Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance (2005)
Action

Publisher	Capcom
Developer	Cavia Inc.

Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance puts gamers in the role of one of the five fugitives as they seek revenge against their foes. Betrayal comes at a high price and to survive in Las Sombras, you need power. With enemies everywhere, the only hope is to find the other four and build enough power to strike back. Using a low-key downtown bar as a hideout base, players will wander the town in search of information and add allies to their growing opposition. Taking different jobs around town will add much needed funds to fuel the growth of the posse. By proving themselves in street battles, effectively utilizing negotiation skills and using clever disguises, they will be able to build their influence on the mean streets. Soon no one will stand in the way of cold hard vengeance!

This isn't the beatdown you're looking for.
Ever since Streets of Rage 2, there has been a glaring vacuum of worthy beat 'em ups--for some baffling reason, the shift from 2D to 3D action has emasculated the genre. The trend of monotonous thumb-mashing continues with Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance, a lukewarm hybrid that's neither Final Fight nor River City Ransom.

I'm Tough Because I Curse Like a Sailor

The latest craze in "M" rated games seems to compel developers to pander curse words as though they're the new Boy Scout badge of cool. Unfortunately, the frivolous cut scenes and B-movie flick dialogue show that they aren't. The world of Beat Down is uninspiring--real-life ghettos are lusher than the lifeless cookie-cutter drudgery of these metallic shacks. RPG elements add a layer of hassle rather than depth: the level segments feel too long and offer little to explore, and changing clothes/appearance is tedious due to the unwieldy interface and unnecessary threat level mechanics. Pacing is further bogged down by the transition to one-on-one battles and the pesky non-combat mode. Recruiting allies might have been cool if who you pick up made a difference ...but the wandering hobo seems just as adept as Britney Spears gangsters.

Barren Knuckle

For those who just want to shut their brains off and fight, the action is mildly entertaining at best. Like countless other third-person titles, the lazy camera forces you to constantly move the perspective yourself with the thumb stick. Despite offering a laundry list of moves and button combinations, the game's complicated controls feel shallower than the three-buttoned Capcom arcade classics like The Punisher or Alien vs. Predator. Group battles feel too constricted with the auto target locking mechanics, and the simplistic one-on-one fights are somewhere on the level of Pit Fighter.

You can tell Capcom tried to add a lot of frills and features to Beat Down, but most of them feel unnecessary--just like the game itself

Key moment: Getting stuck in the game ...because you didn't talk to a generic guy near the gas station.