Punch Club

Punch Club is a game with a lot of personality. From its realistic gameplay to the little surprises it has tucked away, there’s something special about it that will have you hooked. In spite of the moments that feel like a lot of grinding, it’s an enjoyable title.

When you look at a game called Punch Club, it's easy to assume that it's going to be some sort of fighter. However, it's actually a training simulator and an addictive one at that so drink a raw egg and get ready to enter the ring.

Part Persona, part The Sims, and part Fight Club, Punch Club is deceptively deep, with a rewarding life simulation and RPG systems. It’s bursting with personality, (though regrettably very little of that is its own) reliant on bygone eras and pop-culture references to establish its lighthearted and fun tone. Punch Club is tedious at times, thanks to an unfortunate level-down systems that artificially extend the road to the championship with grinding repetition, but its upgrades, stat growth, and more compensate with satisfying depth.

After playing for a good few hours, the stat grind will slowly wear you down and you’ll eventually feel like hitting punching bags and doing push-ups in your garage is a little pointless. Imagine if Rocky IV’s hilariously terrible training montage was stretched out for the entire duration of the film and you have the general experience of playing Punch Club. It’s cute for the first two hours, but the grind will wear you out and these moments don’t really carry the same weight as they would have in the film. It’s a fun and addictive introduction to what could have been a really neat management ...

Punch Club is the perfect juxtaposition of boxing movies like Rocky, and martial arts movies like Ip Man. You take care of your character, give him tasks, train him and fight through the main storyline. So would you like to become another Rocky? It's your chance now!

A promising start leads to a dismal end. Punch Club’s quality dips shockingly fast and leaves a bitter taste upon completion.