First Impressions

Street Fighter V – First Impressions + 10 Minutes Of PC Gameplay Footage

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Street Fighter V faced a lot of major server issues on its launch day. Since then, Capcom has been trying to address its issues and here we are today, almost ten days after release, with our First Impressions article.

Before continuing, know that Capcom has not released yet any update to address the PC issues that plagued the PC release. Some of them are native DirectInput support, the expanded key re-binding functionality and the fixed resolution switching functionality.

Street Fighter V is the sequel to Street Fighter IV (duh) but contrary to its predecessor, it is really friendly to newcomers. The game relies heavily on reading your opponents moves, and does not feature really complex combos (at least at this point). Players can still chain moves in order to create some custom combos, but these combos are not as devastating or long as those in Street Fighter IV.

Street Fighter V ditched the Focus mechanics of Street Fighter IV in favour of V-Skills. Each character has his/her own V-Skill. V-Skills are free-to-use actions unique to each character and they are all activated by pressing both medium attack buttons. It’s an interesting replacement that adds diversity.

Street Fighter V also introduces V-Triggers. Similarly to V-Skills, V-Triggers are unique to each fighter. Some fighters gain access to a power-up for a limited amount of time, while others perform a single powerful move.

And for what is worth, Street Fighter V is a lot of fun. It’s a really addictive fighting game that will keep you coming back for more. Yes, there is no Story mode. Yes, there is no Arcade mode. Yes, this initial release is focused on online battles. Yes, the game feels unfinished. However, its fighting mechanics are top notch.

Our biggest gripe with Street Fighter V is that there are no Challenges at all. Challenges are crucial in games like Street Fighter V as players can learn their characters by completing them. And since there aren’t any Challenges right now, players will have to visit forums and watch videos so that they can learn what their favourite characters can actually do.

Moreover, and even though Capcom claims that the Matchmaking system works as intended right now, it takes a while until you find a match. This is a big let-down as you may be waiting 5 minutes in order to play a match that can last around 2 minutes. Furthermore, you will encounter a lot of rage quitters (who are not punished at all right now).

In other words, Capcom has a lot of work to do in order to improve Street Fighter V. Thankfully, the cross-platform functionality between PC and PS4 appears to be working great, and the game does not require a really powerful PC in order to be enjoyed. Even though there is no SLI profile for it, we did not encounter any performance issues on our Intel i7 4930K (turbo boosted at 4.0Ghz) with 8GB RAM and an NVIDIA’s GTX690 (due to the lack of an SLI profile, it performed similarly to a GTX 680).

All in all, if you are into fighting games and are only interested in online battles, Street Fighter V is a must-have title for you. Its mechanics have been re-worked and the game feels better and more balanced than Street Fighter IV. In its current state, however, the game lacks single-player content and there are some issues that have not been resolved yet on the PC.

Street Fighter V has a lot of potential, so here is hoping that Capcom will continue supporting it. And yes, it’s unacceptable that this game got released in its current state. Still, when it comes to fighting mechanics, there is no better game out there than Street Fighter V.

Enjoy!

DSOGaming - Street Fighter V - 10 Minutes Of PC Gameplay Footage