You open the door and immediately throw an empty bottle at a goon before turning your attention to another running around the corner. With a flurry of punches and a final kick you send him hurtling to a fighting pit below. More punches and the enemies are downed, the screen splashes a sudden scarlet and you move on in your relentless pursuit.
Sifu, out next year on PlayStation and PC, is an incredibly stylish take on kung-fu. Developer Sloclap experimented with hand-to-hand combat with its previous game Absolver, so a kung-fu game seems like a natural progression.
Sifu previewPublisher: SloclapDeveloper: SloclapAvailability: Out February 8th on PC, PS4 and PS5
The focus is solely on combat with little story given, at least in the short section of the game for this preview. It takes place in a private members club, all shadows and paper lanterns with splashes of purples and pinks. Beforehand you can explore your Wuguan, accessed between missions, to level up abilities at the (literal) skill tree, practice combos in the training room, and view a board covered in notes and cuttings that hints at a larger web of conspiracy you’ll, presumably, be tasked with unravelling in the full game.
For now it’s a linear path through the club. There are no puzzles to solve, no story objects to collect. Just punch, kick, smash through groups of enemies.
There’s enjoyment in that purity of vision. Sifu harks back to 90s beat ’em ups, hurtling through urban environments, smacking through waves of thugs, using improvised weapons around you. Though set in a contemporary Chinese city, the influence of classic kung-fu cinema in its set up, martial arts and framing is strong and adds a retro feel. It’s familiar, with a modern twist.