Surprisingly competent rap-themed brawler with extensive customisation options and an expansive story that sadly don’t stop it from becoming a little stale in the later hours.
| Developer | |
| Publisher | EA Games |
| Franchise | Def Jam |
| Genre | |
| PSTV | Yes |
| PSN | NA only |
World-building & Story
In The Takeover, you play as a self-insert protagonist taking part in New York’s underground street fighting tournaments, who is taken under the wing of a gang leader with the goal of taking over each of the five boroughs in the city.
From there, you’ll encounter rival gangs and take part in street brawls in your efforts to gain and maintain territory, interjected with occasional cutscenes to push forward the over-arching plot. There’s really not a whole lot more here aside from trash talking between the characters, but it is nice to see a veritable who’s who of early noughties hip hop and rap artists and producers here from Bubba Sparxxx to Snoop Dogg. Those who are into this genre of music will obviously have a much more enjoyable time here.
Presentation & Sound
I found myself coming away quite impressed with how well Fight for NY has been condensed down to PSP, with cuts made in all the right places to maintain the game’s visual fidelity.
So the models for the fighters are definitely the best part. While the character creation you play as always feels a bit disjointed and like he doesn’t quite fit in with the rest, the majority of the artists here look like their real world counterparts. Mouth movements are synced, kicks and punches look realistic, animation work like rolling on the ground in pain or smashing into car doors are impressive and just generally there’s a high level of polish here, like many of EA’s PSP titles.
Environments are nothing to be sniffed at either. While background spectators can look a little blurry, the fact they take part in the brawls is impressive and certain backgrounds – in particular a cityscapes while you battle on board a barge in the Hudson River – are superb. Others are a bit bland (a low-poly car or dull boxing arena), but menu work and general style of the title is on point.
I really wasn’t a fan of the soundtrack but this is very much a your mileage may vary scenario. It’s full of hip hop tracks composed by the artists in the game which is cool, but it grated on me and I longed for something a bit more smooth. Voice acting is also a little cringey with the dialogue doing it no favours.
Gameplay & Content
I definitely came away from The Takeover more impressed than I expected to be going in as there’s an impressively competent brawler here, but the way its content is delivered grated on me after a while meaning I dropped it quicker than expected.
So after playing around with the weirdest character creator I’ve ever experienced (you’re describing your character to a police sketch artist, which produces some hilarious results until it all comes together), you’re dropped into the gameplay which is largely menu-based at first. From your home base you can check your messages, listen to music or change your wardrobe, before going out onto the map of New York which is split into the five boroughs.
Each has a number of locations within and depending where you go, you’ll trigger one of a number of fights with rival gangs (or battles to defend your own territory – your messages will tell you when you need to do this). The idea is that by winning battles, you’ll gain development points (which can be spent on increasing your stats or learning new moves in the gym) or money (spent on clothes, haircuts, jewellery or tattoos at other locations on the map).
I liked the idea of slowly gaining territory, but sadly unlike Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories or Need for Speed: Carbon – Own the City there’s no actual claiming it for your own. You’ll fight in tournaments or against different gangs but your base remains the same, which is a shame. The way you progress is increasing your stats, which at certain thresholds moves the story forward.
Fighting is fluid and interesting. You have punches and kicks on triangle and square, while cross is dodge. You’ll be able to grab weapons from the environments and use objects like walls and doors to slam your opponents. There are two health bars over each other, with one refilling when you’re not hit to the extent the other exists, but if the first health bar is depleted it’ll be KO, so you’ll need to do some tactical dodging when low on HP.
The combat is assisted by fighting styles, which you choose one of upon starting and can gain up to two more while playing while spending development points. These are vastly different – kickboxing uses heavy kicks to pummel your opponent until they pass out, while submission centres around pinning your foe on the ground and making them give up. The fact you can mix and match these to suit your playstyle is a big bonus.
There’s also a charisma system, where you fill a meter based on how well you perform (taunts add to this) and once full, you can pull off ‘blazin’ moves, which are stylish and inflict high damage. I did like this, but your charisma is tied to the clothing you wear and I wasn’t a big fan of having to deck my character out in ridiculous outfits just to make the most of this – I wanted to dress him how I felt appropriate.
The campaign is fairly short at around 5-6 hours, but you’ll likely get tired of it before this due to the same fight – new location – fight structure. There’s a battle mode beyond this and if you get hooked by this brand of dirty street fighting then it’ll definitely be for you – but for me I’d have liked a little more variety after the opening hours.
Conclusion
One of the better conversions from console to handheld, The Takeover has the bones of Fight for NY but in a structure that’s better suited for on the go play. The core gameplay is better than I expected, but it’s ultimately repetitive which is a shame – as otherwise this is a pretty good game.
6.5/10
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