Streets of Rage IV - Survival Mode DLC and Anniversary Editions Out Now

[Pug]

Got to Stage 6 or 7 this morning but may knock it down to Easy to add a bit more fun to playing. Then I'll up the difficulty when I've completed it.

[Triple A]

Yeah enjoying this so far, am up to Stage 6 or so.

Great music, which was my main wish for the things hoped to be right. Will buy on vinyl.

Some nice new mechanics here and there and I like the way this feels to play. SOR def deserves better art though, such an IP should have more money etc. be chucked at it.

[El Spatula]

Lack of decent defensive options is really getting to me now. Still liking it a lot, but yeah give me something other than press Y with a delay and no cancelling.

[JLM]

I really don't agree that it needs a block button or parry. It would feel a lot less  like Streets of Rage to me with that.

 

Like in the previous games, you have to defend using your defensive special, the invincibility on your blitz, the invincibility on throws/vaults etc. Also good movement and crowd control are key. You have to choose when to commit to things and prioritise the threats. If there are enemies who can jump attack you from full screen you need to be moving rather than trying to combo one of the other enemies, or knocking them down with a jump kick to give a bit more room to breathe etc. Your spacing is also important. A lot of the enemies have specific things they'll do when you're stood at a particular distance from them and you need to manipulate this when moving about.

 

Applying the Bloodborne health regain mechanic to SOR was such a great idea. Sega were toying with the special system themselves in SOR2 and 3 but I think this take on it is a better solution than in either. You can use your specials so liberally for defense, combo damage and movement but you have to weigh up the risks and ideally have a plan for getting that health back. Perhaps saving a few of the easiest ones til later in the wave or beating up a few inanimate objects to keep it topped up etc. Having quite a few moments where I'm having to rack up more green life to try and keep hold of the green life I've got, or weigh up doing a big combo to try and kill a boss faster against the green life it'll cost me

 

I don't think I'm getting hit by much that's completely unavoidable, and usually if I do it's because I've let the situation get out of hand and put myself in a scramble.

 

I've played about 8 hours of this today, it is everything I hoped it would be and more. I have tiny nitpicks, but the love and attention that's gone into it is so clear to see and it has delivered on all of the biggest things I was looking for, massively over-delivering on some of them. It's so good.

 

 

 

 

 

[Kayin Amoh]

Humble Bundle has it on PC for just over £15 right now. Not sure if you need to be a subscriber or not (I am), but it's probably not much more expensive for non-subscribers anyway.

[Mr Ben]

Completed it as Axel earlier (PS4). The last boss is a bit ridiculous, and I just about managed to beat it with about a quarter of a health bar left.

 

Either I am getting old and my SoR skills now suck, or this really needed a dash or roll to be able to move quicker - I am leaning more towards the latter, despite the obvious aging, as I used to beat SoR 2 quite easily back in the day, and even on an emulator after I sold my Mega Drive. A lot of the things that knack me are attacks that I can barely avoid due to them coming from above or below, sometimes in diagonal directions that you cant really avoid quick enough. Bosses arent much of a problem, its usually the mobs using knives, or other weapons I've noticed that you cant really stop with attacks, where they can hit you, but their hit detection on you seems to happen before yours on them. This is quite apparent on level 6, before the final boss, as there are scores of enemies that come at you with weapons.

 

I hope this is something that can be looked at, as the games not easy anyway, but this just makes it a bit frustrating, which I dont recall ever feeling in previous SoR games.

 

I should point out that this is the only criticism I have of the game, and I thouroughly enjoy playing it regardless. I will, however, cringe a bit whenever I get to level 6

[JLM]

Knife Garcias are the same as they were in previous games. You either need to hit a very precise jab, which is risky because of the angles they approach from, or knock them down with a jump kick or your defensive special to disarm them. This is the same as it was in SOR2, except in this game you can get the health back after you defensive special, so it's actually more forgiving. There are definitely more situations in this game that require defensive special, but then should be when you can recover the health in this one. Maybe if you were a bit shy about burning the health on it in previous games you need to be a bit more liberal with it now? 

 

That said, this game's normal difficulty is definitely harder than Normal in the previous games. I play SOR2 on Hardest usually and I still found normal  pretty challenging here. I don't think it's harder in a particularly unfair or frustrating way though. SOR2 and 3 on the hardest difficulties can make me rage a lot more than this one has so far.

[Mr Ben]

The problem with stage 6 is the amount of weapon wielding enemies in that small area. Didnt have any issues prior to that, or even afterwards. Obviously a first play through is learning the layout, enemies and attacks, so maybe it'll now be easier on a replay. And yeah, I only really noticed the health regain thing after level 6

 

Also, normal difficulty is definitely not normal, as I did the same in SoR 2. I do miss playing as Max though. Cant wait to unlock him and deal some mahoosive damage with that atomic drop.

[Bobbi Champagne Jr]

13 minutes ago, Mr Ben said:

The problem with stage 6 is the amount of weapon wielding enemies in that small area. Didnt have any issues prior to that, or even afterwards. Obviously a first play through is learning the layout, enemies and attacks, so maybe it'll now be easier on a replay. And yeah, I only really noticed the health regain thing after level 6

 

Also, normal difficulty is definitely not normal, as I did the same in SoR 2. I do miss playing as Max though. Cant wait to unlock him and deal some mahoosive damage with that atomic drop.

That stage 6 weapon bit is a lot easier with some of the other characters. When Cherry swings that halberd she’s got much more range in it than when Axel does, for example. Also, you can throw weapons and catch them in the air on the rebound. 

[Gabe]

I just gave the first stage a go via Game Pass and it seems alright, but I really don't like the art style they have gone with. I have no attachment to the series though (I think I only ever played SoR 3 in the distant past), so whilst I'll try and complete it, I won't be going back to it.

 

I also read that it's only on the Steam version you can change resolution and stuff, is that right?

 

 

[schmojo]

I'm utterly loving what little I'm played of this on PC Gamepass, but I'm getting regular crashes with online multiplayer.

 

We're lucky if we make it through two sections, let alone a whole level, before it bails and kicks us out. Anyone else seeing this? Is it a known issue?

[PyramidFace]

Yeah, got a lot of crashes playing online co-op on Xbox.

[deerokus]

2 hours ago, Gabe said:

I just gave the first stage a go via Game Pass and it seems alright, but I really don't like the art style they have gone with. I have no attachment to the series though (I think I only ever played SoR 3 in the distant past), so whilst I'll try and complete it, I won't be going back to it.

 

I also read that it's only on the Steam version you can change resolution and stuff, is that right?

 

 

It seems as if the xbox (and pc windows store version presumably) version was ported by a different company from the other console versions, and I can only assume that's why there are some graphical options on the switch and ps4 that aren't on the xbox, sounds like a similar case on the PC versions. Bit weird really, there's what, 5 or 6 different developers involved in this game. The pixelly mode isn't on the xbox version. 

[JLM]

3 hours ago, Bobbi Champagne Jr said:

That stage 6 weapon bit is a lot easier with some of the other characters. When Cherry swings that halberd she’s got much more range in it than when Axel does, for example. Also, you can throw weapons and catch them in the air on the rebound. 

 

Yeah, Axel is traditionally the least mobile character too, so he struggles the most with situations like that. This middle aged bulked up Axel in SOR4 actually fits how lumbering he is better than his old design. You'd think in SOR2 it'd be Max but his blitz and offensive special both let him move around surprisingly fast. I like that they've sort of kept that with Floyd's air special and his hold and release attack that gives him a bootleg forward dash. I still insist on using Axel in every game despite this, though in this game I'll definitely be playing a lot of Adam as well. He is so much fun. I think he'd be a great antidote to some of the struggles people have had. He has an actual dash so you get a great mix of Cherry's mobility and Axel's heavy hits. Solid all rounder with immensely satisfying wall bounce combos.

[Mr Ben]

Just tried SoR1 Axel, and his attacks are a bit ridiculous. I suppose it had to be done considering how limited the first games characters are in terms of attack variety, but he attacks like lightning and does a shed load of damage, one flurry and an enemy just melts. I vaguely remember that he was the most damaging character in the original though, so maybe its just that.

[Isaac]

I've completed this twice now and it's great. 

 

I just found out about this hidden feature (spoilered if you don't want to know):

 

 

 

 

Need to taser one of the arcade machines ASAP!

[sprite]

I got to the four riot shield guys in Stage 2 and got my ass handed to me!  What is the best way to handle them?

 

May consider dropping down from Normal for starters  

[BadgerFarmer]

The downwards jumping attack is pretty good to get rid of their shields quickly and safely. They tend to swing and miss as you're bouncing off their heads.

[JLM]

Can also tap the shield a few times and then move slightly up or down as they wind up the swing. 
 

My preferred method is to do the regular attack string and then hit defensive special when they go to swing at me. The invincibility makes their attack miss and then you can finish off the shield with a few more hits, which also immediately gets you the health back after using the special. 
 

 

[Isaac]

Minor quibbles with the retro soundtrack:

• They're all 60hz versions (so are too fast)
• They have included 8bit versions of some tracks, which seems unnecessary given the amount of music required and the number of tracks across SoR 1,2 and 3
• There are baffling choices for which song plays where (why play an 8bit version of the stage theme when fighting Shiva when you have two separate Shiva boss battle themes you could use from SoR 1 or SoR 2?!)
• The mix is all wrong - it's too quiet compared to the new stuff. This is the easiest one to fix - they just need to increase the volume! I have audio at 100% and I can still barely hear them above the fight sounds.
• They sound much lower quality than the vinyl versions - might be unfair of me. I'm not sure whether this is just the volume in the mix, but when Alien Power comes on it has none of the bass or power of even this youtube version:

 

 

Hopefully they can fix some of these, but for now I won't be using the retro soundtracks until they do. A full sound options menu where you could pick which song plays on which stage, and actually increasing the music volume so that it's the same loudness as the new songs would go a long way to fixing quite a few of these.

 

It's a shame because otherwise the inclusion of the old music is great!

[Isaac]

Having said that, some of the new music is sensational. Personal favourites at the moment:

 

 

 

 

[Down by Law]

Adam's by far the best character it's almost rediculous. His forward x offensive special send enemies flying so far on any stage with pits you can clear out entire mobs with one button. He's got a double forward dash so outside of cherry the fastest, most mobile character. He swings weapons like clubs further forward than the others, so you can knock those shields off the riot cops without even being in range of their attacks. He has some alternate moves with weapons by pressing forward forward attack such as the mop. He's an absolute wrecking machine. His jump in down combo into air special does great damage and hits many times. His back attack looks amazing, a full on donkey kick. He looks boss as fuck too. Shame they didn't approach Axel with the same sort of design mindset, the jack up scruffy tramp. Anyone struggling I'd highly recommend giving him a go. 

[Down by Law]

Yeah the retro soundtrack implementation is a massive let down, bizarre choices and volume and why all the streets of rage 1 tracks are the 8 bit versions? absolute insanity. Hopefully they will patch it. 

 

Good job the new music is good though. The chapter 9 opening and ride themes are really good and the entirety of chapter 6 really got me pumped up. The only dissapointment is the last stage that's goes a bit too much SoR3 for my liking. The relatively chilled out music on the way to the final boss is my fave part of the first two games. 

[Sumire]

10 hours ago, dvdx2 said:

Is there no higher resolution support for the pro / x / pc? That’s pretty lazy.

 

I was hoping it would be 4K, but looks to be 1080p so not very sharp. Only played on Xbox One X so far.

[Isaac]

Isn't there higher resolution support for the Steam version, but not the game pass version?

 

My understanding is a different team did the Xbox / game pass pc version, which is why some of the filters and video options are missing, unfortunately.

 

Hopefully that will be fixed.

[Down by Law]

On PS4 i turned overlays off , so all the foreground shit is removed completely and it looks more in line with the 16bit games. Much easier to see a cheeky knife wielding Galsia that way too.

[Down by Law]

 

My fave of the new tracks. The intro reminds me of Big Trouble in Little China. 

[Sumire]

23 minutes ago, Isaac said:

Isn't there higher resolution support for the Steam version, but not the game pass version?

 

My understanding is a different team did the Xbox / game pass pc version, which is why some of the filters and video options are missing, unfortunately.

 

Hopefully that will be fixed.

 

Oh, ok, yeah maybe. I bought it on Xbox, so have the none Steam version. If true, that is really dumb lol.

[Wiper]

Frankly, the biggest issue with the Microsoft Store version is that it doesn't recognise generic USB controllers, only ones that look to the system like a 360 gamepad etc. - meaning I have to use joy2key-style software to use my USB MD pad to play the game. Fine for single player, but means no multiplayer for me using multiples of that controller (unless I buy the Steam version, which apparently happily recognises them).

 

Love that the Microsoft Store somehow makes things worse even in game. That's some dedication to being the worst digital store in existence!

 

Game's great otherwise, mind. Playing on Normal as Cherry I've got as far as... whatever the level after Shiva is. No continues used so far, though I did have to defeat Shiva with no spare lives, which was a bit dicey. Had to stop there because I'm not young any more and The Claw was starting to destroy my fingers. More this evening, I think!

[Super Craig]

The artwork was made for 1080p screens according to the DF video. I don't think a native 4K mode is going to offer much.