Reviewed: November 3, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer
Sony Computer Entertainment
Released: October 18, 2005
Genre: Fighting
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Teen
6
6
6
7
6.4
Supported Features
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Is it a strategy game…a fighting game…a gambling game? Yes…yes…yes. Is it any fun? Mmm…maybe. When I first learned about The Con I had visions of Def Jam combined with gambling, and while that is basically what this game is, it just doesn’t live up to the hype or my own expectations.
The Con has several great things going for it. It’s got the technical features of a game like Fight Night with the beat-down street fighting of Def Jam. You get to create your own fighter from the skin up and take them on a rampaging Fight Club career while trying to make some scratch on the side.
The Con is deep, both as a fighter and a betting sim, and when you throw in a fairly comprehensive RPG stat system, you have something that is unparalleled on the PSP. But for everything this game has going for it conceptually, there is just as much going against it from a gameplay and game engine perspective.
The Con is a boxing game minus the formal rules of the ring. Anything goes in some of the most down and dirty fighting you can possibly imagine. Punch with your right, jab with your left, hit them in the jaw, punch them in the gut, or follow-up with kicks and super-moves that will have you wincing with virtual pain.
Attacks are intuitively mapped to the four face buttons and you can duck, dodge, and sway with the directional. It’s a smart control system that only fails because of some awkward response times. There is a noticeable pause from the time you input the control to the time you see your fighter perform the action. This time delay is quite unsettling and makes the gameplay unpredictable at best since you aren’t ever sure if your last move actually took.
It gets even more “programmed” when you factor in the combos which are basically nothing more than a series of basic moves strung together. I did enjoy the ability to build my own custom combos. In fact, customization plays a huge part in The Con, from creating your own fighter to customizing them with all sorts of options like tattoos, piercings, clothing, and accessories.
But building your fighter and fighting with them is only half the game here. As the title hints at, there is some betting going on with these fights and you have some interesting choices to make before and during a fight when it comes to cashing in on your success (or failure).
There is a whole new strategy taking place here where you can bet on yourself to win or if you feel like taking a dive, bet on your opponent. Study the odds and figure out the best way to turn the biggest buck. You can even go as far as to bet on when in the fight you are going to win or lose.
Of course you’ll need to make the fight look good, especially if you plan on taking a dive. Using the L trigger you can fake punches and con the crowd, the bookies, and your opponent. Stagger around for the first ten minutes and watch the crowd bet against you before stomping out your opponent and bringing home the big bucks.
As cool as all this sounds, it doesn’t play out nearly as fun and it’s almost too much extra work for the limited returns. You can probably make just as much money in the same amount of time fighting at your fullest potential and just betting on yourself to win. So what was potentially the most original element in the game is just as easily dismissed and ignored.
While quick fights are fun for the gamer on the go, the serious contender will want to explore the massive story mode. You start by building your boxer from a character creator that is just as serious as anything you’ve seen in a Tony Hawk or Tiger Woods game. You then get to train at the gym or take a rest between fights.
There are hundreds of fights you will need to participate in before you master all five ranks. It can take up to a dozen fights before you are even able to challenge the boss of each rank. The regular fights are challenging enough but there is no real story going on – just a bunch of randomly seeded characters created using the same character engine you used with randomized moves and combos of their own.
There is also an interesting selection of collectibles, mostly outfits and accessories that, much like Tiger Woods, grants your character specific bonuses in their various attributes. Of course this often means that you end up dressing to enhance your stats rather than trying to look your coolest.
The fighter perspective is pretty cool and immerses you in the action, although the first-person view does get a bit unsettling when you can’t judge distance and timing correctly. Still, when you do land successful attacks and execute those brutal super-moves the resulting animations are quite pleasing.
The various fight venues are really interesting and diverse but I was disappointed that there was little to no environmental interaction such as using props to deliver extra damage. The level design and overall graphical package reminded me very much of the Def Jam games.
Character design is diverse but only because of the thousands of possible combinations inside the creation engine. Everything is pretty generic including the specific bosses who don’t show any more detail than your own character. The animation is nice but also basic. The only shining moment is the super-moves.
Sound effects are basic and include the same repeating sounds of hits and punches and not much else. Environments are oddly devoid of any original sounds and there is virtually no spoken dialogue except for some very rare boss encounters and even fewer cutscenes.
Music is much better and features some great, and oddly familiar tunes by Trevor Gray and Gez Dewar. There is also a respectable amount of music, so it doesn’t repeat to the point of annoyance.
The story mode can easily take you upwards of 20 hours to complete but you’ll probably get tired of the repetitive fights long before then, even with the progressive upgrade system. There is also a two-player multiplayer mode that allows you to challenge a friend, and if that friend doesn’t have their own copy you can use the Game Sharing mode to play a more limited version of the game.
The Con is a bold attempt to bring the fighting genre to the PSP and I really liked the concept of betting on my fights and possibly throwing them. But the betting system wasn’t integrated tightly enough so it is just as easily forgotten, and when you factor in the clunky fight engine and predictable combo system, the game loses much of its appeal.
If you love a good fight and can deal with the repetition and controls you might want to check this out, but I would say your safest “bet” is to just wait for EA to release their upcoming PSP version of Def Jam Fight for NY: The Takeover.