Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance Critic Reviews

A game that is certainly violent, absolutely profane, but also acceptably playable and filled with enough replay value and customization to warrant a purchase as opposed to a rental. But in terms of sheer polish and finesse, "Def Jam Fight for New York" is still the standard bearer against which these sorts of games should be judged.

Beatdown: Fists of Vengeance is a really strange game; a mixture of ideas that comes across as extremely hit and miss. The amalgamation of traditional beat-em-up gameplay and one-on-one works really well; but on the other hand the disguise system seems flawed, who wants to buy a beat-em-up when the aim is to avoid confrontations?

Sadly, the open world and one-on-one fighting engine lack the proper execution, and the copious loading times just get in the way.

Beatdown is a solid fighting themed action role-playing game brought down a notch by too much area transition loading and some limited promised features (like the ability to interrogate every character in the game).

Capcom did the right thing by allowing 2 player battles and extending the replay value with 5 characters but some gamers will have had enough of the load times and mind-numbing decisions by the end of the first story.

It's a beat-em-up. You beat people up. If nothing else, it offers the bare minimum of gameplay to meet the name, but all the other claims of deeper gameplay are half-assed.

Ultimately, though, it’s all about how well you wield a crowbar.

It's an engaging scrap that just about manages to keep you hooked. Worth taking a chance on if you like fight-heavy action adventures with a seedy, skuzzy undercurrent and plenty of face-smashing.

Been there, done that.

A game that feels half-baked and suffers from terrible pacing.

A dumb, forgettable game and nothing else.

There's still just not enough incentive to repeatedly play through the game.

Despite offering a laundry list of moves and button combinations, the game's complicated controls feel shallower than the three-buttoned Capcom arcade classics like "The Punisher" or "Alien vs. Predator." Group battles feel too constricted with the auto target locking mechanics, and the simplistic one-on-one fights are somewhere on the level of "Pit Fighter."

Fans of repetition or the beat-em-up genre may be interested, but the game is likely to disappoint—even as a rental. Avoid, if possible.

An intriguing idea, but it deserves a better game than this.

Building up a powerful gang from nothing under the watchful eye of the man sounds like fun, but the process in Beat Down is shallow and tiresome.

Great in concept but ends up being a slow-loading, profanity-laden action game with subpar graphics.

Beatdown is a choppy, shallow and tedious experience, despite a few cool features being thrown into the mix.

If you absolutely love pointless violence and cheesy, forced atmosphere, then by all means pick this title up. Otherwise, stay extremely far away. In fact, stick to "Streets of Rage 2," that game is way better.

It just doesn't gel, with misshapen models, repetitive, bland music and a watered-down story that struggles to maintain a "thug-like" quality through forced profanity.