When I first checked out new beat ’em-up, I thought it seemed Midnight Fight Express like a fun game, although a little over-the-top. In it, you control a character known as Babyface, a shady character who used to belong to the criminal underworld and has now changed his ways for the better.
He lives in a slummy apartment and suddenly encounters a whacky drone who gives him the plotline—which has to do with tearing through a bunch of criminals and save the entire city by the next day’s first light (or everyone is doomed, of course).
Babyface somewhat reminds me of the Max Payne character, only mixed with the environments of “The Warriors” movie from the 1970s. And just like another recent beat ’em-up “Sifu,” Babyface likes to use his hands (although he can occasionally use guns too).
The enemies that you start your violent warpath against are pretty standard gang types, but as you advance through each level, you’ll go up against harder and more unusual thugs. You’ll find that some are more difficult to deal with than others, but the game isn’t defined by that.
Instead, Midnight Fight Express focuses on your ability to be creative with taking out your foes and gives you controls that are fairly easy to master. How you use these controls are what can make or break any of your runs since, at the end of each level, you are graded on a variety of things that include the diversity of kills, time bonuses, and best combo.
One of the main thing that truly made me enjoy Midnight Fight Express is the number of objects that you can throw at your enemy. Everything from boxes, chairs, suitcases, and so much more, is at your disposal. There were many, many times when I had very little health and quite a few enemies, so I would constantly be spamming objects at the enemy in order to whittle them down and get some health back.
Another very cool thing about its gameplay, but I rarely used it, was the rage ability that allows you to turn the heads of enemies into very soft watermelons that explode on contact. What was cool is that whenever I found the right moment to activate it, there was always an intense sense of satisfaction when the other enemies slightly reacted to the absolute decimation of their friend.
Back to the aforementioned bit about the story at the beginning—there is one part of it that you keep coming back to that truly made the story interesting. The part in question is how at the beginning of every level, you are seen in a police interrogation room with two officers berating you with questions about your actions.
From a narrative point of view, this sets up where by the end of the night you are going to be locked up for the carnage that you imposed upon the criminal underworld, but it also allows you to wonder if what you did under the drone’s orders has actually saved the city or paved the way for something worse to take over.
Another interesting aspect of how the cops react to your retelling of the events of the evening, is how it is also possible that they may not be working for those who have the best interest of the city at heart. Nevertheless, that is something that I will leave for you guys to find out while chewing through enemies all over the city.
In the end, Midnight Fight Express is definitely one of my top-ten favorite indie games to have come out this year. The combat is very rewarding and is just difficult enough to where you can have some truly badass action moments while also occasionally running into enemies that will make you second guess your overall game plan..
So, get those gaming PCs ready for action!
The Total War: Warhammer 3: Champions of Chaos DLC is available on PC.
Score: 8.5/10