Love this game – Punch Club Review

I've been playing a ton of Punch Club over several months, so it's about time for me to rate it- my very first 5-star review, if I remember correctly. I'll start with the negative: Punch Club is not for everyone. The game is all about planning and understanding its intricate systems and dynamics, which leaves little to no room for action-based gameplay. The RPG progression elements in the game's experience gain and stat growth can leave more casual players feeling stuck, and the game's combat is as non-interactive as it gets: You just tap the Fight button to start a fight, and watch as skills, stats and luck determine who wins and who loses. The music is so-so and very repetitive. There's an annoying bug where the progress window for delivering pizza disappears and can even corrupt your savefile if you try to Save & Quit when that happens (the correct thing to do is to close & reopen the app). On to the positive: This game was made with love. Lots of love, and lots of labor. Aside from the one bug singled out above, I have not encountered any other bugs in dozens of hours of gameplay. The artwork and animations are minimalistic but polished, and the aesthetic design is familiar and pleasing. The skill trees are well thought out and provide plenty of replay value. The progression of the game's tone is very well handled and does an excellent job at driving home just how far ahead you've come. The game is difficult but fair, and rewards you for learning to play by its rules. Some may see the game's lack of interactivity during combat as a drawback, and for the PC version of the game, I can agree. For iOS, on the other hand, I see it as a game being designed around the device's hardware limitations; action-heavy gameplay is terrible with an iPhone's control scheme options. This game was designed for smartphones and tablets, and plays best on them. I see the game's lack of interactivity during combat as a definite design success. I played the hell out of this game many months ago, and recently the Dark Fist free extra content released and I'm enjoying the game again. If this type of game sounds like something you might enjoy, I strongly recommend you buy and play this game. It's fantastic.
Review by Taznak on Punch Club.