like “Heavenly Sword“, “Afro Samurai”, “Bayonetta” and “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” for example). Personally, I felt like the beat-em-up genre was back for real when WayForward released “Double Dragon Neon” back in 2012 (for 360 and PS3).

He took rock n roll to a whole new level that day.

So if we fast forward to today’s date and focus on Xtra Mile Games 2D story-based beat-em-up/RPG/Metroidvania game “Night City Assault”. Then I feel very hopeful for the future of the beat-em-up genre. And why is that? It´s because “Night City Assault” brought back a whole lot of nostalgia memories to me (“Night City Assault” is actually an old-school beat-em-up game that has the looks of today’s visuals and standards) . Because when I sat down and played the alpha demo last night (which, you can download and play on either Windows or MAC), “Night City Assault” made me think about beat-em-up classics such as “Comix Zone”, “Streets of Rage”, “River City Ransom” and “Double Dragon”. Don´t get me wrong now, all of those games are great of course (with no doubt).

However, “Night City Assault” offers a really unique and “different” kind of beat-em-up experience. As the game mixes fighting, with RPG and Metroidvania-style exploration elements (you will also be able to use guns in “Night City Assault”). Not only that, the graphics are truly great as well (the Unity Engine has done wonders to the in-game graphics with no doubt). And I really enjoyed all the combs, kicks, punches and grabbing attacks as well (it´s very satisfying to hit people in “Night City Assault”).

This picture made me think about “Streets of Rage 1”.

I also love the fact that “Night City Assault” is set in the 80s, and that you play as a detective (Roy Silver) who looks a whole lot David Hasselhoff (his role in “Kung Fury”). I don´t mind that though, as I love the 80s and David Hasselhoff. Anyhow, as I was saying. You play as either Roy Silver or Cindy Chan (yes, there is a co-op mode and story mode campaign in the game) and both are assigned to clean out the violent crime syndicate from their city (a Syndicate which is controlled by a person called “Viper”, could that be Mr X brother?).And that is of course easier said than done, as the whole city is full of gangsters, mobs and city gangs, which would love to kill you.

No need to worry though, as our heroes (Roy and Cindy) are far from helpless (I think that I illustrated that quite well in our gameplay video). And I bet that there will be plenty of different kinds of weapons in the final version of “Night City Assault” as well. Besides that, you will also be able to unlock new moves and abilities, fight against over 20 unique enemies and bosses, and there is even dialogs and voice acting in the game also (Jon Bailey, Kira Buckland and Rick Whelan have provided their voices to “Night City Assault”).

So much for my plans of having a nice and quite shopping day in China town.

And those were all the positive things that I had to say about the Night City Assault alpha demo. So what can I say about the cons of the game then? Well, I have a list actually. So I hope that Xtra Mile Games will find my feedback to be of any use to them. Nevertheless, this would be my complete cons list (for now):

– I found the demo to be way too easy (different difficulty settings would be nice for sure)
– Most of the enemies were rather stupid
– The in-game music needs to be more aggressive and intense (like the “Streets of Rage” music for example), well, at least when you’re in a fight
– At times I found the controls (I used a keyboard) to be somewhat stiff and robotic-like (the controls and movement should be more smooth I think)
– I could be wrong now, but it seems like the enemies can´t block or use any grabbing attacks against you?

But you know what? Even despite what I just wrote about the down sides of the game, I still had a blast while playing the “Night City Assault” demo. So if you like beat-em-up games, then you’re going to love “Night City Assault” for sure! (the game is set for a late 2016 release to PC). And “if” that´s the case, then don´t forget to show NCA some love on Steam Green Light and Kickstarter (“Night City Assault” needs to raise) $26,290 in order to become a reality).