The Fight: Lights Out PS3 Review

Publisher – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe – Developer – ColdWood Interactive – Genre –  Fighting – Players – 1-2 – Age Rating – 16+ – Other console/handheld formats – N/A

One of the main reasons motion sensing technology exists is to make you feel further involved in what’s occurring on-screen, and while The Fight: Lights Out might very well make you authentically hot and sweaty, it doesn’t always do a good job of matching your intended motions in game.

After the mandatory and lengthy installation period (it’s almost like the ZX Spectrum age never died) The Fight: Lights Out introduces you to Duke (he’s really actor Danny Trejo, if you’re wondering) who talks you through the controls and the mechanics of the game. There’s something faintly amusing about Mr Trejo wielding the Move motion controllers whilst playing the tough guy at the same time, and it turns out that it’s his presence that is the best thing about the game.

The Fight: Lights Out is a one-on-one fighting game, with a largely monochrome visual style that fits the gritty tone of the game well. It’s centred on the nasty and brutal business of underground fighting and sees you taking your created fighter through a series of fights, each of which happens within all the dingy and rundown backdrops you’d expect.

Whilst it’s possible to play the game with a Move and Dual Shock combo, it’s far from ideal and the developer’s intentions were quite clearly for you to use two Moves at once, one representing each fist, but even this method isn’t perfect. To move your fighter you hold down the Move button and tilt the motion controller in the intended direction, this works well enough as does the trigger activated dirty moves, whilst blocking is executed easily enough, requiring you to hold up both the moves close together.

There’s nothing flashy about the fighting. It’s largely just simple and effective punching that looks as if it hurts like hell.

The speed of your punches are determined by how fast you move your controller, or at least they’re meant to be, but this is where the bones of the game start to crumble somewhat. Punches that could seemingly knock out a bear (admittedly that might be a bit of an exaggeration of my punching power) translate in game to what is in comparison, well, a pathetic slap, whilst light movements will sometimes count as punches that look as if they could reduce an entire skull to dust.

The career mode is a fairly standard series of fights, but with a level of difficulty that gives you the sense that the developer doesn’t like you, or your virtual face for that matter, and perhaps in a way such brutality is fitting for the game. After being beaten three or four times by an early opponent some will struggle to find the motivation to stick with the game, particularly those with low fitness levels whom are already finding it  more hard work than fun. Though sticking with it does allow you to eventually accept the limitations of the controls and somewhat discover the motions that the game deems most acceptable for each different attack.

Throughout the career, the stats of your fighter can be raised, though as you have such an involvement in the action, why can’t your fighter’s performance be determined wholly by your physical condition? For instance, why can’t your real life stamina levels be reflected in game?

Given its gritty subject matter in the long run, The Fights: Lights Out is likely, from a money making standpoint, to be one of the most lucrative early Move games, but it isn’t the best display of the capabilities of the controller. It’s an inconsistent game: a bit soulless and frustrating, but not completely devoid of enjoyment. Just don’t expect it to come without some pain and dedication along the way.

6/10