GOD HAND GAME MAGAZINE SERIES
They look like 'places' because they have to look like 'something', but the truth is they're a series of three dimensional boxes of varying sizes that provide a visually interesting environment for fighting. I'm probably forgetting at least three environments, but that doesn't matter because their appearance is totally meaningless in the context of the game. God Hand is presented as a journey through several different locales, which are textured to look like, in no particular order, an Old West town, a carnival, a medieval battlefield, a different Old West Town, ancient Egypt, and The Future. Using the camera correctly puts you in a position to see what your enemies are doing, and once you see their patterns, you can capitalize on their mistakes.
Every animation and sound effect is built to reveal an enemy's weakness or a quirk of your own moveset. You must learn to use the camera because this is a game about observation. God Hand's devotion to being itself and providing you with the most appropriate tools for its mechanics can be off-putting: The camera feels clumsy at first and the game does not suffer fools. This game is a decorative butterfly knife that's illegal in most states but too pretty not to keep in your collection.
Modern games are rarely this sharp, and older games are rarely this polished. Blocked attacks land with a thud while a successful swing elicits yowls of pain and broad reaction animations that leave no doubt you connected. He probably grunts or groans, his fist makes a 'whooshing' sound as it goes through the air, and even before your finger has left the button it's clear whether or not you picked the right move because you've already heard the sound Gene's fist made when it hit the enemy. When you press a button Gene immediately takes action with a big exaggerated movement. Everything coalesces to make this game the most responsive thing you can put on your TV. Many things make the punching in this game staggeringly perfect, and I don't have the technical knowledge to identify them all. Kicking opponents is pretty enjoyable, but for a quick hit of endorphins, nothing matches putting Gene's fist against an enemy's jaw. Remapping the buttons just makes it easier to complete the moves your thumbs find most satisfying. But all the focus on that mechanic obscures the essential truth that makes God Hand so special: Even if you removed the ability to customize your moveset and build unique combinations of punches and kicks, the core action of pressing a button and watching an enemy react to your character would still outstrip practically every other game in existence.
Whenever people talk about God Hand, they talk about the way you can customize all of your moves, and it is a cool and nearly unique part of the game. Each of the game's enemies features a specific moveset, and it's your job to observe how they fight and then use the tools are your disposal to systematically take them out. Over time you earn new moves and assign those to the controller's buttons in a way that suits your personal play style. The face buttons on the PlayStation controller cause Gene to punch and kick, and you can change which button corresponds to a specific punch or kick by pausing the game and screwing around in the menus. Gene possesses the 'God Hand', a super-powered arm that makes him very good at punching things that want to murder him. You manipulate the joysticks to move that character (his name is 'Gene') through a series of levels populated by murderous people and a slightly smaller number of murderous demons. At its core, this is a game about punching people in the face as hard as you can.īasically, it's a fighting game, but the camera is rotated 45 degrees so it sits directly behind and slightly above your character's shoulders. On its surface, this is a game about punching people in the face. Legend has it the game's design document consisted of two raised fists drawn on the back of a napkin. God Hand is the clearest look at what's happening inside the mind of game director Shinji Mikami, who also fathered Resident Evil.