15.6.2017

WARNING: If you're not a PS Plus member, you should evaluate carefully whether the offline content of the game gives you what you're looking for.The focus of this game are its online multi-player modes (even to the point that they reportedly added artificial input lag offline to make the timing more similar to the online experience). It also offers some single-player content, but less than previous Tekken games. Since this is not covered in great detail in professional reviews, the main focus of my review will be the offline content. I will also briefly cover the online modes and some general considerations.RosterThe roster consists of 36 characters (down from 40 in Tekken 6 and 59 in the non-canonical Tekken Tag Tournament 2).In addition, there will be at least 3 DLC characters available in the future. The game features 9 new characters (including Akuma from Street Fighter, who plays a lot like his SFIV version). I found most of those less interesting than the characters they replaced, but compared with many other fighting games the roster is still quite large and very solid.GameplayThe core mechanics were left intact, so that (even with the addition of some elements from 2D fighting games) Tekken 7 still feels very much like a Tekken game. Since Tekken 7 has been in arcades for more than two years prior to the release of the home version, the gameplay is very balanced and fine-tuned. There has been an effort to make the gameplay more accessible than Tekken Tag Tournament 2, which is something that people who are new to the series will appreciate. However, the game itself makes almost no effort to teach you how to play. There are enough tutorials available on the internet, though. Since there are a lot of Tekken veterans online, newcomers should not be surprised if they lose a lot of matches. The game has high-damage comeback mechanics that make it possible to turn a match around, but those can be used by the veterans as well.GraphicsTekken 7 can't quite keep up with the best-looking PS4 games, but it's still a beautiful game. The resolution is a little less than full HD and the game looks a bit better on the PS 4 Pro (reportedly, the PC version looks a lot better). The character models are not quite as detailed as in Dead or Alive 5 (the main 3D fighting game competition on the PS4). There are 20 stages. Some of them are very detailed and feature-rich while others look more like a copy of other stages. Interestingly, water and snow actually look better in the PS3 Tekken games. Some of the stages are also a bit too monochromatic for my taste.Single-player and local multi-player modesIn addition to the very solid traditional practice mode (which still doesn't show frame data, though), the game offers the following offline modes:VS BattleThis is strictly a local multi-player mode. Unlike other fighting games, Tekken doesn't allow you to fight against the CPU in its VS mode. This also means that Tekken 7 doesn't have a mode in which you can freely choose your CPU opponent, difficulty, stage and number of rounds for the next match. The mode also doesn't have a handicap option.Story modeThere's a cinematic story mode that lasts 2-3 hours. Some lengthy and boring narration aside, the presentation is quite good. It consists of narration and video sequences (which make a nice effort to include material from previous Tekken games) as well as occasional fights. The game offers assist functions and difficulty options for those fights. Nevertheless, there's a significant difficulty spike at the end. The story itself kind of gets the job done, but is ultimately B-movie material. Essentially, it's about two ruthless people (father and son no less) trying to kill each other, culminating in a bombastic final battle.Aside from the main story, there are short episodes for the characters that are not part of the main story. These consist of a short introductory text, a fight and a video ending (similar in style and tone to the arcade endings in previous Tekken titles) that focuses on the battle. On paper, the focus on one fight makes these episodes quite coherent. It also makes them very short, though. You can unlock all of the endings quickly, which left me with the feeling that there's not much more left to do here. Unlocking the arcade endings in the previous games took a lot longer.Once you've played through the story mode, it doesn't have much replay value.Arcade BattleThe arcade mode has been shortened to five matches, two of which are against boss characters. This makes the mode more repetitive than in previous games, because you are fighting the same boss battles over and over again 40% of the time (actually more than that because you can't skip some of the cutscenes). As a result, the arcade mode doesn't have much replay value, either. There are also no endings to unlock.Treasure BattleThis is the main single-player mode with replay value, but it is also plagued by some issues.Treasure Battle replaces Ghost Battle from previous Tekken games. Originally, Ghost Battle offered an endless battle mode that would allow players to simply have match after match without anything getting in the way. This has been somewhat compromised by the features that have been added (and removed) for Treasure Battle. Considering that it's the only single-player mode with replay value, Treasure Battle feels over-engineered to me. This is how it works:It's still an endless chain of battles, but after each win you'll get a chest (or several chests) that will contain unlocked customization items or extra fight money. Long winning streaks will give you more fight money and periodically more treasure chests to unlock. The stage will stay the same for a few matches. Occasionally, there will be matches under special conditions (double speed, double damage, damage coming only through juggles, opponents with special properties). Opponents have a rank, and consistently beating opponents of a similar rank or special opponents will increase the offline rank of your character.This focus on unlocking treasure and a more prominent role for the offline ranking system are probably the reason why a number of options from previous games have been removed: the options to choose the number of rounds, your next opponent and the difficulty of the AI, thus taking away your ability to customize the fighting itself.I find this lack of options unfortunate. It is particularly unfortunate when it comes to the difficulty settings, since the difficulty of the AI is now exclusively determined by the offline rank of your character. As long as your character rank is low, you're forced to fight easy CPU opponents. If you feel like taking on a challenge on one day and want to take it a little easier the next day, that's not possible because the algorithm to determine the difficulty will always be the same. If there are several people in your household who want to use the same character, they will get only one difficulty setting regardless of their individual skills. This will be particularly bad for people who rank their character up to a point where they're not comfortable with the difficulty of the AI anymore. From that point onward, that's the difficulty they are going do get. For experienced players, the Tekken AI is not very challenging, though. Most fighting games offer a greater variety of difficulty levels.You also don't have the option to avoid the special matches. If you enjoy them, that's fine. If you don't like them, you may find that annoying. Either way, you don't have a choice.This wouldn't be an issue if Treasure Battle wasn't the only single-player mode with replay value. But as your main mode it simply doesn't offer enough options to customize the fighting according to your personal preferences.A natural solution would be to add CPU opponents to VS mode. That would give you full control to fight as you wish, but alas, Tekken games don't have that, even though it's a standard feature in every other modern fighting game.However, if you actually enjoy treasure battles, the game offers you tons of stuff to unlock here. If you don't like the mode, you could just ignore it and focus on multi-player matches. Reportedly, all items will be unlocked after you have played 2,000 matches, regardless of whether or not they were treasure battles.Online multi-player contentI'll restrict myself to the most important points here. The netcode is pretty decent and I've not experienced a lot of lag so far (though I've heard some complaints from others). There are some connectivity issues, though. These have been addressed through patches, which has improved the situation.In terms of features, the most important changes are these: You can now start all online matches on your preferred side. This is a feature that a lot of players will appreciate and one area in which Tekken has really been innovative.They've also added a tournament mode that is similar to competitive fighting game tournaments. On paper, this is an interesting addition, but it leaves you inactive for much of the time. Accordingly, a lot of players will leave in the middle of the tournament. This is a serious issue because there is no host migration. If the host leaves (e. g., after being eliminated), the tournament will immediately be over. Unfortunately, this happens all the time.Additional contentThe game offers quite a lot of additional content: customization options, a jukebox, a gallery and a VR mode.CustomizationTekken 7 doesn't have quite as many customization options/items as Tekken 6 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2, but what we get is still decent. Characters will have a few individual outfits as well as generic outfits and items that are available to all characters. This includes "normal" stuff as well as silly items such as a pizza that you can put on the back of your character, a pile of bricks that you can put on their head, or a tulip that you can put in their hand. Those silly items don't go well with the atmosphere of most of the stages, but they are very much part of the style that Tekken is going for. While the game doesn't give you many options to customize the matches themselves, it gives you plenty of options to express yourself through character customization.JukeboxThis PS4-exclusive mode contains the music from all previous Tekken games, which can be used in Tekken 7 (which is great because the Tekken 7 OST is at best an acquired taste and will not appeal to everybody). There are presets and shuffle options for each game in the series as well as the ability to create your own presets. It's fantastic.GalleryThe gallery offers videos and illustrations from Tekken 7 as well as all previous Tekken games. They can be unlocked with fight money. There's a lot of content to be unlocked here.VR modeI can't say much about this, but it seems to be very rudimentary. You can watch all parts of the stage during matches or have a closer look at the character models.ConclusionThe gameplay is as fun as it ever was. The game offers a very solid multi-player experience as well as some nice additional content. The single-player content is disappointing, which may be a deal-breaker for people who only play offline. The game gets four stars because of the fun gameplay. If single-player content is all that is available to you or what you're primarily looking for, two or three stars would be a more appropriate assessment.

7.6.2017

As a fan of the entire Tekken series this game just didn't quite perform as well as some of the original titles, but as an individual next-gen fighting game it was great.Team battle has been removed, which was a poor choice considering how much original fans loved it in the previous games; hopefully this will return in one of the scheduled updates in the next year. Story mode is the best it has ever been, and was more in line with the Injustice story mode style.The story was compelling, it clarified and added to the original story of the Mishima family and rather than using the 'streets of rage' fighting style of Tekken 6 it chose to integrate classic Tekken fights with graphically brilliant cut scenes.The story was, however, too short for my liking, I was left wanting more, especially since a large portion of the Mishima/Kazama story was not covered. This was clearly to leave room for a Tekken 8, which I would normally be happy about but given that it took almost 4 years since the PS4's release for us to get a Tekken title, this just instead sounds like an arduous wait for the next story instalment. Some loop-holes in the story were left in such a way that it seems we will never find out the answers, which is even more frustrating. As somebody who cannot stand Street Fighter, it was also an insult that Akuma was given a place not only on the rosta, but more insultingly in story mode itself. He is overpowered compared to a lot of other fighters, and doesn't fit in with the Tekken style, instead standing out a mile that he doesn't belong in the Tekken universe. This was clearly an attempt to appease those fans who wanted a Tekken VS. Street Fighter, but not all of us wanted that and after waiting years for a big Mishima story line, it was really an insult to the fan base to include him, especially in such a central way.The health bars are also shorter, which isn't necessarily a negative but definitely changes the gameplay. The rage arts are very reminiscent of Injustice's super moves, and in the same way can allow somebody on very low health to spin the match in their favour; which, depending on which side of that you are on, can be a great feature or the most annoying thing to grace Tekken after Akuma and Lucky Chloe.Treasure battle is a new mode that allows you to fight the AI whilst promoting your characters and unlocking numerous items to customise your characters. Customisation options are very wide ranging and a fun part of the game, with no microtransactions and in-game money being easy to earn. The only issue with customisation is that it is only superficial, none of the gear that can be equipped will alter stats or abilities in any way. Tekken 6 therefore has the better customisation system in this sense, as you can have both cosmetic and ability-enhancing equipment for your characters. What was a nice addition is that a lot of the original characters have outfits in customisation from earlier games in the series, which is a nice touch of nostalgia if you're a long lasting fan. Similarly, jukebox is an amazing addition, with the ability to play the soundtrack of any prior console Tekken game.Online player matches and tournaments are great with minimal issues, though there is currently an issue connecting with other players for ranked matches (something the developers are looking to fix). In terms of the rosta, a lot of the original characters are present, with updated moves and fighting styles for a lot of them.New additions to the rosta are mixed, for example Shaheen and Kazumi are great additions to the game and have a really good fighting style that is easy to become accustomed with, however characters like Lucky Chloe should have been excluded forever. Character endings are still present in Tekken 7 but not for every character, only for a select few, and to unlock them you only have to win 1 match... not to mention that arcade mode has now stuck with 5 matches (as in Tekken 6), completely deviating from the original format of 10 stages to beat before a character ending. I personally just felt this wasn't challenging enough, I didn't feel the same accomplishment I did in prior instalments when I unlocked character endings, and a lot of the endings were very shallow and nothing fun or heavily story related.In summary, the game is graphically amazing, with fluent fighting and some great new character additions and game modes. However, the game in a lot of ways just doesn't live up to previous instalments, if battle mode was back and the story had been longer this may not have been my opinion. But without shadow of a doubt Lucky Chloe and Akuma are the worst things to happen to Tekken, no matter how much customisation you do to make Lucky Chloe look like an acceptable person she still makes cat noises... this just shouldn't be a thing we have to deal with!

8.6.2017

Now I'm a TEKKEN fan, I'm no pro, but I'm familiar with the franchise & have always enjoyed playing the games. I've been looking forward to the game since it's announcement with high hopes, and I can confirm that it does not disappoint!The gameplay is flawless. It runs so smoothly both on and offline which is so crucial in a game like this! Throwing out combos on your opponent is so satisfying, but it's not all about who can button mash the fastest. The balance between attack and defense is brilliant, so if you find yourself in a corner being button mashed on there is always an opportunity to break free (wether or not you take it is a different matter). Beyond that character balance is also brilliant!

2.6.2017

It's so close, both characters are in rage mode, who will win?! And then it happens, everything goes into slo-mo and you get that rush of endorphins as your character lands a devastating blow just milliseconds before your opponent does!For classic Tekken fans like me, this is such a perfect blend of nostalgia mixed with modern mechanics, special effects and overall depth. There is a vast amount of customisation available and more to be unlocked as you progress and yes, your crazy looking customised character wearing a silly hat or cool Chinese armour can be used online to show off your individuality!Eliza is the pre-order bonus character.

7.6.2017

I've never really been the biggest fan of Tekken, but I started playing Tekken properly on the Xbox 360 with Tekken 6.My thoughts on Tekken 7 are as follows;Gameplay: Typical Tekken gameplay, but with the addition of Rage Drives and Rage Arts. I love how the Rage Arts act as finishers or Super Combos, if that makes sense.Story: You could say that it's a little short and sweet, but it was really good. The ending absolutely blew me away (no, I won't spoil it).Online: I did come across a few problems where it wouldn't let me ready up in a player match lobby. It sometimes sticks on the fight is not finished, and it ends up stopping me from readying up and having to wait my turn.

2.1.2018

Just to note first off, there are no discs in this physical copy of Tekken 7 (this is mentioned on the Amazon listing, but seems easy to miss so I'll mention it here). However, instead of simply being a Steam code in an otherwise empty box there is also a short comic book and a few stickers which helps redeem it in my eyes.Oh, and just to warn those with slow/capped internet connections, the download is approx 36 gigabytes from Steam.As for the game itself, it's pretty good on a fundamental level although the lack of singleplayer content is disappointing, especially when compared to its predecessors. Treasure mode (where you fight battle after battle against AI opponents for gold and unlockables)

30.12.2017

Bought new, arrived on time and undamaged.The box is very solid and very nicely illustrated.I'll admit, I often buy these 'special editions' primarily for the statues ...... and this statue is a very good one. If you have any interest in such things, buy it. Its a single piece - nothing to assemble or clip together. Its very large, very detailed, brilliantly dynamically posed and very cleverly designed to be stable and well balanced. The paintwork is clean and in mostly matt colours, The two figures are facing different ways, so you can periodically rotate the statue 180' to have a different character facing you. Excellent.The game comes in a standard plastic case containing the disk and season pass code.

7.6.2017

This gives the grand conclusion to the feud of Kazuya and Heihachi and shows how and why it all started and goes very deep into the lore of the Tekken universe, controls are extremely responsive easy to understand, each button for each limb and you can map combo's of buttons to your triggers so pressing left and right kick together you can just map that to a shoulder button to save confusion in combo's and setups, the character editor is a lot of of fun although feels a little lacking in costumes of only having a handful of unique items for each character, the modes are as you'd expect although I was playing more treasure battles than the arcade mode as it just insetivsed better rewards and the shining thing of Tekken 7 on the PS4 is the Jukebox and gallery,

18.7.2017

This is probably the best Tekken, but aren't they all? (New releases)The Online has had some issues at launch but the developers are addressing it. The developers also say that because this game has a "SEASON PASS" it means that rather then releasing the game and forgetting about it... bugs never addressed... they can remain active with the community and address bugs, and add DLC for AT LEAST one whole year. So expect it to be updated frequently.Single Player is pretty good, the AI starts out a little stupid but as you rank up the AI starts learning and won't take your bullcrap for long!It ends up very challenging for an AI, especially in the TREASURE MODE,

14.8.2017

Best fighiting game frachise out there which I have been playing since I first bought a PS1. I was so excited for this and preordered as soon as it was available. It came on time and I got the Eliza DLC. I had high expectations for this game but I feel its not as good as it could be. The different fighting modes have not been included; there isn't time battle or team battle for example. This makes it hard when playing 2 player as you have to keep going back to the character select screen. Also the roster is definitely not as big as previous editions - they should definitely have some more DLC. Once you play through story mode there really isn't much else to do except treasure battle and considering how quickly I completed story mode on all levels of easiness (in the space of a fortnight),

26.6.2017

I love the Tekken games but I don't feel this is the best in the series, It's still better than T4 though. It's like they learnt what SFV messed up and made sure they include thos features so they don't get blasted at by gamers. Whilst this is a good thing the features feel half baked.PROS:- Graphics have much improved thanks to using Unreal Engine 4- Story mode is a fun getaway- Good selection of characters new and old- Fun new fighting mechanics and features like the last hit slow motion- PS4 Only: The jukebox mode is awesome, contains nearly every Tekken song from previous gamesCONS:- Modes are missing: Survival, team battle and any mini game (Always have been in the series)- Certain old characters are still missing; Michelle/Julia Chang,

11.7.2017

I have loved the tekke games since the debut on ps1. Tekken 3 was my all time favourite. I followed on with tekken and loved to see all my favourite characters change graphically.Watched some of this game on u tube and decided to get it.Im going to be very honest and tell you that , yes it maintains its classical mishima story lines and amazing combat matrix but some of the original characters such as Eddy and Christie aren't there (that was the first disappointment) and then you have arcade mode which is 5 or 6 battles long with no individual stories... such a disappointment.Without online abilities then this game becomes very basic.

5.6.2017

Overall a brilliant fighting game. If you are a long time Tekken fan then you will feel right at home with silky smooth gameplay and a wide variety of characters from which to choose. If you are new to the Tekken franchise don't worry, there is a highly detailed practice mode to help you develop your skills and if you are still struggling, then there is an assist button in Story Mode and an adjustable AI difficulty setting in the Options menu to make it easier for you to learn the moves.There are multiple games modes as well - literally something for everyone who enjoys fighting games - Story Mode, Online battles, Offline Arcade, Treasure battle and VS mode, plus music from all the previous Tekken games,

2.6.2017

Not played Tekken since Tekken 3 so I thought I would get Tekken 7 to see what advances there have been to the series since then and I have to say I am enjoying it so far.Playing on the PS4 Pro is smooth although some of the environments seem a little grainy to me but all in all it is a lovely looking game.Pre-order Eliza code is emailed to you so check your inbox or junk folder.Character customisation is deep and there are some silly things you can add to your character if you wish to do so.The only thing that is bugging me at the moment is that I cannot play online as I keep losing connection to other players when I am at the acceptance of the match,

13.9.2019

Big roster, deep gameplay constantly being supported and updated by the developer. Safe bet for a fighter fan.Terrible for newcomers, no tutorials or anything like that really. Training mode has tonnes of tools for seasoned and competitve players but a completely new player will get lost in menus before they find anything useful.Single player modes are fine, basically just arcade, survival and story. Online is pretty much just casual and ranked. With that said I've managed to get literally thousands of rounds out of it and hundreds of hours. It really is a fantastic value proposition if you like fighters and have a familarity with Tekken, for everyone else, expect a steep learning curve.

Tekken 7 - Reviews

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