F.I.S.T - Forged In Shadow Torch is a really great Metroidvania game. That’s it. That’s all you need to know about FIST if you are into Metroidvania games. You are still here, aren’t you? Well, continue to read on why you should definitely consider picking up this game.
The world of FIST is a strange dieselpunk one populated by humanoid animals that refer to themselves as “furtizens”…get it? It’s quite a striking and beautiful world to see and run around. I am a sucker for art styles like this one that melds the old and future tech into one.
Torch City, once a sprawling free city where furtizens roam around freely, nowadays is a dirty, rundown dystopia ruled by the game’s antagonistic robot army, The Legion. You play as Rayton, a rabbit with a badass gruff voice. He was once an ace mech pilot during the war against the Legion, where his side ultimately lost. Still struggling to deal with the defeat, years later, Rayton has to once again suit up to save his friends from the Legion.
There’s one problem though. His old mech suit is rusted, gone, all but one of the large mechanical fists remains. So he wears the fist and goes on against the Legion and its iron dogs army.
In a side-scrolling Metroidvania fashion, exploring Torch City and the areas around it is a lot of fun. A Metroidvania, in my books, lives or dies by its world design and the pace of the unlocks that open up previously locked areas of the map. Combat is also a big part of making a good Metroidvania and I was so pleased to find that FIST excels in all three areas.
The fist and the other two eventual unlocks, the drill and the whip can be used to open or unlock previously locked paths and shortcuts. The same can be said about some of the other abilities. And it’s so fun to just go back to a previously visited area and completely reveal it on the map, finding all of the secret paths and unlocks that greatly increase your chance of success. Running around feels good as the controls are tight where you can string multiple traversal options like wall-running, double jumping, air dashing, and grappling and you have to do all of that if you want to clear some of the hidden challenge rooms you can find across the big map.
Combat is also fun, engaging, and quite challenging at times. Ray has a series of attacks and combos that can be unlocked at resting stations using currency and other items you find in the world. Enemies are also varied ranging from the normal melee ones and samurai robot dogs to long-ranged snipers, flying drones, mechanical spiders, etc. There’s a good variety of enemies for you to punch their nuts and bolts out. Additionally, Ray has limited use items he can use like a pair of electric batons to parry incoming attacks or shoot a devastating rocket at a group of enemies or drink carrot juice to heal himself.
Boss encounters are also satisfying and as you progress through the game, the difficulty quickly ramps up and they can be quite challenging to defeat. All of that makes exploring the world, finding secrets and powering up before these fights all that more important.
I really enjoyed FIST - Forged In Shadow Torch and I strongly recommend it to anyone that’s looking for a cool game to play right now. It has a big beautiful, very well-designed world to explore with challenging combat and an overall great presentation style. Yeah, get this game! Thanks for reading.
The game was reviewed on a PS5 using a review code provided by the publisher. F.I.S.T - Forged In Shadow Torch is now available on PC and PlayStation.
