14 DAY TRIAL // Sifu, the brutal beat ‘em up developed by French studio Sloclap, debuted on PC and PlayStation last year. However, PC players could only pick it up via the Epic Games Store until recently, while Xbox fans had to wait until March 28. The date also coincides with the game’s release on Steam, so if you haven’t check this one out because it was only available on the Epic Games Store, we can’t recommend this enough.
A bit of a warning though, if you don’t have good reflexes, Sifu might feel frustrating, at least until you get used with a fast-paced, methodical combat. Along with the game’s release on Steam, the fine folks at Slocap decided to offer fans a big surprise in the form of an expansion.
Sifu Arenas is exactly what the name suggests, a series of arenas where players can test their skills in various ways. The expansion is completely free, so you don’t have to pay for it regardless of whether you plan on PC, PlayStation, or Xbox.
I have tried many of the challenges included in the expansion and I have to say that this is definitely a dream come true for the most experienced Sifu players who have already mastered martial arts. With no less than 45 brutal challenges split into nine dynamic locations, Sifu Arenas has everything you need to prove your fighting skills.
Although it’s recommended to have finished the main story before jumping into Sifu Arenas, anyone can start playing the expansion after finishing the game’s tutorial. Each of the 45 challenges comes with three score levels, so depending how well you fared you might receive more or fewer points.
The challenges are quite varied and involves surviving waves of enemies or downing targets within a certain amount of time. Dying doesn’t necessarily means that you failed the challenge, but you have a limited number of lives, usually enough to get you through the most easier ones.
For those who haven’t played Sifu, death in the game ages the character, which often times translates into more damage but less damage. Also, as your character grows older, they’re no longer as mobile as before, so you’ll want to avoid that.
Another fun challenge to complete involves protecting a certain area from enemies. The challenge becomes harder the smaller the area is, so you’ll have to strategize your fights, quickly remove the weaker enemies and isolate the larger, more dangerous ones.
For players who love combo-ing their adversaries, Sifu Arenas has a specific type of challenge that requires them to achieve a certain amount of combo points. In performance mode you get points not just for combo-ing enemies, but also for not being hit during and in between combos. The more time you manage to stay in the arena without getting hit, the more points you’ll score when landing combos.
Scoring high will allow players to unlock even more challenges, so you’re somewhat kept engaged and motivated to do better and better. It’s a nice addition to the already great gameplay loop of the original game, although after you obtain the highest scores on all challenges, there’s no reason to return to the Arenas.
Conclusion
As I’ve said, the expansion’s replayability value is almost zero, but getting almost 10 hours of free content is definitely worthy. No one with purchase Sifu for the Arenas expansion, but I’m certain that those who already have the game or plan to get it will have a lot of fun with these challenges.
Preview key was provided by the publisher.
