F.I.S.T. Review

It’s not often I take a punt on a video game, with most things I play being well known larger titles. But with F.I.S.T. I took a chance and overall it’s proven to be a good one.

Rayton the Rabbit was a soldier, using a cool looking mech suit to battle the evil Legion alongside friends and comrades. But the bad guys won, and it all fell apart. Fortunately Rayton’s pal Urso still has hope and has kept things ticking over. He couldn’t salvage the entire mech suit, but he has salvaged one of it’s bloody great fists.

So with a mechanised fist on his back and encouragement from his friends, a reluctant rabbit heads out to free his world from a technological terror. He’ll find more friends, new abilities, and might even drop his gruff exterior from time to time.

First off, F.I.S.T. looks great. On PS5, there was no slowdown, even when the fights got hectic. You can see where other consoles have been considered, but it performs well. You’re in for a treat either way with the Dieselpunk aesthetic jiving well with the Furtizens of Torch City. It might not be the most populated city, but the story does someway to explaining why. There’s lot of details and it feels lived in at least.

What’s also a treat are the weapons and combat. The three main weapons are distinct, both visually and in their use, as they also give you more traversal options. In classic Metroidvania style the map unravels as you gain more weapons and options. It never felt like a hardship exploring the map and using your new abilities to dip deeper.

The intention and delivery of all the vocal performances are passionate, but the dialogue is clunky. Rayton sounding like Nic Cage is a bonus though!

For large parts of F.I.S.T. I was content, with game challenging me but staying the right side of infuriating. It took me an hour to beat one particular boss, which led to the always amusing situation of me mocking the boss dialogue before we started again. Massive feeling of accomplishment when I won. So much in fact that I stood up, shouted, and then punched my sofa. Normal enemies steadily climbed up in challenge as I gained more abilities, which makes sense.

But then there was the final boss. No accomplishment. No joy in the grind. Just full on infuriation after over two hours or the same thing over and over again. I like sticking to a difficulty level, but as I get older I wonder who cares. Enjoyment is the main thing, so after giving it a good go I moved to easy and got on with things. Thank you for adding Easy Mode in TiGames!

F.I.S.T. might be a somewhat unfortunate sounding name (pipe down with the childish giggling!) but it was well worth giving it a chance.