Developed by Bitmap Bureau and published by Numskull Games, Final Vendetta is an old-school beat ’em-up for hardcore fans of the franchise. While we have seen a lot of modern beat ‘em ups coming out recently, some of them are more accessible to modern players and are much easier to play since not a lot of today’s gamers have experienced the brutal gameplay mechanics of classic arcade beat ‘em ups. However, Final Vendetta is not one such title as it caters to a more hardcore audience. This is our review of Final Vendetta in which we get ourselves reminded of how difficult the classic beat ‘em ups used to be as we get into some knuckle-cracking fights.
The story of Final Vendetta follows Claire Sparks whose sister Juliette has been kidnapped by the notorious Syndic8 gang and Claire must now fight her way to get her back. The story is narrated in the form of retro cutscenes that go really well with the overall art style of the game. Claire is joined in the fight by her two friends retired pro-wrestler Miller T. Williams and the street fighter Duke Sancho. Final Vendetta gives you the option of joining in the fight solo or with a local co-op friend however sadly there is no online co-op in the game, and you cannot play online with random players if you do not have anyone to play with locally. Depending on your mood, you can play in four different modes in Final Vendetta.
For playing the main story of the game, you can play the Arcade Mode where you must clear 6 action-packed levels filled with a multitude of enemies and a boss at the end of each level to save your sister from the Syndic8 gang. If you have completed the game and unlocked additional game modes, can jump into the Training Mode, Survival Mode, or the Versus Mode. If you want more of a challenge, you can also jump into the Boss Rush Mode. The Training Mode allows you to understand how different enemies fight, the Survival mode is set in a fixed location and your goal is to survive an onslaught of enemies for as long as you can in the game. Finally, if you want to tackle all of the bosses in the game in one sitting, you can fire up the Boss Rush and try to defeat all of the bosses in one go, one after the other.
When you start playing the game for the first time, a short video details all of the controls that you need to know along with all of the basic attacks and some advanced ones as well. You have all of your basic beat ‘em up moves in Final Vendetta including movement, dodge, jumps, basic attack combo, jump attack combos, and character-specific advanced combos that you can land by combining the four gameplay buttons along with character movement controls. Clair, Miller, and Duke each come with their own moveset, and you have to find them out on your own in the game. Raking up hits fills up your Super meter and once it is full, you can land a Super attack which is the best crowd control attack in the game.
In the game, you have a pretty basic UI as well where you have your character’s portrait in the upper-left corner with a health bar, number of lives, current score, and combo counter. Below that, you will see your enemy’s health bar with their portrait. These changes depend on which enemy you are attacking, and each enemy will have its own name as well. On the bottom-left corner, you have your Super meter which fills as you attack enemies and depletes once you use your Super attack. For completing the whole game, you get only five lives and after that, there are no saved games or continues so if you die after consuming all five of your lives, it will be game over for you.
However, as hard as Final Vendetta is, there are plenty of items that you can pick up as you fight through the levels. Eatables grant you health while items like jewelry, watches, and electronics grant you bonus points. If you find yourself low on health during levels and as far as I know, you will mostly be low on health, you can replenish it by finding and picking up and eating different food items. There are tons of different food items that you will find lying here and there and sometimes inside breakable objects such as boxes or large cans. Small items like fruits give you a small boost but bigger items such as burgers and pizzas give you a massive health boost and you should eat them whenever you find them. Similarly, you can also pick up and use different weapons such as bats, knives, and more during fights as they come in handy in a lot of situations. Each item and weapon is limited to one level, and you cannot bring them to the next level.
The enemy AI is really smart, and they seem to adapt to various situations. Apart from being smart, they are also ruthless as they will try to surround you and then dish out the pain. Most of the bosses in the game come with their lackeys as well so apart from the boss giving you the beatdown, normal enemies will also be coming in and out for their share of punches on you. Enemies in the game love to punch your face however you have to be really fast if you want to outsmart them. I noticed that if you time your punches right, you can always get the first hit however you always have to time your fists and attack first in order to get the edge. You can always follow up with combos later however keeping the enemies juggling is not that easy in Final Vendetta.
The retro visuals and the equally amazing techno soundtrack work wonders for the title. Right from the main menu of the game, the music instantly puts you in the mood and you are grooving to the tunes. Final Vendetta feels like a complete package but the lack of online when it comes to co-op and leaderboards is a big vacant space on its side. After completing the main story of the game, you have multiple things left to unlock as well and the multiple modes are enough to keep you busy for some time. After investing around 6, or 7 hours into the game however things eventually start to get repetitive, and the game does little to expand its life beyond this time. It all boils down to how much time it initially takes you to beat the game because it is a really tough game and it all depends on your skill level.
Final Vendetta is a great game at its core and for someone, who wanted to dive into a true beat ‘em up, Final Vendetta is a dream come true however I am not a fan of how the game handles its locked modes and content. I understand locking the hardest difficulty Ultra behind the completion of Hard difficulty but locking down the Training mode for it to unlock after you complete the Arcade mode looks a bit weird. Training Mode is just a tutorial for the game, and it allows you to master taking down certain enemies while practicing with your character of choice so locking it down initially makes no sense. Still, if you are a hardcore beat ‘em up fan, you do not really need the training mode anyway but for newcomers, this will be a bad first impression. The story mode could have offered more but then again, I was pretty happy with the game overall at the end so I cannot really complain about it here. Post-completion modes are pretty fun once you are done with the main story.
Final Verdict:
Final Vendetta is a barebones and brutal beat ‘em up which is targeted at the most hardcore beat ‘em up lovers. It leaves no stone unturned when it comes to being as brutal as the classic beat ‘em ups that we all grew up playing on arcade machines. While I do have my reserves on how the game treats unlockable content in the game, at its core Final Vendetta does what it is supposed to do really well. It is brutal, it is not compromising, and the soundtrack is really good. The character choice is decent and the moveset is great once you get to know everything it will certainly take you time to master this game but that is what every hardcore beat ‘em up is supposed to be like. A lot of casual gamers might not like Final Vendetta due to its difficult gameplay but for the true fans of the genre, Final Vendetta brings plenty to the table. You also have a cool CRT shader if you really want that old-school feel in the game. A must-play for beat ‘em up fans who are looking for some old-school, bare bones knuckle-cracking fights.
Final Score: 8.5/10
