"Master" review: It's not easy to play as a traditional martial arts version of "Fast Chase"

Eight years ago, at the age of 12, you hid in a cabinet and watched as your father was killed by the rebels at his gym.

Eight years later, at the age of 20, you come to the slums to search for the enemy who killed your father, and face the provocation of the lowest level scoundrels under his command.

That group of losers don't know who you are, nor do they know that your 8-year-old practice of White Eyebrow Fist has already been successful, but you know that you can use your fists to uncover clues about your enemies.

The group of brats in front of you may not have a direct connection to the massacre of the martial arts school 8 years ago, but you don't care. In their eyes, you are just a bumpkin who rushes into the door and fights anyone they see, while in your eyes, since they are helping the enemy to wreak havoc, they cannot be considered innocent.

So when the bad guys shout vulgar words like "you braised" and "Han family shovel" and attack you, you casually dismantle their bad guys' fists, counterattack mercilessly, and move towards the key points in their temples, throat, small covers, and crotch. In a moment, seven or eight rotten boys fell to the ground in a corridor, either dead or disabled.

You threw down the iron pipe you had taken from the rotten guy and walked towards the first enemy's room without looking back

"Master" can be said to be a traditional martial arts version of "Fast Chase". In the game, you can indeed confidently defeat all enemies with powerful and agile punches, just like in the previous text. However, it may be difficult to achieve this level in the first few hours of your game.

The evaluation version I have played is quite challenging. In the early stages of the game, I could only keep getting beaten and dying, and then getting beaten and dying again. I have to spend a considerable amount of time practicing, practicing, and rehearsing in a boring way, just like practicing martial arts in real life, in order to truly wield my enemies.

If the official version is also of this difficulty, it may be difficult for many players.

*This review is a media pre evaluation based on the PC version of Epic Gaming Mall. The descriptions and viewpoints included in the review only represent the subjective opinions of the reviewers. The actual gaming experience varies from person to person

**The Chinese localization of the evaluation version is not the final version, and the proprietary terms mentioned in this article may differ from the official version

The Violent Aesthetics of Hong Kong style Action Movies

According to the producer of "Master", what the development team wants to do is the one to many fight like in Jackie Chan movies. They have indeed achieved it, including environmental elements and action design, which can reveal the taste of several Jackie Chan movies. Of course, it also includes Jackie Chan's practice of White Eyebrow Fist.

As an action game based on the traditional Chinese martial arts "White Eyebrow Fist", "Master" has a sophisticated action design and defensive counterattack system, as well as a more realistic environmental interaction and execution mechanism.

Benjamin Columbi, a Frenchman who has already started teaching in his home country, studied martial arts under the master of White Eyebrow Boxing, Liu Weixin, in Foshan, Guangdong. He designed the protagonist of this game with bare hands and three weapons, as well as about 160 martial arts movements that can be triggered in different situations. Under his supervision, this work presents the strong, fierce, swift, precise, and coherent movements of White Eyebrow Fist in a form full of Hong Kong style action movie style violent aesthetics.

Everything starts with the system. It is similar to the posture system in "Only Wolf", and the attack and defense in the game revolve around this system. All characters have a "system slot", which will be reduced when attacked, and will collapse when hit empty, making the character unable to defend for a short period of time.

The yellow bar at the bottom of is the protagonist's system, and the yellow bar below the enemy's health bar is her system

Therefore, players must guard their system slots tightly during battles to prevent them from being destroyed by enemies, and at the same time, try to destroy the enemy's system slots as much as possible and execute them.

By combining directional keys with light and heavy attacks, as well as pauses inserted between keys, players can use various white eyebrow fist moves to continuously reduce enemy body slots. These moves each have their own effects, some can push the enemy unsteadily, some can make the enemy fall, and some can stun the enemy.

Use a move list

In addition to regular moves, this game also has a special move that can definitely hit enemies, cause significant damage to them, or make them dizzy or fall to the ground. These special moves require the consumption of attacking enemies or successful defensive actions to accumulate "focus" and release.

requires a special move that requires focused activation

In addition, this game adopts an unlocked design, allowing players to change the direction of their moves in the middle of a coherent move. When surrounded by multiple enemies, they can completely achieve a punch and kick in the east and a kick in the west, creating a highly entertaining combat scene.

The terrain environment is an important element of the battle in this game, which is a double-edged sword for players. For example, using a move to push an enemy near the gate, causing them to stumble over the threshold, can cause them to fall to the ground and cause significant damage to their system and health. Weaker enemies may even be instantly killed. But this situation is also applicable to the protagonist, and players should always be careful not to be killed by the enemy's terrain.

The same goes for steps

If the enemy is defeated by the system, there are interactive environmental elements nearby that can trigger environmental execution. Depending on whether the player is unarmed or holding a weapon, whether the enemy is standing or falling to the ground, whether it is a wall, railing, or bar, the execution action may involve throwing the enemy over the shoulder towards the bar, or grabbing their head and hitting it against the railing.

Environmental Execution Action

When the enemy attacks us, players can use four actions to defend and then wait for an opportunity to counterattack:

• Defense: Pressing and holding the defense button can block the enemy's normal attacks without being damaged, but it will reduce one's own system slot

Defense

• Avoidance: Hold down the defense key and move the left joystick at the appropriate time to swing the upper body or lift the leg to avoid the enemy's upper or lower attacks. Successful avoidance can restore some of the system, and triggering perfect avoidance can also enter a short bullet time. At this time, any attack can make the enemy dizzy

Defense posture: Pushing down the left joystick can avoid enemy attacks in the upper or lower stages

• Turning/Pairing: Equivalent to a perfect block, it can be triggered by pressing the defense key at the moment before being hit by an enemy. It can interrupt their current move and prevent subsequent combos from being fired, and can significantly reduce their system

Counterattack after successful steering/gear shifting

• Dodge: A regular retreat step that can be used to dodge enemy attacks, but with no additional benefits

Dodge

Among the four defense methods mentioned above, the avoidance criteria are relatively lenient, but it is necessary to determine whether the enemy's attack is in the upper or lower stages, and only the current move can be avoided. The enemy's combo will still come one after another; Turning/partnering brings great benefits and risks, as the judgment is very strict, and a slight deviation in timing may lead to direct enemy attacks.

The analysis here is a bit of a talk on paper, but in reality, there is no time to consider which method will yield the most benefits. It would be good to execute an effective defensive action. This is because the enemies and level design of Master are indeed quite challenging.

Difficult to defeat four hands with two fists

Master has a strong sense of frustration when playing. Its difficulty is the result of the superposition of multiple factors. Strict judgment of perfect blocking is one aspect; Many level scenes are narrow indoor spaces, and the automatic adjustment of the camera when approaching the edge of the scene is not satisfactory, which is another aspect; The large number and high intensity of enemies are also one aspect; There is also a special mechanism of death that is one aspect of it.

This game only has five linear levels, with an official game duration of 7-10 hours. However, if you can perfectly take on all attacks and defeat all enemies without damage, it may not take you 5 hours to get through. But in reality, it took me over 20 hours to defeat the final boss.

Of course, bosses are also difficult to deal with, but I spend far more time dealing with ordinary and elite enemies than dealing with bosses.

Although had perfectly blocked an enemy move, it didn't have time to block another enemy's fist. This is a common situation when surrounded by multiple enemies

From knowing only how to swing two combos, to understanding the alternation of upper and lower attacks, and adding subtle pauses in combos to try to disrupt your defense rhythm, to understanding how to defend your specific moves, the enemy strength in the five levels of the game increases in a stepwise manner.

As the level progresses, stronger enemies begin to mix with weaker enemies and attack you together. Sometimes enemies can become elites after being executed, making it even more difficult to deal with. Although the game mechanics do allow players to have multiple enemies, whether the actual player has enough reaction and accuracy to perform such operations is another matter.

When is executed, it transforms into an elite enemy

Therefore, during the initial period of the game, you may feel a very strong sense of defeat. Not familiar with the moves and routines of ordinary enemies, you may be beaten to death by swarms of enemies and not even see the boss at the bottom of the level; Reluctantly relying on on-site reaction to pass the level, the slayer arrived in front of the boss, but had already consumed too many death attempts in previous battles, and was then sent away by the boss with richer and more domineering moves for two or three rounds.

So you have to spend more time challenging ordinary enemies. Why? This starts with the death mechanism of this work.

Master has a special mechanism where whenever the protagonist dies, the magical pendant on his body can resurrect him in place, but it will increase the "death counter" by 1 and increase the character's age by the same number as the current death counter. When a character dies again after reaching the age of 70, they can no longer be resurrected.

death counter

For example, when a character is killed by an enemy for the first time at the age of 20, the death counter increases from 0 to 1, and the age after resurrection is 21 years old; At the age of 31, the death counter of the character is 3. When killed by an enemy, this number increases to 4. After being resurrected in place, the age is 35 years old; At the age of 67, the death counter of the character is 7. At this point, the number of enemies who kill the character increases to 8. After being resurrected in place, the age is 75 years old, and this will be the last life in this round of the game.

This means that continuous death will rapidly increase the age of the character, accidentally aging them by ten or twenty years, and then encountering particularly strong elite enemies or; boss， It is easy to break down one's mentality.

To pass the level, players may need to spend some time and effort repeatedly learning and familiarizing themselves with the moves of different types of enemies, in order to defeat ordinary enemies along the way with the least number of deaths before facing more difficult bosses.

Because it is a linear level, repeatedly brushing the same enemies can be quite tedious. However, after achieving success in learning, it is indeed a sense of achievement to defeat these enemies who had previously beaten themselves to death with swift and efficient moves one by one.

As for closing the boss, it is another level of difficulty compared to ordinary enemies. Ordinary enemies are mainly a threat posed by a large number of people, while the difficulty of a boss lies in the fact that many of the protagonist's moves are no longer easily mastered, as well as the challenge of prolonged battles to player concentration.

The boss moves and routines in "Master" are quite standardized. However, even if you know they come and go alternately, you just can't make the right response in a timely manner. This situation also requires a certain amount of practice to be alleviated.

If you really can't beat it, you can only repeat the previous levels. In addition to the issues of age and number of deaths mentioned earlier, repeatedly brushing levels can also help the character grow.

Fist fears youth, stick fears old man

Master has many mechanisms designed around repeated gameplay levels, and the growth system is one of them. The resurrection ability of the character comes from the magical pendant hanging around his waist, which is tied in a Chinese knot with five copper coins, representing the character's weak crown (20+), standing upright (30+), not confused (40+), knowing fate (50+), and ear smooth (60+) age groups.

As the character ages due to death and resurrection, the copper coins at the corresponding age stage will shatter. For example, if the character's age exceeds 30 years old, the bottom copper coin representing weak coronation will shatter. Every time the copper coin shatters, the character's maximum health will be shortened by a certain amount, and their attack power will increase slightly.

Five copper coins represent five age groups

This growth design is actually a bit inconsistent. As the saying goes, "Fist fears youth, stick fears old man." This refers to unarmed combat, which places more emphasis on physical strength and strength. These indicators gradually decrease with age, while instrumental combat places more emphasis on experience and skills, which accumulate with age. If reflected in the game, the attack power, maximum health, and speed decrease with age, but the perfect defense judgment becomes more relaxed, the moves make it more difficult for enemies to defend, and it is easier to defeat enemy system slots, which is a more logical design.

Speaking of pendants, they are also a "skill tree" in the game. Each copper coin contains four or five skills, and players can gain experience by defeating enemies. By investing them in these skills, they can unlock new moves. However, when the copper coin on which the skill is located shatters, the skill will no longer be effective in this round of the game. If you want the skill to permanently take effect, you need to repeatedly invest experience points to unlock it before the copper coins shatter.

After the copper coins of are broken, the corresponding skills cannot be unlocked in this round of the game anymore

The first unlock of each game round does not count, and each skill needs to be unlocked 5 more times to be permanently unlocked. However, after the end of a game round, the skill needs to be unlocked again for the first time in a new game round.

For example, in this round of the game, I spent 750 experience to unlock "Swirl Kick" for the first time, and then invested 1500 experience to unlock it twice. At this time, I still need 2250 experience to unlock it three times to make it permanently unlocked. But I ended this round of the game before unlocking, and after a new round of the game starts, I need to invest 750 more experience for the first unlock of this round in order to continue unlocking the remaining three times.

This means that in order to efficiently unlock skills, players need to accumulate as much experience points as possible before the copper coins shatter, and then unlock them all at once. It is difficult to achieve this in normal gameplay, especially for skills with low age and high experience requirements. So players can only repeat early relatively simple levels in order to accumulate enough experience to unlock skills.

On the other hand, due to the different effects of new moves added to each skill in actual combat, first-time players can only invest time and experience, which can only be understood through trial and error. This further prolongs the time required for players to test their skills and experience. When you permanently unlock most of the skills, you should have become proficient in dealing with the first two levels of enemies, which is heartbreaking.

After gaining enough experience and using a low age to complete levels, it's not enough. If you want to face the boss at the bottom of the level with a complete attitude, you still need to play the levels again. In each level of the map, there is a "shrine" where characters can interact with each other, not only to replenish their health and unlock skills, but also to choose level rewards.

Level rewards for Shrine

The optional rewards for the shrine include adding system slots, increasing weapon durability, and increasing focus slots. Different rewards have different conditions for receiving, some require age within a certain range, some require a certain threshold score in this level, and some require consumption experience points. These rewards will remain in effect until subsequent levels, and will be saved with the latest challenge with the lowest clearance age.

When players repeatedly refresh their experience to unlock skills, they will naturally not choose rewards that require experience points when encountering shrines. They will also tend to choose rewards that are beneficial for one-on-one and continuous combat, such as increasing weapon durability and restoring health after defeating enemies. But these rewards may not necessarily be the best choice for facing bosses, so after repeated levels and before truly challenging bosses, players need to go through levels again and choose the most useful level rewards.

Playing "Master" and repeatedly clearing levels seems inevitable. Even if you don't want to unlock skills or care about level rewards, you just want to understand the full story of this game, which is not something that can be achieved by completing the game once.

Traditional martial arts version of "Fast Chase"

The story of "Master" has two lines: light and dark. The storyline is a simple and straightforward revenge story where the protagonist travels to five different regions to find five enemies and defeat them one by one. However, looking at this line alone will give you many questions.

Yang, the leader of the five major enemies, was once a proud disciple of his father, and the protagonist was also very close to him when he was young. Why did he come back to slaughter the martial arts school after suddenly disappearing for several years? What are the other four villains? What exactly are they planning?

: The Five Enemies

By investigating the scenes in each level, we can gradually piece together the fragments that can answer these questions one by one, forming a dark storyline. The collected clues will be recorded on the storyboard and will not be reset due to Game Over.

To obtain all clue fragments, you also need to repeat the challenge level. At first glance, each level will have some elements that cannot be investigated, such as a door that requires a key to open, a computer that requires a password to unlock, or a room that requires an ID card to enter. These keys, passwords, and ID cards are often located somewhere in another level.

Clue boards for players to explore levels and collect

As of the time of writing, I have not fully collected all the clues. From the outcome of winning the final boss, I suspect that this is not a perfect outcome. However, I have no spare time to verify this hypothesis before the ban is lifted. Being able to experience games with this question can also be considered a pleasure.

Overall, fighting against ordinary enemies in Master is quite enjoyable, but the experience is relatively poor when dealing with elite enemies and bosses with particularly high health. On the one hand, many of the character's moves are ineffective against these enemies in most cases, and players can only use the most monotonous ordinary combo attacks at this time. On the other hand, the enemy's health makes the battle very long, and there is a lack of enough changes in the middle, making it somewhat boring to play.

The relatively high combat difficulty and various mechanisms designed around repeated gameplay have prolonged the game time. Although there are story clues to explore and collect, repeated gameplay is still quite boring.

If we don't demand too much from the plot and simply view it as a straightforward revenge story, the performance of "Master" is actually quite good. The five levels each have unique artistic styles and visual expressions, combined with the game music of Beijing electronic music producer Howie Lee and the action design of the game itself full of Hong Kong style action film violence aesthetics. This game is like a traditional martial arts version of "Fast Chase", and the experience is quite cool.

Considering that there are not many games on the market that focus on traditional Chinese martial arts, and there are even fewer that can be done so meticulously, if you are interested in this theme, then "Master" is definitely an excellent work worth trying.