Definitivamente não é o "Hotline Miami-like" que eu esperava (não tem absolutamente nada a ver com HM, na verdade), e dói muito não ter tido saco pra jogar esse aqui até o fim. Para não ser completamente injusto com o jogo, a história é "ok" (eu acho) e ele é sim divertido, mas divertido apenas na maior parte da primeira metade, até ficar extremamente repetitivo e maçante. Some isso a bugs esquisitos (travar numa parede e ter que recomeçar a fase inteira), controles não muito responsivos e sessões específicas extremamente injustas e destoantes da dificuldade geral do jogo. Depois desse tempo, a porção divertida (porradaria descompromissada) perdeu para esses pontos negativos, até chegar a certo ponto que não tive vontade de continuar até o fim. Fiquei com o mesmo sentimento de decepção que senti quando joguei Ruiner.

Kinda disappointing, it’s a game that desperately wants you think of it in the same esteem as hotline Miami but it’s just not there.

For all of the fair criticisms towards Hotline Miami, a game I love, it had a defined style, a fast and rewarding game loop, and a memorable and well-implemented soundtrack.

In Midnight Fight Express, the style doesn’t impress and the music feels mostly superfluous; it’s competent, it thumps like it should, but it’s hard to remember. The combat is fun, and very Arkham-like, but it feels like the weapons and your basic combo are all you really need. The other abilities are fine, but not as viable.

And As mentioned in other reviews, the dialogue is lame as hell, and it breaks up the flow of the game CONSTANTLY.

Ugh. It’s fine, and reasonably fun, but not much more.

Já tinha jogado a demo há um tempo atrás e me "decepcionei" lá, esperando algo muito mais agitado. Porém com a evolução do seu personagem ao decorrer do jogo, ele vai ficando cada vez mais frenético, o que é bom do meio pro final, mas deixa o early game um pouco mais lento (o que pode deixar o jogo meio chato e repetitivo para alguns). Sobre história, é qualquer coisa para um brawler, admito que pulei algumas partes. Sobre os pontos negativos, alguns levels com hordas um pouco injustas, algumas mecânicas mal utilizadas ou repetitivas e sua evolução (como citado anteriormente), podem deixar pra baixo a experiência.
No geral, ele é interessante pra só sair apertando uns botões.

The most 3.75 star game of all time, but also the best Hotline Miami-like that isn't Hotline Miami, probably. This has really good isometric combat and a pulse pounding soundtrack. As opposed to the perfect simplicity of Hotline, this is more combat focused and has a bit of a John Wick vibe. All 40 missions took me about 5 and a half hours. It overstays its welcome by about an hour, but it has some really cool ideas about how to do a game like this.

However, it falls into the common pitfalls that Hotlikes (?) generally fall into. In addition to it being too long, the story and style just don't stack up to its inspirations (plural because there's a lot of Sleeping Dogs in here too). There's also way too much dialogue and it's just not great.

The combat is nice (I love how it feels to shoot a gun here), but there are a few too many moves to keep track of and some of the later stages have annoying difficulty spikes.

Still, I had a really good time. Flawed, but I'd play a sequel/DLC.

This game was incredible fun, I did not expect this level of excitement or pizzazz, the cover of game doesn't not give it justice at all. I will say the further I got in the game the more I found it tiring but I still had the same level of fun and enjoyment if that makes any sense.
The music is ok, not my type of tune but it fit with the atmosphere.
The enemies were no problem since I was normal except one. The goddamn gun enemies, I had more fun fighting my depression that I ever will fighting these losers. If I could decrease the amount of damage they did to me I would feel a lot more satisfied. Especially since there's a ton of them at a time and they have deadeye for some reason.
I will say the truck/motorcycle levels suck because the aiming sucks. If they fixed that, I think I would definitely be more willing replay this game.

An 8/10 game brought down significantly by frustrating encounter design. There are 40 levels in this game, each of which is a huge coin flip where one possible outcome is a treat, the player using their unlocks and abilities to make a mob of enemies look like fools. The other possible outcome is playing one of the most frustrating levels in recent memory - shotgun enemies showing up 5 at a time, any one of whom can one-shot you. Multiple un-stagger-able enemies whose only attack is a ground pound with an enormous hitbox that instantly ragdolls you. Multiple gun enemies pouring into an arena as a motorcycle tries to run you over, exploding if it hits a wall.

The hitboxes on enemy attacks in this game are truly massive, and it's incredibly frustrating when so many of them are one-shots, nearly one-shots, or have the ability to chain-stun you. The game is clearly designed purely as a power fantasy, but the ability of enemies to lock the player down ruins much of this fantasy as there's no satisfying way to counter the most annoying enemy habits. Perhaps more annoying than any attack is the enemies' tendency to constantly pick up things in the environment and throw them at you, resulting in near-constant slo-mo as you dodge roll around the map to avoid chairs, environmental hazards, bullets, one-shot command grabs, and ground pounds, none of which can be blocked or parried.

When this game works, it's fantastic - you feel like you're playing through a John Wick movie where they forgot to give him a gun, but if you try any of these fun cinematic takedowns at the wrong time, you'll likely die, since you take full damage and can be staggered out of any of these animations. It's bad enough that I actually went to go post on the Steam forums for the first time in a decade, and apparently I'm not the only one. The fact that you can go to the "playground" and customize your own encounters - and the fact that this instantly makes the game 40% better! - indicates that it's got decent production value but desperately needs an experienced level designer, someone who can figure out how to challenge the player without resorting to "dodge a lethal map effect every 2 seconds".

A decently short (around 6 hours) but sweet beat 'em up game. While there's some frustrating segments (biker gang, most of the bosses tbh, heavies, most minigun/other instakill moments), overall most of the levels are fun to kick ass in to whichever kickass song the level uses.
The story is mostly passable and just there to give an excuse for you to go around beating everyone up, although I will say that in the last 10 levels I suddenly got actually interested in it for some reason and actually felt a bit sad at the end.
Skills all either help make you live out a power fantasy where nobody can touch you or do nothing at all (can't say I noticed any parry skill after the first one affecting my gameplay ever), though PC controls might not have helped with that.

While I'm not sure how quick I'd be to jump on them, I'll probably be down for the eventual DLC/sequel the game seems to tease happening at the end, even if I'm not sure how they'll continue it at all. Hopefully it'll be more consistent with the level quality and have better boss fights, as with the foundation this game sets up that'd be enough to have it become one of my favorite DLCs/indie games.

O verdadeiro sucessor de Hotline Miami.
Game acerta em cheio no combate, são varias finalizações, golpes especificos para determinadas situações, uma variedade enorme de armas utilizáveis.
A trilha sonora é boa, não é perfeita como a do Hotline Miami mas funciona sim.
Game deixa a desejar no level design simplório, senti falta de mais camadas entre os cenários.
E por mais que o combate seja excelente e proporcione um bom fator replay, a dificuldade em certos levels é bem quebrada, onde a sorte vai ser o determinante para conseguir o Ranking mais alto e não sua habilidade.

No geral o game foi bem divertido e viciante para mim, faltou mais visão de level design e um equilibrio de dificuldade em certas fases, mas considerando que é um jogo feito por uma única pessoa, o saldo é positivo.

An isometric Beat’em Up similar to a certain Dark Knight.

Midnight Fight Express’s combat system starts recognizable. It’s a modified version of the Batman Arkham City combat, Beat up enemies, Parry attacks, Dodge unblockable moves, and in that it works. Players will be able to steal weapons away and beat enemies to a pulp, and there’s a variety of different locations and enemy types.

The downside is while the combat can be deeper, it’s mostly parry and dodge focus. Levels are short, which lets you see different locales but never has too much depth to that location. While there’s a lot to the combat, after you get a decent way, it’s all the same with too much focus on reacting to enemies.

Pick this up if you like beat-'em-ups. Honestly, I almost wrote this game off, but I found out this was created by a single developer, though I also would say that doesn’t change the game and the game is compared to other 20-dollar titles. The biggest problem is the game is often very similar, but still, an incredible amount of effort along with a deep combat system that deserves praise

If you want to see more from me: Check out my video on this last month of Game Pass games: https://youtu.be/5_7MTcN1-Ac

I've been waiting for this game for a while now, and after playing the demo that was released some time ago, I need to confess I was VERY disappointed.

The demo felt nothing like the trailers shown, nothing like the game promised and of course, it was a major letdown for me.

HOWEVER. Hope did not die yet, I got it anyway, booted it up and started playing. Sure, the beginning is quite slow - but from the very first few minutes, you can see some improvements. It did not feel like the demo at all, it felt faster, and less repetitive as well.

I played three to four stages, and sure as hell it was the game I was expecting. Badass songs, cool movesets, fast-paced action, brutal finishers, gore and so on.

Needless to say, there are clear inspirations in some other indie games here, a popular one I'd say is Hotline Miami - but it plays nothing like it. But much like HM, it is very fast and punishing, especially if you're playing on the highest difficulty.

I won't get into spoilers, and I have not taken the time to 100% it yet- but from the trailer, there are quite a lot of options for customization and challenges to do. If you're looking to get a 100% on this, you're definitely spending maybe 12 hours or so, depending on how good you are or what difficulty you are playing.

The writing is, as mentioned by others, not the best - but honestly, any of us is really playing this for the story? Given that the combat is the main focus here, the story we got is quite enough, being very fair.

A few things annoyed me. I wish other traits from the tree would be more useful, a few of them felt very... useless. Mostly from the grabber tree. The sounds of dying enemies can get repetitive too, one of the sounds being from Katana Zero too, so I'm very sick of that sound. Not that it's bad, by any means, but hopefully in the near future, the developer will change that.

A few levels are quite annoying, mostly because they have a lot of enemies with guns and you have to roll a lot. This can be avoided by simply playing on a lower difficulty, but you don't get gamer credits for it.

Also, add multiplayer coop. This game could seriously use it, it'd be awesome.

Nonetheless, Midnight Fight Express, ladies and gentlemen. Very good. Highly recommended, please buy it.

Pretty solid isometric beat-em-up. The campaign is way longer than I expected (40 levels, good lord) and it does get a little repetitive, but god damn I'd be lying if I wasn't having at least a little bit of fun throughout.
Movement is kinda clunky and some combat options (mainly grappling) are less useful than others, but the kinesthetics of beating dudes to death just feels so damn good. Plot is cheesy action movie schlock and it really doesn't need to be anything else.

For a game I bought completely on a whim for 20 freakin' dollars, it'll give you a lot for your money. I just wish some of the bosses weren't so frustrating and that you could actually get the sick goggles + facewrap combo shown on the promo art. Patch that shit in pls.

This is a sort of John Wick simulator that has a cool unique style to it and really fun brawler gameplay. Basically take the big sized levels of something like Hotline Miami but make it more Batman Arkham like with its combat system, that’s basically how this game is laid out. There are 40 levels, each like 5 minutes long (depending on how much you die it can take longer), every one throws hordes of enemies at you to punch and shoot in a stylish way for more points. I love how the game basically takes you through every action movie/game trope imaginable. You will fight in the streets, through a club, in the sewers, have a highway chase, battle in an airplane, an apartment building, and of course an elevator sequence. Every few minutes you are in the next action movie scene with new enemies and new weapons, because of this Express keeps being exciting from start to finish.

It’s a brawler so how good this is hinges on its combat system which is really cool to look at, works well most of the time but is missing a layer of polish that would have pushed it over the top. Some buttons do multiple actions and many times I wanted to do a finisher and instead pulled out my emergency firearm and wasted an important shot. Like Arkham games you will pinball your way from enemy to enemy exchanging punches, throws and countering when prompted. As you play you unlock 40 different moves, so at the start it’s an extremely basic brawler but by the end you have a wide variety of counter disarming, of unique finishers, unique grapples, a cool rope attack and many different combos. I just wished it all flowed as well as it could have, many times I am in an animation for a counter and another enemy knocks me out. Some levels have really annoying enemies that force you to dodge instead of counter, put like five of those at once and you can hardly stop rolling around.

There are a ton of different weapons to pick up and use, each has a finisher fatality move. If you have a sharp object you can throw it at an enemy for an instant kill. Guns enter the equation as well turning the game into a mini twin stick shooter. Most stages are well balanced, when you get on a high combo role it looks and feels like an action movie, mainly John Wick. But all it takes is one or two annoying enemy types and a few frustrating segments that pulled me out of my groove. To often they mix heavy enemies with gun enemies so you get stuck trying to break the stagger bar on a heavy and some random dude near off screen just blasts you without warning. There is a focus button that slows the game down so you can see what’s around you but I found that to be distracting and hardly used it.

Running through the stages the first time is standard brawler style of levels, just get to the end. The real fun comes from replaying the missions which each have three challenges (stuff like don’t use a weapon, only use one type of weapon, do some context action at some moment), a don’t die challenge, and trying to get an s rank in every one. It’s not until you unlock most of the move list that s ranks are even possible in most levels, but once you do and go back to old levels mastering becomes very difficult and fun… or frustrating depending on the mission. In the best games like Arkham or even Hotline I reach a zen moment where it all clicks and flows so well. I had a hard time finding that here, there was always a button that didn’t do what I wanted it to, an enemy that would disrupt animations; there is just a level of polish missing that keeps this from reaching greatness.

Graphically it’s very simple looking, it has an isometric cam with basic models that almost look like marionette models, when they die enemies rag doll to the floor. The music is superb, 40 different techno tracks that keeps the adrenaline pumping, it fits the theme of the game so well. The story is absurd but that’s the charm, it’s like the ultimate beat ‘em up game so it takes from all the best and puts them in a blender, it’s like a beat ‘em up hall of fame.

I played Midnight Fight Express on game pass so it was no risk for me but after playing it I think it would definitely be worth a $20-25 price tag. It’s a blast of game that lasts like 5-6 hours to complete but can last so much more to master. If only the combat and controls were a bit more fine tuned it could have been great.

Score: 7.7

Indie games have been partial to the trend popularized by Hotline Miami where brutal action unfolds to the beat of a thumping soundtrack. It was a high bar that not even Dennaton Games could clear with the sequel, but that hasn’t stopped other developers from creating their own brand of stylish, violent games. Midnight Fight Express is another entry into that genre and while its tunes kick ass, kicking ass in the game is a disappointing chore.

Read the full review here:
https://www.comingsoon.net/games/reviews/1233844-midnight-fight-express-review-ps4-worth-buying

(Essa crítica trata-se da primeira versão do jogo, após a atualização que saiu 16 de setembro, o jogo melhorou MUITO, a gameplay ficou bem melhor).

Midnight fight express foi um dos jogos que mais esperei em 2022. Meu hype foi imediato ao ver o trailer da Gamescom de 2021 apresentando um combate enérgico e brutal em ruas caóticas. Por ser um Beat'em'up, minha vontade de jogar estava ainda maior, visto que é um gênero que renasceu com força nos últimos anos com várias novas abordagens; só esse ano tivemos Sifu, que ainda se mantem como meu jogo favorito do ano.

Dito isso, quando finalmente saiu a Demo de MFE, não perdi tempo e já baixei para testar. Tinha achado tudo muito bom a primeira vista, por mais que tinha algumas coisas que me desagradava, tais como as árvores de habilidade e a progressão de personagem, mas esperei que na versão final eu fosse receber melhor as mecânicas. E então saiu e eu zerei, e infelizmente Midnight Fight Express é um jogo que me decepcionou um bocado.

Para começar positivo, o combate do jogo realmente é muito bom mesmo: as animações são muito fluídas e realistas graças a captura de movimento, cada golpe tem um ótimo feedback e há uma densa variedade de ações no combate, podendo arremessar objetos e armas, agarrar inimigos, executar as mais diversas e violentas finalizações e outras ferramentas que torna essa gameplay mais variada.

O problema de verdade vem de como são organizados os encontros desse jogo. Tem fases que enfrentar as hordas de inimigo funcionam muito bem, e tem fases como a da briga de gangues que é um verdadeiro inferno, pois todos os inimigos utilizam armas de fogo e vão focar em você. Não apenas isso, mas há diversas situações que claramente poderia ser considerado um fogo amigo mas que o jogo não levou em conta, mas principalmente, NÃO EXISTEM frames de invencibilidade no combate desse jogo. O básico de games como Street of Rage que, de certa forma, é recompensador ao jogador por saber utilizar desses frames como maneira de controlar o combate, enquanto em MFE você somente verá como nenhum ataque finalizador (incentivado a ser usado a todo momento) te deixará seguro e você vai morrer pelo tiro do inimigo ao lado.

Mas não acaba apenas aqui, a bendita árvore de habilidade que havia dito é horrível. Não somente bloqueia coisas básicas que um jogo do gênero tem já no início, tornando os combates iniciais bem repetitivos e chatos, mas é idiota a ponto de você pegar itens como gancho e a magnum no cenário do jogo e por algum motivo você só poderá usar elas assim que terminar a fase e comprar os upgrades respectivos (sendo que o jogo já te ensina a usar antes mesmo de você adquirir), burocratizando ainda mais um sistema que só tá no jogo para tornar o progresso maçante. Mesmo que não seja algo incomum a jogos do gênero, pois Sifu, Castle Crashers e God Hand também há desbloqueio de golpes, mas fazem isso muito mais direto ao ponto e sem prejudicar a fluidez do jogo.

A estética do jogo se baseia muito em clássicos de ação urbana de diversas mídias, tais como GTA, Sleeping Dogs, John Wick, e mais umas loucuras e um humor digno de um modder de Reddit. A ambientação é muito boa e o jogo varia bastante os temas de cada fase, dando sempre um ar novo, acompanhado com uma customização de roupas bem completo, mas por algum motivo, nada da estética desse jogo me prendeu tanto. Eu só gosto de verdade das músicas que tocam no final do jogo, o resto achei bem genérico, enquanto acho que visualmente, mesmo com seus gráficos competentes, não me foi tão marcante para me imergir nessa cidade caótica, talvez justamente esse tiro para todos os lados tenha prejudicado um pouco disso, mas se trata de outro ponto que deixou a desejar para mim.

E por fim, a invasiva e desinteressante história. Sinceramente, zerei o jogo ontem e sequer lembro dos principais detalhes, mas posso dizer que além de todos os personagens serem pés nos sacos com praticamente a mesma personalidade e como TODA fase tem um amontoado de linhas de diálogo que interrompe o ritmo do combate só para uma piadinha ou uma história rasamente contada, o principal problema da trama é por causa de como tudo se move ao redor do protagonista, porém o jogo atira no próprio pé ao posiciona-lo somente como uma testemunha de tudo, já que resolveram torna-lo da trupe dos chars mudos que sequer reage aos Plot twists e coisas do tipo, no máximo tendo o drone como voz ao personagem, mas que é um personagem enfadonho de se acompanhar, além de perder seu peso na história justamente pela falta de expressividade do protagonista.

Mesmo que a gameplay ainda seja divertida, e após zerar o jogo tem um bom incentivo para o fator replay, podendo pular as falas e tudo mais, os pontos negativos desse jogo pesaram muito na minha experiência, sem contar uns bugs que ocorreu durante o jogo que me frustraram. Talvez eu dê um replay muito em breve, até mesmo numa DLC ou continuação, até porque é de se admirar como esse jogo foi inteiramente feito por somente uma única pessoa, mas que infelizmente não foi tão legal quanto esperei que fosse. Recomendo jogar com expectativas controladas.

Un beat 'em up estupendo que, si bien no brilla en el departamento narrativo, sí cumple en variedad de niveles, situaciones, armas y enemigos.

El combate es sencillo pero funciona muy bien y puede hacerse todo lo profundo que quieras acumulando habilidades. Es satisfactorio de jugar y da para momentos muy chulos una vez le pillas el punto.

Tiene algunos picos de dificultad muy raros con enemigos dificilísimos o situaciones que requieren precisión casi milimétrica para salir airoso, pero en general no es particularmente difícil.

Tiene un montón de contenido desbloqueable y otro montón de objetivos opcionales que, si bien son quizá demasiado exigentes en algunos casos, dan un nivel más de rejugabilidad y desafío a gente que quiera profundizar más en él.

Para estar hecho por solo una persona es estupendo, aunque se le vean las costuras en muchos aspectos.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A fantastic beat 'em up that, even though it doesn't shine on the narrative department, does make up for it with level, situation, weapon and enemy variety.

The combat itself is simple but works really well and it can be as deep as you want it to by stacking abilities. It's satisfying to play and can create some really cool moments once you get the hang of it.

It has some very odd difficulty spikes with really hard enemies or situations that require almost milimetrical precision to beat, but it's not particularly hard most of the time.

It has a ton of unlockable content and another ton of optional objectives that, while they can be a bit too demanding in some cases, add an extra layer of replayability and challenge for people who want to dig deeper into it.

For a game made by just one person, it's outstanding, even though you can tell where he cut some corners in many places.

Stylish, challenging, frustrating beat 'em up with an isometric Diablo camera perspective and a twin stick control scheme.

About 30 levels in, Midnight Fight Express has quite the fun, yet flawed gameplay. You can attack, grab enemies, parry/block, dodge roll, use and throw guns/weapons (speaking of weapons, these are scattered just about everywhere for your disposal).

40 Levels exist, taking anywhere from 2-5 or so minutes. Score is based off of several performance factors. Completing levels rewards money, which can be used to buy in-game items to customize and outfit your character, and even buy enemy/boss skins to further set the appearance of your character. A skill and upgrade tree also exists for further developing attack, defense, grab and other combat abilities. Upgrades and skills are quite basic and don't go as deep as other 3D beat 'em ups or hack-n-slash games. I'd even go as far to say the most of the skills lacked impact or any real advantage over the few that really mattered. For an indie title, customization is quite deep with a fair amount of options.

Since the game is played in an isometric 3D format, there is more freedom on movement instead of just walking left to right. But levels are linear for the most part. Secrets and unlockables can be found in levels as well. Combat is fun if quite simplistic, but can become quite challenging and even a bit button mashy as levels progress. A lot of dodge rolling and parrying is involved, especially in middle and later levels where some cheap difficulty spikes occur. You'll be swarmed by enemies, some of which have weapons and attacks capable of either taking chunks of your health or one-hit-killing you, making sections require you to die an annoying amount of deaths before you get lucky enough to pass them. In this case, the game at several points ends up revolving around luck rather than your skill. This was all under my Normal mode difficulty playthrough, which is the default and easiest difficulty in the game. A few extra settings do exist to somewhat remedy this issue like setting your health higher and decreasing enemy aggressiveness, but it doesn't necessarily make the experience noticeably easier.

Achievements also exist, which is a very welcome addition for the Switch version seeing that most Switch games are void of achievements. With a statistics page, a best score/rank/time challenge for every level and different optional objectives per level (albeit difficult objectives), replayability and challenge is definitely there in Midnight Fight Express.

Graphics and Audio look and sound just fine. Visuals have a clean HD, 3D polygon style (like a PS1 or N64 game with full blown remade textures) and the music has an EDM techno, dubstep rock sound going on while bashing thugs up and down the various levels. No multiplayer or co-op is present. The only multiplayer aspect available are leaderboards for chasing after high scores. A training mode also exists to practice your skills against enemies with a decent amount of options available. Very smooth gameplay in handheld mode on Switch, with very few framerate drops at small instances.

Midnight Fight Express has the DNA and design of a well designed, creative 3D beat 'em up. However, the difficulty spikes that frequently pop up quite early in the game dragged down the enjoyment I had with this one. Have read that a patch has been deployed for the Steam version that has not made it's way to consoles yet. Unscored for now, but maybe when the patch released on Switch and I finish the final 10 levels, final thoughts may change.