Virtua Fighter 5 REVO is slightly less revolutionary than we’d hoped

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Virtua Fighter 5 REVO is the fourth edition of the classic Sega fighting game, and it offers several enhancements to make your gaming experience worthwhile. It introduces rollback netcode and one of the most significant roster balances in years. But is it worth the investment? Well, sort of. The balance improvements are commendable, and the game’s graphics have never looked better. However, if you’re primarily interested in the netcode, you might find some shortcomings. I was able to find matches with reasonable ease, but issues like lag or glitches were quite common across various fights.

Better balance for a better fight

Virtua Fighter 5 REVO delivers an impressive overhaul in terms of visual aesthetics and character balance. Each character has a unique feel, although personal preference might influence your opinion based on who you primarily use and your familiarity with them before and after the REVO updates. Personally, I found it to be a significant improvement. My main character is Jeffry McWild, and he feels fantastic in this game. After going through the tutorial again and reviewing his move set, I was quickly laying waste to opponents, lifting them off the ground, tossing them into walls, and resuming my combos – it’s never felt better. McWild has always had a strong offensive flow, but the new ability to hoist opponents by their face and slam them into walls to extend his combos is particularly satisfying in this update. From what I can tell, many of the other characters have undergone similar enjoyable adjustments.

In the revamped version of Virtua Fighter 5 (VF5 REVO), the overall design, stages, and user interface continue to be as fresh and sharp as always. This game offers numerous appealing aspects, keeping players engaged both offline and online. One feature I particularly enjoy in VF5 REVO is its comprehensive training mode. Here, you can learn the fundamentals of the game, but what sets it apart is the “Command Training” section where you can meticulously go through each character’s move set, move by move, until you have successfully executed every one of them. Once you have a good understanding, there’s always Free Training to hone your combos and adapt to various situations. This suite of tools is invaluable for both novices and veterans as they strategize their gameplay.

One of the aspects I enjoy, particularly under specific conditions, is the real-time online matches available directly from the main menu. If you linger for a while, Virtua Fighter 5 REVO will link you to a live online match as an observer, allowing you to watch other players engage in combat. I’ve often felt that games like Street Fighter and Tekken are missing out on an opportunity by not incorporating something similar into their battle hubs, offering spectatorship during idle time. It’s intriguing to see this feature in action here, and I hope other fighting game creators consider adopting a similar approach.

Rollback netcode… or at least something called as much

I decided to hold off posting my game impressions for an additional day until it went live, as I was eager to observe how online play would perform. I’m relieved I did so because the current state is significantly further from where I’d prefer it to be. Despite understanding that rollback netcode is popular and applauding Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios for implementing it in VF5, their execution leaves much to be desired, even with the “Beta” label on the rollback options in settings.

During my regular gameplay sessions, the battle would initially flow smoothly, like silk. However, as the first round neared its conclusion, a nagging issue known as lag would surface, persistently plaguing the rest of the game. I’m talking about a drastic drop from the seamless 60 frames per second it maintains offline, to around 15-30 fps when the lag became prevalent. Remarkably, it was a steady kind of lag – not the jarring, abrupt changes from fluid combat to stuttering visuals and back again. Once the lag set in, it simply maintained that lower frame rate for the remainder of the match.

In the best-case scenario, things worked out for me. However, most times, the situation deteriorated to a point where I had to anticipate three seconds ahead when playing Jeffry, just to have a chance at winning. Characters like Eileen and Sarah, who were faster, could simply pelt me with attack after attack while I struggled to deal with delayed input issues on a character with slow normal attacks. Playing Jeffry, I can still emerge victorious, but when the network code is this poor, it only makes things harder. Furthermore, it gives an otherwise elegant fighting game a messy appearance whenever played online, which also negatively impacts the match views from the main lobby that I cherished.

REVOffline only

I find the approach that Ryu Ga Gotoku took with Virtua Fighter 5 in this version to be impressive, especially for offline gameplay. However, implementing rollback netcode into a game not originally designed for it can be challenging, as we’ve seen in the past. Regrettably, REVO seems to be following that trend without significant post-launch improvements. It clearly isn’t at the level it should be. With the next Virtua Fighter already announced, Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku need to address this issue promptly. I truly hope they do, as it’s crucial for their future projects.

The opinions expressed here are derived from the computer (PC) edition of the game, which was provided by the publisher. Virtua Fighter 5 REVO can currently be purchased and played on PC.

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2025-01-28 18:29